Level 1
InDesign Lite
A single day on the essentials — documents, text frames, images and a print-ready PDF, without the depth of the full Essentials course.
$650ex GSTLearn more
Level 2
Adobe
2 days
Adobe InDesign Essentials Course
Adobe InDesign Essentials at a glance.
- Duration
- 2 days, 9:00am – 4:00pm
- Price
- $890 per person, ex GST — purchase orders welcome
- Delivery
- In person, or live online with a facilitator
- Where
- Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney — or online
- Prerequisite
- None
- Class size
- Small — everyone practises out loud more than once
- You take away
- A printed workbook, exercise files, and your own notes
- In-house
- Available for teams of four or more, at your office or ours
What you'll learn.
- Documents, pages and master pages
- Text frames, threading and typography
- Placing images and working with frames
- Exporting a print-ready PDF
Course overview.
Documents, master pages, text frames, images and exporting a print-ready PDF.
The 2 days works through 13 modules and 152 individual topics, from Getting around InDesign to Output and print. Each module is taught then practised — you do the thing rather than watch it done — on our exercise files, and on your own where you are able to bring them.
Groups are kept small enough that everyone gets hands on the keyboard, and the facilitator is in the room the whole time rather than dropping in. You leave with the workbook, the exercise files and notes in your own words.
Full course outline.
Every module we cover, and the topics inside each one. This is the same outline as the downloadable PDF — expand a module to see what sits under it.
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1Getting around InDesign24 topics
- InDesign versions and operating systems
- Modifier keys and keyboard shortcuts
- Time-savers in dialog boxes
- Using the Start workspace
- InDesign file types, including IDML
- How the InDesign interface is laid out
- Setting InDesign preferences
- Docking and resizing panels
- Customising workspaces
- A tour of the Tools panel
- Reading the Tool Hints panel
- What the Control panel does
- Online help and the Help PDF
- Using the pasteboard
- Right-clicking for the context menu
- Zoom and scroll controls
- Adding pages and moving between them
- Switching between document tabs
- Reference points on the Control panel
- Select, resize and move frames
- Text selection shortcuts
- Showing hidden characters
- Screen modes and preview
- Undo, redo and revert
-
2Setting up documents14 topics
- Recommended workflows
- Keeping file sizes down
- Specs to settle before production
- Gathering your assets
- File backup routines
- New document margins, columns and guides
- Setting bleed on a document
- Choosing a page size
- Changing the setup of an existing document
- Saving document presets
- Rulers and ruler guides
- How smart guides help you align
- Building and reusing template files
- Adding pages and removing them
-
3Text and image basics16 topics
- Drawing text frames
- Spotting overset text
- Filling frames with placeholder text
- Bringing in text files
- Placing images
- Resizing frames and the images inside them
- Fitting an image proportionally
- Placing several images at once
- Laying images into a grid (Gridify)
- Cropping an image
- Drawing rectangles, ellipses, polygons and lines
- Applying corner effects
- Live Corners settings
- Rotating text, images and shapes
- Grouping objects together
- Stacking order of objects
-
4Text frames11 topics
- Reading text frame indicators
- Setting OpenType properties
- Inset spacing in a frame
- Vertical justification within a frame
- Splitting a frame into columns
- Threading text between frames
- Manual flow and autoflow
- Import options when placing text
- Options for importing Word files
- Inserting glyphs and special characters
- Adding break characters
-
5Type formatting19 topics
- Choosing a typeface and style
- Setting the type size
- Line spacing and leading
- Tracking and kerning
- Capitals and superscript
- Shifting the baseline
- Aligning paragraphs
- Space above and below paragraphs
- Indenting a paragraph
- Hyphenation controls
- Rules above and below paragraphs
- Bullet and number lists
- Spanning and splitting text across columns
- Drop caps
- Tab stops
- How paragraph and character styles differ
- Building and editing styles
- Dealing with style overrides
- Loading and exporting styles
-
6Colour and gradients17 topics
- Choosing a colour mode
- RGB and the primary colours
- CMYK and the process colours
- Colours that fall out of gamut
- When to use spot colours
- Colouring objects
- Mixing colour in the Colour panel
- Saved versus unsaved colours
- Organising the Swatches panel
- Types of swatch
