In this episode of the CreativePro Podcast, David Blatner and Theresa Jackson pull back the curtain on how the CreativePro Week 2026 agenda came together for this summer’s event in Nashville. Recorded in conjunction with the agenda launch, the conversation offers a timely look at the decisions shaping the program.

If you’ve ever attended CreativePro Week and felt like the content spoke directly to your day-to-day work, this episode sheds light on why. David and Theresa talk about how listener feedback, community conversations, and real-world creative challenges influence what makes it onto the agenda. They also discuss how CreativePro Week fits into a larger ecosystem of events, membership, and ongoing education.

They reflect on how the needs of creative professionals have evolved over time, why certain topics return year after year, and how particular constraints affect what ultimately makes it onto the schedule.

This is a candid conversation about learning, community, and the invisible work that supports meaningful professional development for designers who want more than surface-level inspiration.

Episode Highlights

• Theresa describes agenda planning as solving a difficult puzzle, and the relief of finally locking in the 2026 CreativePro Week schedule
• David and Theresa share where session topics actually come from, including speaker submissions, focus group surveys, and ideas shaped through conversations with each other and the community
• David admits that even Adobe designers still have to work in a Microsoft world
• Theresa shares what matters most when deciding whether to work with a new CreativePro speaker
• Why switching to Miro changed the entire agenda-building process, from color-coded topics to drag-and-drop scheduling and real-time collaboration

Episode Resources

• CreativePro Week 2026, Nashville, June 29–July 3, 2026: https://creativeproweek.com/
• CreativePro Events: https://creativepro.com/events/
• Speaker submissions: https://creativepro.com/speak-at-our-events/
• Miro online white board https://miro.com/
• Save $100 on any CreativePro event in 2026 with the discount code PODCAST: https://creativepro.com/events/
• Get $15 off one year of CreativePro membership with the discount code PODCAST: https://creativepro.com/become-a-member/

Theresa Jackson and Mike Rankin kick off the new year by reflecting on 2025 before looking ahead to 2026. They share their thoughts on design trends for 2026, framed less as visual styles and more as shifts in behavior and mindset. They also react to the Pantone Color of the Year, Cloud Dancer, and what it suggests about the current cultural mood.

AI enters the discussion, as it has become part of nearly every conversation about the creative industry. Theresa and Mike talk about AI as one piece of a much bigger picture—how it’s influencing tools, workflows, and expectations without defining the entire creative process.

The episode wraps with a practical perspective on skill building for the year ahead and a look forward at what’s coming next for CreativePro, including the 2026 content direction they’re excited about.

This episode offers a grounded reset for the new year—reflective, forward-looking, and focused on helping creative professionals move into 2026 with intention and confidence.

Episode Highlights

• Theresa and Mike reflect on what stood out in 2025 and what they were proud of accomplishing.
• They discuss design trends for 2026 and why those trends are not about colors or type.
• Hear their reactions to the Pantone Color of the Year, Cloud Dancer, and what that choice suggests about the current cultural moment.
• Follow how AI enters the conversation naturally, as part of ongoing discussions about design tools, workflows, and expectations.
• Hear how talking about AI leads to a broader conversation about fundamentals, judgment, and experience.
• Get a preview of what’s coming next for CreativePro, including what Theresa and Mike are excited to share in 2026.

Episode Resources

• CreativePro Events
• Design Trends for 2026 – Adobe Blog
• Pantone Color of the Year 2026
• Color and Culture by Nicte Cuevas
• Rebranding CreativePro – article by Nicte Cuevas
• Before&After – articles by John McWade
• How to Keep AI-Generated Presentations Fully Editable – tutorial by Camille Holden
• CreativePro Week 2026, Nashville, June 29–July 3, 2026
• Save $100 on any CreativePro event in 2026 with the discount code: PODCAST
• Get $15 off one year of CreativePro membership with the discount code: PODCAST

Theresa Jackson kicks off this episode of the CreativePro Podcast by digging into one of the most common frustrations for creative teams: review and approval chaos. She’s joined by Mike McHugh from PageProof. Listeners are invited to learn alongside Theresa as she asks the questions many teams wrestle with every day. Together, they unpack why creative reviews break down, why email and ad-hoc tools fail at scale, and how centralized proofing changes the way designers, marketers, legal teams, and executives work together. They also explore accountability, reporting, and the human side of approvals, including why people—not tools—are usually the biggest bottleneck. The conversation closes with a look at how AI is beginning to support review and compliance, and why clear processes matter more than ever as creative work scales.

