Friday, October 24, 2008

Michael Murphy: The Ultimate InDesigner

My two day InDesign training was phenominal. Michael Murphy is an exceptional instructor. I honestly do not know why this man is not on Adobe’s direct payroll. His knowledge of InDesign surpasses expert levels. He’s more than an InDesign professional – he’s an InDesign genius. And this is no exaggeration. For both days, his instruction was consistently engaging. I could listen to him teach InDesign for hours, and the time did go by quickly. Nothing about this training was boring or drone.

First off, this course was not for InDesign beginners. The class was called, “Master Class for Designers (CS3)”, and it was mostly for designers who are proficient in software, but have missed the more advanced features.

Many advanced features were discussed – here area few: GREP, Nested Styles, Snippets, new Effects features (ex. Feathering), Effective use of Anchored Objects, Text Variables, and Scripts (under Automation).

As I practice some of these on my own, I’ll post some cool tips for the designers that read this blog. I’ll tell you this though – if you can master the GREP features (under Edit à Find/Change), you can literally cut your document production time by 80%.

If you want more info about Michael Murphy – check out his site (
The InDesigner). His podcasts are priceless.

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