Adobe InDesign CC is the perfect tool for creating all kinds of publications.
I'll show you how to create your own newsletter, by starting with this sample file, which is an InDesign document that you can customize to produce your own well-designed newsletter.
Our sample file includes headline text and a designed frame, a placeholder frame for images, and three columns of text, already set to the correct width.
If we switch from normal to preview mode, by pressing the letter W, we can see all the frame edges, grids and guides that make up the underlying structure of our newsletter. I'll switch back into preview mode by pressing the letter W again.
One of the most important things in our sample file are Paragraph Styles.
Paragraph Styles let you collect all the formatting you want to apply to your text. And then apply that formatting with a single click. Our template file contains the placeholder elements that we'll replace with our own content, including text and graphics.
Let's start by choosing an image.
One of the best sources for images is Adobe Stock, which we can access right through our CC Libraries panel.
At the top of the panel, is a search field that lets you search among the thousands of images in the Adobe Stock catalog.
Our newsletter is about an art festival at a local school, so I'm going to search for "painting art class."
All the relevant images appear in the library panel. And now, I can scroll down and choose the one I want.
I like this one.
I can purchase the image or I can download a preview to my panel by simply clicking on the Cloud icon. The preview image appears in my CC Library panel and I can now place it into my layout.
All I do is drag the image over my placeholder frame.
When my cursor is over the placeholder frame, I simply click, to put the image in the frame. If I click on this image, I can see that the image is much larger than the frame. To fit it into the frame, I can just come to the control panel and click on the first frame fitting option. And the image fits perfectly. I could also use an image that's on my hard drive, by using the File, Place command.
Next, let's bring in our text.
I'm gonna switch to the Type tool by pressing the letter T, and I'll select my headline text. Now, I can either type a new headline or I could copy text from another application. I already have some text in my clipboard, so I'll simply paste it into position.
Notice the type is already formatted for me.
Now let's bring in our article.
We'll select the placeholder text by holding down Command or Control and the letter A, and then pressing the Delete key.
With the cursor already in place, go to the File menu, and choose the Place command.
I'll point to my text article and double-click to bring it into position.
All of the text has Body Text style applied to it and is already formatted, but I'm gonna format the subheads by simply clicking in them and then clicking on my subhead style and the paragraph styles panel.
One of the best things about paragraph styles is that you can use them to change the formatting throughout your document.
Let's say that we want to change our subhead text. I'm gonna zoom in by holding down the Command or Control key and pressing the plus sign.
I want to change the subhead to another Typekit font. So I'll select the text, and then go to my font menu.
I can restrict my font menu to just Typekit fonts, by clicking on the Typekit filter icon.
I'm going to choose Museo Sans and apply it to this text. That looks great. But if we look at our Paragraph Styles panel, there's a plus sign next to the style. And I can see a tool tip that tells me there are overrides here. That means that this text is formatted in a different way from the paragraph style definition. But it's easy to update. All I have to do is right mouse-click on my style and choose Redefine Style. When I do that, all of the subheads of my document are immediately updated.
We can change any element in this sample file, including customizing the color.
Let's change our headline frame.
I'll click on the frame, then from the control panel, choose a new color in the Fill Color swatch, and simply click to apply it.
Once your newsletter is complete, InDesign makes it easy to distribute and share your document in a variety of ways.
You can create a PDF file by choosing the Export command from the File menu. You can then save the PDF to your hard drive.
Another way that you can share your document is by using Publish Online.
With a single click, Publish Online lets you publish any InDesign document online, and easily share it.
To use Publish Online, simply click the button in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.
With a click, the document is uploaded to a unique URL. Once the document is published, you can share the unique URL via email, social media, or even embed it in your own website. And you can view the published document from right within InDesign.
InDesign makes it easy to create publications like this newsletter, and to easily distribute and share it with anyone, anywhere.