Episode Highlights

• Hear Theresa slowly realize this is way more than a proofing tool—and why her workflow brain kicks into overdrive.
• Listen as Mike calls out email as the quiet culprit behind most approval chaos.
• Catch the moment when replacing copy without breaking styles feels almost too good to be true.
• Feel seen as Theresa and Mike put words to what you already know: people, not tools, are where things usually get stuck.
• Hear how visibility and accountability change reviewer behavior once everyone’s progress is out in the open.
• Listen as the conversation turns to AI, content credentials, and spotting what changed—and what shouldn’t have.

Episode Resources

• PageProof – website
• PageProof Adobe Add-on – learn more
• Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) – website
• ​​CreativePro Week 2026, Nashville, June 29–July 3, 2026
• Save $100 on any CreativePro event in 2026 with the discount code: PODCAST
• Get $15 off one year of CreativePro membership with the discount code: PODCAST

Mike Parkinson and Jody Wissing join the CreativePro Podcast for a candid conversation about their unexpected paths into presentation design. They explain that presentation design isn’t what most people think it is. It’s not about making pretty slides. It’s about understanding and caring about the content well enough to turn it into a story. They walk through their favorite features for building slides in PowerPoint plus other essential apps for outlining, note gathering, and creating visual elements. Their conversation includes open and honest thoughts about the growing role of AI in presentation design. They share what’s helping them, what’s changing their workflows, and what keeps them curious—or cautious. They also talk about where they hope AI will take the industry and where they’d prefer it not to go, all while emphasizing the human thinking that still guides great presentation work.

Episode Highlights

• Hear how Jody’s very first presentation on a kindergarten playground set the tone for a lifetime of storytelling.
• Follow Mike’s winding path from fine art to bioengineering to comic books before he ever opened PowerPoint.
• Learn why Jody sometimes shows 300+ slides in a 45-minute presentation, and how audiences never notice.
• Hear Mike describe AI as a Friction Fixer or Accelerator. It is part of the process, not the product.
• Listen as both designers share how AI is already part of their daily process, what it helps them do, and why the human element still matters.
• Catch their honest fears and hopes for AI—including how far they think avatars might go.

Resources and Links

• Mike Parkinson – Website
• Jody Wissing – Website
• Inkscape – Free vector graphics editor
• Slidewise – Add-in for managing and inspecting PowerPoint content
• NXPowerLite – Windows file compressor
• Creative Cloud Libraries for PowerPoint – Add On
• The Presentation Design Conference 2026, February 17–20, 2026
• CreativePro Week 2026, Nashville, June 29–July 3, 2026
• Save $100 on any CreativePro event in 2026 with the discount code: PODCAST
• Get $15 off one year of CreativePro membership with the discount code: PODCAST

David Blatner and Theresa Jackson return from Adobe MAX 2025 with stories, insights, and a few surprises. They recap the biggest announcements, their favorite new features, and the feeling of creative inspiration that had nothing to do with Adobe. From AI showing up in nearly every app to Firefly credits, new collaboration tools, and what it all means for creative professionals, they break down the most important takeaways from Adobe’s flagship event.

Episode Highlights

• David and Theresa share their experiences at Adobe MAX 2025 —  what makes it both inspiring and overwhelming.
• Why David calls Adobe MAX a “double-edged sword” — part innovation showcase, part marketing machine.
• Theresa’s favorite new Lightroom feature: AI-powered photo culling.
• Their cautiously optimistic thoughts about Firefly Boards and Creative Cloud Projects.
• An honest conversation about AI credits, ethics, and the future of Adobe’s business model.
• What tools and gadgets inspired their friends at MAX — from painting software to portable lighting.
• The unexpected creative tip from Jason Hoppe that had everyone laughing (and rethinking their Halloween jack-o'-lanterns).
• How attending events like Adobe MAX and CreativePro Week builds real creative community.

Links & Resources

• Adobe MAX Sneaks 2025
• Escape Motions: Rebelle Painting Software
• Harlowe Lights
• Jason Hoppe’s Pumpkin Carving - https://www.youtube.com/@JasonHoppe 
• The InDesign Conference 2025, December 9–12
• The Presentation Design Conference 2026, February 17–20
• ​​CreativePro Week 2026, Nashville, June 29–July 3
• Next Office Hours, Friday, December 19, at 3PM ET

During Adobe MAX, Canva dropped a bombshell announcement: the entire Affinity suite—Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher—would be free forever. In this episode, David Blatner, Theresa Jackson, and Mike Rankin share their reactions to the news and unpack what it means for creative professionals.

They discuss how Canva’s move shakes up the design software landscape and whether Affinity can ever rival Adobe’s Creative Cloud. The team also explores why this announcement might be good news for everyone, from professional designers to the next generation of creatives.

