Los Angeles InDesign User Group

InDesign for Beginners, Novices, Amateurs and Students (aka InDesign for Dummies)

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Los Angeles City College,

Faculty and Staff Center, 855 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90029

Your User Group Comes to the East Hollywood

Continuing the policy of holding meetings in various locations throughout the southland, this meeting will be held in metropolitan Los Angeles at Los Angeles City College, located near the Hollywood Freeway, east of Hollywood and south of Los Feliz.

This Month’s Topic: InDesign for Beginners, Novices, Amateurs and Students (aka InDesign for Dummies)

Don’t know what a pica is? Intimidated by all that InDesign has to offer but still fascinated by it? Embarrassed to ask questions in front of God and everybody? Then this is the meeting for you.

With all this talk of ePubs, interactivity and animations, we sometimes forget that a lot people use InDesign to produce simple flyers or organization newsletters. If you are new to InDesign or a beginner, if you bought InDesign years ago but it sits unused because you were overwhelmed, if you have InDesign but still use Microsoft Publisher, this is the meeting for you.

In the first third of the evening we begin at the beginning and build a simple document slowly. The remainder of the evening will be devoted to your questions -- everything you wanted to know about InDesign but were afraid to ask. Bring your questions to the meeting or email them to us in advance -- or do both.

Perks for Experienced Users

So what if you aren’t a novice and have done intimate things with picas? Should you stay at home? Of course, not. First, InDesign has soooooo much to offer that even experts can’t know it all. You might learn just one extraordinarily useful tip at this meeting that somehow you overlooked. Second, we are counting on experienced users to answer the questions posed by novices. Experienced users who attend and answer at least five questions posed by beginners will receive a free T-shirt. Let the world know you’ve got skills. If someone asks an involved question, or someone doesn’t "get" the answer during the meeting, perhaps a more in depth conference can take place during the break.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he won’t have to call technical service. In addition to answering your questions, we want everyone to leave the meeting with some sense of how to find answers to the questions that will come up tomorrow, next week or next month. Everyone who attends will receive a packet of resource information listing websites, schools, books, classes, magazines, tutorials, associations, conferences, etc. -- all the places you can go to help make you an InDesign expert.

About the Presenter

Michael Diaz is a certified Adobe Expert in InDesign and is currently the Content Services Manager at Source Interlink Media. He is responsible for the conversion of InDesign content to XML for 50+ magazines, the creation of a CMS Taxonomy and the conversion of InDesign content to ePub. He has also transitioned the entire company from Quark to InDesign and managed the pre-press department where he helped automate the magazine ads pre-flight workflow across the country. Michael studied Graphic Design at Cal Poly Pomona, has 10+ years experience running a service bureau and is an avid beach volleyball player.

Agenda

7:00 p.m. - Meet and greet

7:30 p.m. - Welcome and announcements

7:45 p.m. - Presentation (with mid-presentation break)

9:45 p.m. - Raffles

10:00 p.m. - Goodbyes

Faculty and Staff Center

The address of the campus is 855 N. Vermont Ave., but that is not the address of the Faculty and Staff Center, which doesn’t really have one. The Center is located slightly northwest of the intersection of Monroe St. and New Hampshire Ave. It is south of Da Vinci Hall and west of the Student Life Cub Center. If you get lost, call 323-662-5276 (Campus Cops) for directions. For a map, go here: Campus Map.

Parking

Parking at LACC can be difficult. Be sure to arrive early enough to find a space.

Raffles

• SOFTWARE: Adobe CS5.5 product (InDesign, InCopy, Illustrator, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver or Flash Catalyst). Value to $699.

• SOFTWARE: Markzware product (Q2ID plugin, Corrupt InDesign File Recovery Service, Quark to InDesign File Conversion Service, PageZephyr, FlightCheck or PUB2ID). Value to $399.

• HARDWARE: Hewlett-Packard 20" wide-screen LCD monitor, model S2031. Value $169.95. We’re giving away TWO of these!

• TRAINING COURSE: Mogo Media instructor-led class "CSS for Designers" presented by Brian Wood. All-day class September 22, 2011 in Los Angeles. Value $149.

• PUBLICATION: InDesign Magazine. Value $69. We’re giving away TWO of these!

• BOOK: "You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story!" by Richard Schickel. Value $29.98.

• and more!