You've arrived at Chicago's top source for cross-media publication design, online marketing consulting, and certified Adobe InDesign, InCopy, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat training — welcome!
There's quite a bit of useful content here, which I've organized into four simple categories. Be sure to visit Cross-Media Design to see our portfolio of print, web site, online marketing, and PDF CD-ROM projects. The Training and Support section details our applied training in InDesign, InCopy, Acrobat, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, OS X and more. Software resource pages and our DesignGeek e-zine live in DesignGeek Central. Finally, you can learn all about me and Seneca in HerGeekness.
Tips, news, resources, and more:
• Follow me (Anne-Marie/HerGeekness) on Twitter!
• Keep up with Seneca events and webinars on Facebook
• Read my posts on InDesignSecrets.com and InCopySecrets.com
What's Happening at Seneca these days . . .
>> I'm preparing for my InDesign/InCopy workflow workshops for the Institute for Graphics and Imaging. If you're new to the process, you should check out Collaborative Workflows using Adobe InCopy and InDesign on September 15. During this full-day workshop, you'll find out why InCopy is a great option for many publication teams (and may not be so great for others). You'll learn the basics of writing and editing in InCopy, sharing and updating content, as well as how InDesign is used to manage the process. Of course, I'll share my secrets for making a smooth transition to the workflow!
The next day, experienced InDesign & InCopy users will get a chance to explore more advanced topics during my Adobe InCopy and InDesign Master Class on September 16. We'll look at the ins and outs of Layout vs. Assignment workflows so you can select the best option for your group. I'll also tackle a few of the most common workflow issues: working in a mixed version environment, font problems, creating templates, setting up remote workflows, and working with freelancers who don't have InCopy.
Both workshops will be held at the state-of-the-art Harry V. Quadracci Printing Education and Technology Center in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There's a discount for multiple attendees from the same company, and an early bird discount as well. Hope to see you there!
>> Acrobat 9 Pro Tips and Tricks, my latest video tutorial series for Lynda.com, is now available on their site. (Note: 85% of the content applies to Acrobat 8, too.) This title so much fun to record, because it was essentially a "brain dump." My producer asked me, "What are your very favorite Acrobat tips and techniques, ones that hardly anyone knows?" The free-form aspect appealed to me. I threw everything in there, from beginner-level tips for modifying the toolbars to uber-geeky ones that involve creating an .htaccess file for your web server (it forces a PDF to download instead of opening in the browser window). And two great ones for making Acro 9's PDF Portfolios more backwards compatible!
>> My new Lynda.com title, New Features in InDesign CS4, contains over forty lessons (each 5 to 10 minutes long) covering every new feature in InDesign CS4, in depth. (For example, it took me five videos to completely cover the Conditional Text feature.) Many undocumented tips and workarounds are included in each lesson. InCopy CS4 and InDesign CS4 Workflow Essentials is another title I recently recorded at Lynda.com Weighing in at over eighty videos; It's an introduction to InCopy and a comprehensive, in-depth guide to successfully integrating them into your production workflow. If you're already using the InCopy workflow, check out one of the free videos, "What's new in InCopy CS4" that I included in the title just for you. You can see a few of the videos for free on-line; but to see the rest of the videos and to download the sample files I use, you'll need to join up (for as little as $25 for a one-month subscription).
>> Not surprisingly, we're doing a lot of online training for clients. In this economy, travel budgets are incredibly restricted. But companies are being forced to do more with less staff, so of course, they need to ramp up people's skills. That's why a lot of out-of-town clients are opting for our "virtual classroom" instead of flying me or one of my trainers out there for a few days. It's convenient, flexible, and affordable; whether it's a one-on-one tutorial or doing a 2-day class for forty people at once. Email our training coordinator, Sherri Austin, to find out more or even try it out for yourself!
>> How does InCopy work with InDesign?
Adobe hired me to write their InCopy CS4 paper (a 38-page PDF) that describes the InCopy CS4/InDesign CS4 workflow, the paper they make available to prospective customers on their main InCopy product page. It includes lots of screenshots of an actual publication going through the steps in the workflow so you and your colleagues can get a good sense if it'll work in your situation. (If your editors give you Word files to flow into the layout, and then mark-up paper proofs with their changes, it's definitely worth considering.) You may download the 5MB PDF directly from my InCopySecrets.com blog: Adobe InCopy CS4 Hands-On Guide.
>> Miscellaneous designgeek-y projects: Wrapping up the final details on my new Twitter and Facebook titles for Lynda.com; writing the handout for one of my InCopy workshops for the Institute for Graphics and Imaging; Tweaking the outline for a 2-day seminar on social media marketing I'll be doing in October; researching how to assess employee design software knowledge for a large retail client -- online marketing for a plug-in developer; project managing a couple web site redesigns; lots of out-of-town training and trying to steal random hours to update the Software Resources pages on this site (added some resources to the Photoshop Resources page).