Episode Highlights

• Canva’s surprise move announced during Adobe MAX
• Why David says “free” doesn’t necessarily mean “professional-grade”
• Theresa’s take on Adobe’s shifting focus toward hobbyists
• Mike’s look at Affinity’s strengths (and key limitations)
• The gap between Adobe’s “everyone” tools and enterprise solutions
• How Affinity compares for pros: what’s missing and what’s impressive
• The bigger picture: education, accessibility, and competition in creative software

Resources

• Canva’s official announcement: Affinity now free forever
• Affinity Suite overview (Photo, Designer, Publisher)
• Adobe MAX on demand sessions
• CreativePro InDesign Conference

InDesign 2026 is here—and so are David and Anne-Marie!

In this episode of The CreativePro Podcast, David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción bring back InDesign Secrets and dig into the newest release of Adobe InDesign (v21). They explore what’s fresh, and what’s just plain weird. From the new Flex Layout feature to live text editing in the browser, they unpack the good, the bad, and the future potential of InDesign’s next chapter. Along the way, they share favorite finds, event updates, and a few classic “InDesign Secrets” throwbacks—complete with the return of the Obscure InDesign Feature of the Week (-eek!).

Highlights:

Who are David and Anne-Marie?

• Anne-Marie's LinkedIn Learning courses

• David's LinkedIn Learning courses

InDesign User Group: 20th Anniversary

Adobe MAX

Obscure Feature of the Week: Emit CSS

InDesign 2026:

Flex Layout makes its debut (similar to CSS Flex Layout)

David explains how Flex Containers let designers control spacing, alignment, and relationships among multiple objects.

InDesign’s “InCopy on the Web” (beta)

Despite the confusing name, this new feature introduces true browser-based text editing for clients and collaborators.

Cloud collaboration Cloud Documents

Cloud documents now autosave, sync live edits, and support share-for-text-editing links.

Math Expressions evolve Math Expressions

MathML integration improves with a dedicated panel and the long-awaited ability to copy equations directly from Microsoft Word into InDesign. Jean-Claude's script to convert math expressions to RGB to CMYK

Context Bar gets smarter (and slightly more confusing)

The floating context menu now includes quick access to paragraph and character styles.

Adobe Express template integration

The new “Templates” option on InDesign’s Home screen opens the Express web app, not native templates—an unexpected (and debatable) choice.

Links & Resources

Free Webinar: Bullets and Numbering in InDesign – Now available on demand

Design + AI Summit – November 13–14, 2025

CreativePro Week – Coming to Nashville, June 29–July 3, home of Hatch Show Print

Listeners can save $100 on any CreativePro event with the discount code: PODCAST

CreativePro Membership – Unlock the magazine, downloads, and exclusive resources

In this episode, Amy Balliett and Mark Heaps sit down for an honest conversation about artificial intelligence and what it means for creative professionals. They share how AI is showing up in their work today, the opportunities it creates, and the worries it raises about originality, ethics, and the future of design.

Along the way, you’ll hear candid reflections on how creatives can keep their unique voice while adapting to rapid change, why embracing experimentation matters, and how to balance efficiency with authenticity. Amy and Mark bring both optimism and caution to the discussion, leaving you with practical insights and plenty to think about.

Highlights

• Lighthearted banter about tech talk and finding “their people”
• Honest takes on common fears: job loss, plagiarism, and the “end of the world” narrative
• How AI is reshaping creative careers and where humans still hold an edge
• The balance between efficiency and originality when using AI in design
• Practical advice for staying relevant: evolve, experiment, and protect your value
• Why ethics, transparency, and authenticity matter in AI-powered workflows
• Opportunities for creatives to lead in strategy, storytelling, and human-centered design
• Future-proofing careers by learning adaptable skills, not just technical tasks

AI Tools Mentioned

• Adobe Firefly
• Nano Banana for Photoshop
• Loveable
• Bolt
• Replit
• Streamlit
• Vercel
• Firebase

Links & Resources

Design + AI FREE Webinar – September 30, 2025: https://creativepro.com/event/free-webinar-unlocking-the-potential-of-ai-in-video/ 

Design + AI Summit – November 13–14, 2025:https://creativepro.com/event/design-ai-summit-2025/ 

Listeners can save $100 on any CreativePro event with the discount code: PODCAST

CreativePro Membership – Unlock the magazine, downloads, and exclusive resources: https://creativepro.com/membership/

In this episode, Theresa Jackson and Mike Rankin go behind the scenes at CreativePro. They share how their similar career beginnings in prepress connected them at their first meeting many years ago, and how they now share overlapping roles at CreativePro. You’ll hear from Mike about the CreativePro Magazine evolution from InDesign-only coverage to a broader creative focus, and other changes that make content faster and easier to digest. This is followed with a conversation about community connection and their ideas for sustaining the energy of CreativePro Week year-round. Mike shares his newly formed Office Hours, and Theresa teases similar new community initiatives on the horizon.