- Finding unused swatches
- Editing a swatch
- Filling with gradients
- Loading colours from another InDesign document
- Changing the stroke on an object
- Making dashed lines
- Picking up colour with the Eyedropper tool
-
7Images and links7 topics
- File formats for images
- Getting image resolution right
- Checking the Info panel
- Keeping links and assets in order
- Editing placed images
- Using the Links panel
- Display performance settings
-
8Effects and transparency6 topics
- Inside the Effects panel
- Applying blending modes
- Setting opacity
- Adding a drop shadow
- Copying and editing effects
- Building transparency effects
-
9Parent pages11 topics
- Parent pages in the Pages panel
- Renaming a parent page
- Changing the A-Parent page
- Automatic page numbering
- Applying a parent to document pages
- Switching a page to the None parent
- Inserting pages with a parent applied
- Reworking an existing parent page
- Customising items inherited from a parent
- Restoring items back to the parent
- Turning a document page into a parent
-
10Layers8 topics
- Getting to know the Layers panel
- Lock, unlock, hide and show layers
- Changing layer order
- Expanding and collapsing a layer
- Selecting page objects from the Layers panel
- Creating, naming and deleting layers
- Clearing out unused layers
- Moving an object to another layer
-
11Text wrap4 topics
- Wrapping text around an object
- Wrap to settings
- Contour options for a wrap
- Telling text to ignore a wrap
-
12Tables9 topics
- Building a table in InDesign
- Bringing in a table
- Turning text into a table
- Import options for Microsoft Excel
- Import options for Microsoft Word
- Formatting the table
- Row and column settings in Table Setup
- Cell options for text and fills
- Header and footer rows
-
13Output and print6 topics
- Running preflight on a document
- Fixing preflight errors
- Choosing an export format
- PDFs for approval and on-screen viewing
- Exporting a high-resolution PDF
- Packaging a document for the printer
Who it is for.
Anybody who uses InDesign and has never been shown it properly. No prerequisite and no assumed background beyond ordinary computer confidence.
How it runs.
Two consecutive days, each roughly 9am to 4pm, with a facilitator in the room the whole time. You get a workstation each with the software installed, in a CBD training room in any of the six capitals, or live online on your own computer.
Dates
Upcoming Dates
The next scheduled Adobe InDesign Essentials dates, soonest first. If none of these work, tell us the city and we will let you know when the next block is released.
| Level | Date | Location | Delivery | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 31 Aug - 1 Sep 26 | Remote East | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 31 Aug - 1 Sep 26 | Sydney | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 31 Aug - 1 Sep 26 | Melbourne | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Tue - Wed 8 Sep - 9 Sep 26 | Remote East | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Tue - Wed 8 Sep - 9 Sep 26 | Sydney | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 14 Sep - 15 Sep 26 | Remote East | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 14 Sep - 15 Sep 26 | Brisbane | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Thu - Fri 17 Sep - 18 Sep 26 | Melbourne | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Thu - Fri 17 Sep - 18 Sep 26 | Remote East | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 21 Sep - 22 Sep 26 | Remote East | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 21 Sep - 22 Sep 26 | Sydney | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 28 Sep - 29 Sep 26 | Remote East | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 28 Sep - 29 Sep 26 | Brisbane | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Thu - Fri 1 Oct - 2 Oct 26 | Remote East | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Thu - Fri 1 Oct - 2 Oct 26 | Sydney | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Thu - Fri 1 Oct - 2 Oct 26 | Brisbane | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 5 Oct - 6 Oct 26 | Melbourne | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 5 Oct - 6 Oct 26 | Remote East | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 12 Oct - 13 Oct 26 | Remote East | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 12 Oct - 13 Oct 26 | Melbourne | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 12 Oct - 13 Oct 26 | Brisbane | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Fri - Sat 16 Oct - 17 Oct 26 | Melbourne | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Fri - Sat 16 Oct - 17 Oct 26 | Remote East | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Tue - Wed 20 Oct - 21 