Adobe Indesign CS3: The Official Training Workbook from Adobe Systems [With CDROM]

I am a Senior at Shippensburg University, PA enrolled in a beginner computer course, Computer 1 Design. I have only ever used one other computer program walkthrough book ever in my life which was Word Perfect back in 9th grade. This book (much easier to read and more detailed) has helped me greatly so far with Adobe Indesign. I had absolutely no idea how to use the program as it was new to me. After about two weeks or so going through each of the chapters, I've become familiarized with Indesign CS3 and am able to create and do things I never thought was possible. I'm able to create documents from scratch and have them look extremely professional. If you're new to computers or want to upgrade, I highly recommend this book. However when I said I went through the book in two weeks, I was forced as a requirement for the first assignment (completing the book was assignment 1). I do recommend taking a slower pace. Perhaps a lesson or two every few days. There is about 14 in all (00-13). Included in the back of the book is a CD that you have to upload onto your computer and then save the lessons in new folder. I hope this helps, coming from someone who is new to computer programs such as this one.

This book is great. I can't see any other way to learn Indesign without it.It helps you work thorough documents using Indesign and by the end of the book you can use the program with little problem. It is like being in a classroom but the book is the instructor. Some of the terms used in the book are not the same as in the program but it was easy to find the right terms. Jan Amenta

I've used "class room in a book" for lots of different softwares that I've learned over the years. I've always enjoyed using the format to learn a software. I only wish they would come up with "class 2", "class 3", etc. for the next stage of learning. It's a good book and worth it's cost for sure! Only be sure that you need "basic" understanding of whatever course you are buying because that's what these books deliver.

I'm rating this book a bit higher than the other reviewers because it is fitting my needs. I have no previous experience with PageMaker and only the most fragile grasp of desktop publishing principles. Therefore, I need a book that says "This is the text tool. Click on the text tool. This is how you view panels. Click on the panel." Even InDesign for Dummies is too advanced for me since it assumes the user has some experience with Adobe products. So this book does exactly what I need it to do -- it provides lessons made up of simple bits of info and hands-on step-by-step instruction.

I'm reviewing the second printing (published mid-July 2007), which has many fewer errors than the first printing. There were only two or three spots where I couldn't get the result in the book, and I wasn't sure if that was my fault or the book's. InDesign is conceptually a simple program: you collect all your content, plop it down on pages, and drag it around until you are happy with the result. The complication comes from the zillions of settings and treatments for the objects. This book is less a tutorial than a guided tour showing you how to use some of these settings. One weakness of the book is that it deals primarily with very short documents (one to a few pages), and even on the multipage documents the exercises usually only work on one page in isolation. For this kind of document I would usually use Adobe Illustrator and not a layout program. The place where you really need layout is for multipage documents with a lot of text that flows from page to page (magazine articles, newsletters), and with book-length documents where organizing the work and using stylesheets becomes critical. Chapter 11 deals with a book-length document, although it doesn't deal with these issues. A related weakness is that the focus is on specific features and not the overall look. The book is tactical rather than strategic. You can argue that strategy is a designer issue and not part of learning the program, but I would like to have seen more emphasis on planning the document and setting up styles. In most cases you start out with an existing layout and start populating it with content, and never deal with the overall look of the document. The CD-ROM includes the lesson materials, and a few short video tutorials from lynda dot com. One minor gripe is that, unlike other CIB books, this one does not give the estimated times for each lesson. Overall I felt the book was lightweight. I certainly did not get the in-depth knowledge that I got from working through the Photoshop CIB book. However, it does give you a good survey of the program's capabilities, and is well-organized and well-written.