Along the way, they preview upcoming events and dive into a candid discussion about AI in design—what excites them, what makes them uneasy, and why creativity and foundational skills still matters most. The show wraps with Mike’s top InDesign career tip—one you won’t want to miss.

Links & Resources

CreativePro Membership – Unlock the magazine, downloads, and exclusive resources: https://creativepro.com/membership/

CreativePro Magazine Article MATE: Your AI Helper in InDesign and Illustrator https://creativepro.com/mate-your-ai-helper-in-indesign-and-illustrator/

Office Hours – Join the conversation: https://creativepro.com/office-hours/

Design + Accessibility Summit – September 16–19, 2025: https://creativepro.com/event/design-accessibility-summit-2025/#overview

Design + AI FREE Webinar – September 30, 2025: https://creativepro.com/event/free-webinar-unlocking-the-potential-of-ai-in-video/

Design + AI Summit – November 13–14, 2025:https://creativepro.com/event/design-ai-summit-2025/

The InDesign Conference – December 9–12, 2025: https://creativepro.com/event/indesign-conference-2025/

Rob de Winter’s Flux Kontext Photoshop Plugin – https://www.robdewinter.com/flux-kontext-plugin-for-photoshop

InDesignSecrets is now the CreativePro podcast! Join David Blatner and Theresa Jackson and review the past 20 years of podcasting, as well as what to expect next!

Links and Info:

• Our podcast started in late 2005!
• Trivia: Did you know our podcast intro music was created by Anne-Marie Concepcion's daughter, Nicole?!
• Have an idea for a future podcast? Leave us a note below!

Topics:

• Big news about podcast name
• Our favorite obscure features
• Fun obscure feature "spelling bee" game
• Obscure Feature: Positional Form

Friendly Alien:

• Episode 300
• Tip of the Week

Barbell:

• 20 Obscure Features
• Episode 35

List of All Our Obscure Features (so far)

Positional Form:

• Exploring OpenType Pro Fonts, Part 2

• Just for fun: Bad Advice (and Good Lessons)
• Interview with Marcus Radich from PageProof
• Obscure feature: Show Transparency Grid

Links:

Bad Advice

• The "Bad Advice" thread on Facebook
• Sara Rosinsky's Em Dash shirt

Interview with PageProof:

• New Proofing Add-in for Microsoft Office
• Centralizing the Proofing Process with PageProof

News:

• Adobe engineers did an Ask Us Anything 24-hour marathon on the InDesign subreddit (forum) of Reddit.com.
• Creative Cloud Members get 3 months of LinkedIn "Premium Career" membership (which includes LinkedIn Learning). See Adobe CC Benefits page

Obscure Feature: Show Transparency Grid

• More information on Creative Cloud Libraries

Topics:

• Great lessons from the archives (that you may have missed)
• First look at InDesign 20.3
• Obscure Feature: Delete All Guides on Spread

Sponsor:

PageProof is a simple-to-use but powerful online proofing platform that makes giving feedback on creative work effortless

See David's latest conversation with PageProof founder, Marcus Radich

Links:

Old InDesign Magazine articles that are definitely evergreen:

• From issue 1: Recipes for Applying—and Ignoring—Text Wrap in InDesign
• issue 2: Fast Formatting with Nested Styles in InDesign
• issue 7: InDesign Tips of the Trade
• issue 8: Working with Anchored Objects in InDesign

What's new in 20.3

• Fixed Issues
• What's New
• Peter Kahrel's Latex to MathML script
• Issues with Generative Fill in InDesign

News:

• Members can now download the Tables Superguide of articles
• CreativePro Week (use the code CPSECRETS to get $100 off that or any creativepro event)

Obscure Feature: Delete All Guides on Spread

• Shortcut for selecting all guides

* DOIE: Dept. of InDesign Efficiency
* Obscure Feature: Clear Rotation
* News

Links:

Dept. of InDesign Efficiency

• 10 Essential Tips for Using Quick Apply in InDesign
• Activate Last Used Field Shortcut
• Apply Leading to Entire Paragraphs: What Causes Inconsistent Leading and How to Fix It
• How to Start Using InDesign Scripts
• How-to Create a Custom Workspace
• The weird "Place Gun Frame" trick: Applying an Object Style when Placing an Image

Join us in our live studio audience for Podcast 332 at CreativePro Week!

