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A Note from Lynda Weinman

In my opinion, most people buy computer books to learn, yet it is amazing how few of these books are actually written by teachers. Brian Wood and I take pride in the fact that the authors of this book are experienced teachers familiar with training students in this subject matter. The book is filled with carefully developed lessons and exercises to help you learn InDesignCS2.

Our target audience for this book is beginning- to intermediate-level print designers. The premise of the hands- onexercise approach is to get you up to speed quickly with InDesign CS2 while actively working through the lessons in the book. Reading about a product is important, but actually using the product and getting measurable results is even more valuable. Our motto is, "Read the book, follow the exercises, and you'll learn the product." I have received countless testimonials to this fact, and it is our goal to make sure it remains true for all of our hands-on training books.

Many exercise-based books take a paint-by-numbers approach to teaching. Although this approach works, it's often difficult to figure out how to apply those lessons to a real world situation, or to understand why or when you would use the technique again. What sets this book apart is that each lesson contains the background information and insights into each given subject, which are designed to help you understand the process as well as the exercise.

At times, pictures are worth a lot more than words. When necessary, we have included short QuickTime movies to show any processes that are difficult to explain with words. These files are located on the INDESIGN CS2 H•O•T CD-ROM inside a folder called movies. It's our style to approach teaching from many different angles, because we know some people are visual learners, others like to read, and still others like to get out there and try things. This book combines a lot of teaching approaches so you can learn InDesign CS2 as thoroughly as you want to.

This book didn't set out to cover every single aspect of InDesign CS2. The product manual and many other reference books are great for that! What we saw missing from the bookshelves was a process oriented tutorial that taught readers core principles, techniques, and tips in a hands on training format.

I welcome your comments at indesignhot@lynda.com. Please visit our Web site at http://www.lynda.com/. The support URL for this book is http://www.lynda.com/info/books/indesignhot/. Brian and I hope this book will raise your skills with InDesign. If it does, we will have accomplished the job we set out to do!

—Lynda Weinman

About the Author

Brian Wood

After graduating from art school many years ago, Brian worked in print production at Eddie Bauer, where he became interested in teaching. Years later he found himself training for Adobe and then broke out on his own, co-founding eVolve Computer Graphics Training Inc. in Seattle (http://www.evolveseattle.com), a company he and his wife, Wyndham, own and run together. A long-time QuarkXPress user, Brian was finally swayed over to the InDesign side of the fence when version 2.0 came out. Although he still uses Quark once in a while when a job requires it, he has never looked back since making the transition to InDesign.