Oct 26 | Melbourne | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Wed - Thu 21 Oct - 22 Oct 26 | Sydney | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 26 Oct - 27 Oct 26 | Brisbane | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 2 Nov - 3 Nov 26 | Brisbane | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 2 Nov - 3 Nov 26 | Sydney | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Wed - Thu 4 Nov - 5 Nov 26 | Melbourne | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Thu - Fri 5 Nov - 6 Nov 26 | Brisbane | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Wed - Thu 11 Nov - 12 Nov 26 | Melbourne | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Mon - Tue 16 Nov - 17 Nov 26 | Melbourne | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Thu - Fri 19 Nov - 20 Nov 26 | Melbourne | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Wed - Thu 25 Nov - 26 Nov 26 | Sydney | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Thu - Fri 26 Nov - 27 Nov 26 | Perth | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Thu - Fri 26 Nov - 27 Nov 26 | Remote West | Online | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Fri - Sat 27 Nov - 28 Nov 26 | Sydney | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Tue - Wed 1 Dec - 2 Dec 26 | Brisbane | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Tue - Wed 1 Dec - 2 Dec 26 | Sydney | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Tue - Wed 8 Dec - 9 Dec 26 | Sydney | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Wed - Thu 9 Dec - 10 Dec 26 | Brisbane | In person | $890 | Book |
| InDesign Essentials | Wed - Thu 16 Dec - 17 Dec 26 | Brisbane | In person | $890 | Book |
By city
Adobe InDesign Essentials in your city
Venue, transport and the dates running there.
The rest of the category
All Adobe InDesign levels Other Adobe InDesign Levels
Level 3
InDesign Advanced
Books, data merge, interactive PDFs, preflight and packaging for a commercial printer.
$990ex GSTLearn more
Level 4
InDesign Interactivity
Buttons, animation, audio, video and fillable forms — turning a print layout into something people click.
$650ex GSTLearn more
Reviews
What people said about Adobe InDesign Essentials
Wizard courses run on the shared Nexacu schedule, so these are reviews of this course from people who sat it. Collected by Nexacu after the course and published as written.
The breadth of functions available in InDesign. I am excited to put the skills I have learnt in to practice.
Neridah
30 July 2026
Being able to work through it ourselves as we learnt.
Catherine
31 July 2026
Was great foundation for graphic design
Janelle
31 July 2026
Application in work environment
George
31 July 2026
I'd really appreciate the little real-world tips and trick but at the same time the theory was beautifully explained.
Flora
31 July 2026
All the tips, tricks and shortcuts to save us time!
Kelli
31 July 2026
Source: nexacu.com.au, read 27 August 2026. How feedback is collected.
Questions
Questions People Ask About This Course
Anything not answered here, call 1300 886 190 and ask a person.
How long is the Adobe InDesign Essentials course?
It runs for 2 days, 9:00am – 4:00pm, with a facilitator in the room the whole time. Nothing is pre-recorded and there is no platform to log into afterwards.
How much does Adobe InDesign Essentials cost?
$890 per person, excluding GST. That covers the course, the workbook and exercise files and the room. If four or more people from one organisation need it, an in-house day usually works out cheaper — tell us the numbers and we will price both.
Do I need any experience before this course?
No prerequisite. The day assumes ordinary computer confidence and nothing more.
Can I do Adobe InDesign Essentials online instead of in a classroom?
Yes. Every date marked “Live online” runs over video with the same facilitator and the same practice, in breakout groups rather than a room. You use the software on your own machine, so you leave with it set up the way you actually work.
Which cities do you run Adobe InDesign Essentials in?
Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, plus live online. Every venue is a CBD training room with a workstation for each person. If your city and date are not paired on the schedule above, ask — dates are released in blocks.
Which InDesign level should I book?
Work from what people already do rather than how long they have used it. The full course outline above shows exactly what this course covers, and the Adobe InDesign page lists every level in order. Still unsure? Call 1300 886 190 and describe a normal Tuesday.
Whole team on the same level? Run it in-house.
Your files, your templates, your workflow — the same course, taught against your own material.