Clear Rotation:

• Rotate frames with a trackpad gesture
• Did you know you can move the spread rotation features with a script?
• Even more cool: A script to rotate all the spreads that contain frames that are rotated

Topics:

• The INDDC format: good and bad
• Interview with Venngage CEO Eugene Woo
• Obscure Feature: Reset Preferences on Quit

Links:

Cloud Docs:

• Collaborating Using Adobe Cloud Documents
• Creative Cloud Storage: Where Does It Go?
• Working with Adobe Cloud Documents
• Anne-Marie's Cloud Docs video "for Design Geeks" on LinkedIn Learning
• The endgame… collaborative editing, like the current Photoshop beta

Venngage: AI powered design at your fingertips

Resetting Preferences

Includes:

• Favorite font tricks
• Interview with Theresa Jackson
• InDesign 20.1
• Obscure feature: Match Pasteboard to Theme Color

News:

• 20.1 is in release rollout
• multi-find/change is now free
• Old (but still relevant!) InDesign Magazine articles, now on site:
  
• Designing Photo Albums in InDesign by Khara Plicanic
• Getting Started with GREP Styles in InDesign by Steve Caplin
• Working in Microsoft Word by Jamie McKee
• Designing with Type: Grunge, Punk, and Futurism by Nigel French
• InDesign Nightmares by David and Anne-Marie

Theresa Jackson:

• Articles and videos
• Old (but fun!) Interview

Font Tricks:

• How to change the underlying default font for a document (see Don Ayer's comment at end for an easier solution)
• OpenType text and text frame adornments

Obscure Feature: Match Pasteboard to Theme Color

Topics:

• Anchored Objects
• Interview with Marcus Radich, PageProof
• Obscure Feature: Standard Carriage Return

Links:

Marcus Radich, from PageProof.com

Anchored Objects:

• Working with Anchored Objects in InDesign
• How to Anchor a Graphic to Text (Video Tutorial)
• Anchoring Graphics Between Paragraphs
• Wrapping Text Around an Anchored Object
• Drag and Drop Anchored Objects

Coming in 2025:

• CreativePro Week
• The InDesign Conference

Books we mentioned:

• Shift Happens: a book about keyboards by Marcin Wichary
• How Comics Were Made, by Glenn Fleishman

Background on the: carriage return

Table Scripts:

• Switching Rows and Columns in an InDesign Table
• Sort tables
• Setting Table Column Widths
• Easier Table Formatting
• Sizing Columns and Rows with a Script
• Calculations in InDesign
• Active Tables plug-in from DTP Tools

Fixed Issues in InDesign 20.0.1

CreativePro Events: The Design + AI Summit, CreativePro Week, and more

Obscure Feature: Cell Division

What's New in InDesign 2025:

• Adobe's update page
• How to Avoid Print Problems with MathML in InDesign
• New Accessibility Features in InDesign 2025
• James Wamser's New Features Guide
• Creative Cloud Storage: Where Does Your Work Go?

New "wow" products at MAX

• Project Neo
• Substance 3D Viewer
• Amazing ProjectTurntable from Sneaks

Interview with: Karen Brewer, Adobe

Obscure Feature: "Show Subset"

• Five Ways InDesign Libraries Are Better Than CC Libraries

News:

• CreativePro Week 2025 in Phoenix: registration is open
• CreativePro online summits 
• The Design + Accessibility Summit
• The Design + Marketing Summit
• The Design + AI Summit
• CreativePro Magazine Sept. 2025 issue: Accessibility Tools

Sponsors of this episode:

Adobe MAX: The Creativity Conference

PageProof: All your proofing in one place. Online.

Embedding Graphics: 

• To Embed or Not to Embed Graphics in InDesign Files
• The Links Panel Reveals Information About Embedded Graphics

Paula Scher:

• Wikipedia entry
• Pentagram
• Book suggestions: Logo Beginnings (Amazon link), and Logo Modernism (Amazon link)

Math Typesetting: we recommend MathType

Obscure Feature: Paste Nudge

News

• More CreativePro events coming up
• Update on InDesign 19.5 *beta* feature
• CreativePro Magazine 25 Years of Tips and Tricks!
• Catch Anne-Marie Sept 19 at the L.A. InDesign User Group (online)

Sponsored by PageProof

• The Benefits of Online Proofing for the Creative Workflow
• PageProof review
• PageProof's website

Update note on InDesign 19.5

• Remember that GenAI stuff in 19.5 is beta!

Three interesting InDesign Secrets forum posts

• How to get text to sit outside the text frame
• More on First Baseline Offset

• How to compare two PDF files
• PDF Comparator from Premedia Systems
• Comparing images or pages using effects blend modes

• The background to my AI or PDF files is no longer transparent
• Understanding InDesign’s Place PDF Options
• How to Place CC Library Items with Transparency

Obscure Feature: Contextual Task Bar

• (everyone loves it… not)

News

• InDesign 19.5 released
• 2024 CreativePro Week available on-demand
• More CreativePro events coming up
• CreativePro Magazine latest issue

Sponsored by PageProof

• The Benefits of Online Proofing for the Creative Workflow
• PageProof review
• PageProof's website

Unboxing InDesign 19.5

• InDesign 19.5 Adds Generative Expand, History Panel, and Find/Change Text Case
• Adobe's What's New in 19.5 page
• Change Case:
  • Peter Kahrel's script 
  • GREP Solution to Flawed Title Case Feature
• History panel:
  • The way we used to do History panels 
  • Accessing Document History

Obscure Feature: .joboptions

• More on PDF presets
•  

News

• InDesign beta to test opening PDFs to edit in InDesign
• CreativePro Week July 8–12 in DC! (and livestreamed)
  • Use code CPSECRETS for $100 off any multi-day pass
• The InDesign + Accessibility Summit, Oct. 8–11 (online)
• CreativePro Magazine latest issue

Interview with Sabine Lenz, "The Paper Queen"

• PaperSpecs site 
• Sabine's bio and sessions at CreativePro Week

Must-Have Scripts

• How to Start Using InDesign Scripts (with the MakeGrid script)
• Copy InDesign Fonts to Folder (by Justin Putney at Ajar)
• Document Analyzer (by Keith Gilbert)
• LoremIpsum-izer script
• Calendar Wizard (by Scott Selberg)
• Scramble Text in Place to Hide Private Info (uses FindChangeByList)
• Unanchor Text (by Loic Aigon… we said Peter Kahrel in the podcast… oops!)
• Break Text Thread (in Community Scripts)
• StorySplitter (similar to Break Text Thread)

Even more scripts:

• Top Sites for Free InDesign Scripts (from Anne-Marie's InDesign Tips for Design Geeks weekly course on LinkedIn Learning)
  • Download a PDF with all of the top sites linked
• 100 Free InDesign Scripts
• The InDesign Scriptopedia

Obscure Feature of the Week: Neutral

• • Learn more about "No Language"

News

• InDesign 19.4 released
• CreativePro Font Collection Vol 4
• Online Events and CreativePro Week
• CreativePro Magazine latest issue

Marcus Radich interview

• PageProof site 
• Watch Marcus demo PageProof

Exploring InDesign 19.4

• New features in this release
• New EPUB Accessibility features

Obscure Feature of the Week: Adjust Dashes and Gaps

• Setting a Dash Stroke with Exact Gap and Dash Values in InDesign
• Corner Stroke Effects
• Adding Strokes to Just the Corners of a Frame
• Creating Scalloped Edges
• How to Make Lumberjack Plaid
• You can do the same adjustments in Photoshop!

News

• InDesign 19.4 new features
  • Note: 19.4 wasn't fully released when we recorded this podcast! You can learn more about the new features here.
• Online Events and CreativePro Week
• CreativePro Magazine latest issue

Kara Plicanic interview

• Khara's web site
• Interview with Khara
• Khara's CreativePro articles and videos

Secrets of the Live Preflight Panel

• Finding Overset Text With Preflight
• Customizing a Preflight Profile
• Finding Hidden Items With Preflight Profiles
• Use Live Preflight to Manage Page Sizes
• How to Create Preflight Profiles in InDesign
• Using the Book Panel to Preflight Multiple Documents
• More Preflight articles

Obscure Feature of the Week: Recompose All Stories When Modified

• Anne-Marie's post and comment about it
• InDesign documentation
• Recompose All Text keyboard shortcut: Control-Alt-/ or Command-Option-/

News

• Fixed issues in 19.3
• Earn an InDesign Certificate on LinkedIn Learning
• Online Events and CreativePro Week

Hot Threads:

• How to create a grid of images (or images and captions) so they'll autoflow and are easy to rearrange?
  • Swapping Images script
  • Auto-Reflowing Images in a Grid
  • Loic's Inline Merge script to create a grid
  • Video on using Data Merge scripts
  • Using Kelly's TOC trick
• Client wants the font to be "a little heavier" after the almost-final proof, best way to do that?

Obscure Feature of the Week: Proxy

• In the news
  • InDesign 19.1 (second attempt) released! Fingers crossed
  • Upcoming online-only events: 
    • The Presentation Design Conference, March 6-8
    • The InDesign + Long Documents Summit, April 5 
  • CreativePro Week 2024, July 8–12, Washington, DC and online
  • CreativePro Magazine
    • February 2024 lead story: Presentation Design
    • January 2024 lead story: AI in AI ;-) 
• Interview with Nolan Haims, presentation designer extraordinaire
• Secrets of the "Panel With The Longest Name"
• Obscure Feature of the Week: Apply to Parent Page Only

Links mentioned in this podcast

• What's new in InDesign 19.1
• BUT don't use ID 2024 (19.x) with Hebrew, Arabic, or RTL text (bug reports on facebook) and (bug reports in uservoice)
• Interview with Nolan Haims
  • Nolan's Better Deck Deck (CreativePro members get 8 free!)
  • Creating Paragraph Styles in PowerPoint
  • Other great articles by Nolan
  • The Presentation Podcast
  • Speaking at The Presentation Design Conference
• EPUB Interactivity Preview Panel
  • Using the EPUB Interactivity Preview Panel
  • Faster Interactive Previews
  • Saving Your Workspaces
• Join us for daily discussions and Q&A
  • InDesignSecrets group on Facebook 
  • InDesignSecrets group on LinkedIn 

• InDesign Public Beta for Cloud Docs
• Events:
  • CreativePro Week 2023 June 5–9, Phoenix, Arizona (and online!)
  • Design + Marketing Summit (online, July 27–28)
  • Design + Data Summit (online, September 21–22)
• Creative Pro Magazine issue 19 includes articles about virtual photography, InDesign layers, and a review of IndexMatic 3
• Interviews with Nicte Cuevas and Bart Van de Wiele
• Obscure InDesign Feature: Presentation

Sponsor for this episode

>> Noble Desktop: For over 30 years, Noble Desktop’s project-based classes and certificate programs have given professionals the tools to pursue creative careers in design, coding, and beyond. Learn more about them on our Training Provider page or at NobleDesktop.com.

Links mentioned in this podcast

• Nicte Cuevas:
  • Web site
  • LinkedIn Learning courses
  • CreativePro Week speaker
  • What is an Ecotone
• Bart Van de Wiele
  • Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign Collaboration and Workflow (Classroom in a Book)
  • LinkedIn Learning course
  • CreativePro Week speaker
  • Making Forms with InDesign and Acrobat Sign
• Presentation Mode

In this episode:

• News
  • CreativePro Week 2023 registration opens October 6, 2022
  • Design & Accessibility Summit (online) Nov. 29–Dec. 2, 2022
  • CreativePro Magazine covering tips, insights, and more
• What's New in InDesign 2023
• Interview with Mark Hilton and Gabe Harbs from Santa Cruz Software
• Obscure InDesign Feature: Vertical Scale

Sponsor for this episode:

>> Santa Cruz Software is the creator of BrandingUI, LinkrUI, and PrintUI: BrandingUI empowers your global team to customize materials at scale, all while staying brand compliant. More on LinkrUI:

• Survey Finds Over Four in Five Creative Pros Spend Time Weekly Finding Lost Assets
• Streamline Design Team Workflows with LinkrUI

Links mentioned in this podcast:

• Showing the InDesign preview thumbnails is based on the Preferences dialog box
• What UXP is (for developers)
• Loading paragraph styles into the document:
  • Working with Text Styles in CC Libraries
  • 10 Essential tips for working with styles in InDesign
• In-Tools (still some great free scripts!)
• Vertical Scale tip involving styles

In this landmark 300th episode… 

• News
  
  • Anne-Marie and David will be live at Adobe MAX in October
  • CreativePro Week 2023 registration opens October 6, 2022
  • Design & Accessibility Summit (online) Nov. 29–Dec. 2, 2022
• Whoa! 300 episodes!
  • A look back at 17 years of the InDesign Secrets podcast
  • Snippets from the first episode, Nov. 29, 2005
  • Audio snippets from friends and colleagues with limericks, favorite features, memories, and more
• The FIRST Obscure InDesign Feature: Friendly Alien (A young David explains this in the first episode)

In this episode…

• News
  • Adobe InDesign 17.2.1 update patch released
  • CreativePro Week May 9-13, live in DC and online
  • CreativePro Events: https://creativepro.com/events
  • CreativePro Magazine: https://creativepro.com/issues/
  • CI-HUB Prize Raffle: https://ci-hub.com/creativepro/  
    Deadline is May 2 2022! Details on that page
• Field Guide to Non-Printing Highlights (there are more than you think!)
• Obscure InDesign Feature: Float in Window 

Sponsors for this episode:

>> Microsoft and Adobe! Both of these fine companies are CreativePro partners and will be represented at CreativePro Week 2022. Adobe is flying in a group of Adobe CC engineers from India, and MS Office product manager Stephanie Horn is doing a session on using video in Powerpoint. 

Links mentioned in this podcast:

• You can use CC Libraries in Word and PowerPoint: https://creativepro.com/using-cc-libraries-in-word-and-powerpoint/
• Cool tip: "How to Make an Object Style That Resizes Objects from the Center (or Any Other Reference Point) in InDesign" https://creativepro.com/how-to-make-an-object-style-that-resizes-objects-from-the-center-or-any-other-reference-point-in-indesign/
• What's new in 17.2.1: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/fixed-issues.html
• Andreas Michalski from CI-HUB, our guest from the last podcast episode
  • Company site https://ci-hub.com
  • Enter their raffle here: https://ci-hub.com/creativepro/) for free tickets to CreativePro Week and free subscriptions to CI-HUB! Deadline for entries is May 2, and they'll contact the winners on May 3, 2022
• Composition Highlights: https://creativepro.com/field-guide-to-composition-highlighting/ https://creativepro.com/why-is-my-indesign-text-highlighted-in-blue/
• What Anne-Marie taught David in this episode (how to quickly jump to the active InDesign document's location on your hard drive):https://creativepro.com/indesign-how-to-video-find-file-size-location/
• 3 Minutes Max tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=580PSVBohDI&list=PLFof_0NMmT7Uwyy6bc1Uo5OlfBUEtU2Li

In this episode:

• News:
  • The online CreativePro Week and InDesign Conference were a success!
  • Save the date: CreativePro Week 2021, May 17-21, Washington, DC
  • InDesign updated to 15.1.1 last week
  • June InDesign Magazine: InDesign, Acrobat, and PDF tips
• Using the new Share for Review feature in 15.1.1
• OIFOTW: Apply All Auto Edits

In this episode:

• News:
  • GREP in InDesign now on Amazon!
  • InDesign Magazine, April 2019 issue: Proposals
  • InDesign Conference 2019
    • Hurry, early-bird savings deadline is April 15 (easy to remember!)
• How can you measure how well you or others know InDesign?
• Obscure Feature of the Week: Shadow Honors Other Efects

News and special offers from our sponsor:

> The InDesign Conference:  If you use Adobe InDesign, mark off June 10–13, 2019 in Seattle, WA, for the InDesign event of the year! Join InDesignSecrets hosts Anne-Marie Concepción and David Blatner, and dozens of top InDesign experts and members of the Adobe InDesign team, for over 30 sessions and four in-depth half-day tutorials. All registrations include session videos and in-depth speaker handouts. Invest in yourself, register today! Discounts available for groups, government, non-profits, schools, and alumni, contact us for details.

In this episode:

• Latest news:
  • InDesign CC 2015.4 POINT 1 update ... oy the naming
  • The InDesign Conference 2016 is coming soon — November!
  • PePcon 2016 videos and CreativePro Conf 2016 videos are up
  • InDesign Magazine Script-o-Pedia
• All about InDesign's new GPU feature
• Interview with Brian Wood, InDesign Guru
• Obscure InDesign Feature of the Week: Zoom Setting
• The QUIZZLER returns!
   

In this episode:

• Latest news:
  • InDesign CC 2015.4 update (and InCopy CC 2015.4 too!)
  • Register for CreativePro Conference and The InDesign Conference
  • June 2016 InDesign Magazine: Photography & InDesign
  • July 2016 InDesign Magazine: Fonts and Typography
• PePcon Recap! And we each share one tip we learned at the show
• A number of tips to know about (Auto-) Numbered Lists
• Obscure InDesign Feature of the Week: Dimensions Include Stroke Weight

InDesign CC ships; Upcoming appearances; All About Frames; Obscurity of the week: Link Images

Direct Link http://traffic.libsyn.com/indesignsecrets/InDesignSecrets-195.mp3

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Show Notes:

• News:
  • InDesign CC released! (and InCopy CC too!)
  • David at HOWLive
  • Anne-Marie at AAUP and Maine Media Workshops
  • New lynda.com title: InDesign CC Essential Training
• Frame-stravaganza: Prepare to be Amazed!
• Obscure InDesign Feature of the Week: Link Images

Listen in your browser: InDesignSecrets-187.mp3(18.6 MB, 34:47 minutes)

• News: Upcoming speaking gigs at Macworld, PEPCON, and Adobe MAX
• Solving Paragraph Composer Annoyances
• Fritz's UberCool Moo.com Business Card Project with InDesign
• Obscure InDesign Feature of the Week: Protractor

Layout Adjustment; Dear Santa; Quizzler Winners; New Quizzler; Obscurity of the Week: Load Conveyor

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Listen in your browser: InDesignSecrets-185.mp3(15.8 MB, 29:16 minutes)

• Layout Adjustment: Where did it go?
• Letter to Santa: Our InDesign Wishlist
• Two Quizzler Winners from episode 184
• New Quizzler! Hunt this one down
• Obscure InDesign Feature of the Week: Load Conveyor

Find Color; Ridiculous Features; Obscurity of the Week: Save Query

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