Myself, sometimes I get confused with tutorial videos. I’ll be moving back and forth through windows on my computer or the person doing the tutorial will simply be talking too fast for me to keep up. I want to give you some tips on how to best grasp these types of videos as I realize they can feel a smidge overwhelming the first time through.

1. Don’t be a perfectionist.

Again, remember… Right now it’s about the process, not the product. I don’t want you to get too bogged down if you can’t get something down picture perfect right now. Don’t spend endless hours trying to solve the tiniest thing. The point of the exercise right now is for you to make it through this and get a broad overview.

2. Take advantage of the video controls.

Our man, Justin, is a pretty speedy talker. Luckily, for us, we can manipulate the video so that it actually plays slower (or faster if you would like). You’ll see a playback speed controller near the play button at the bottom at each video.

You can change the playback speed from .5x all the way to 2x

3. Check out the transcript for terms that aren’t familiar.

Sometimes you’ll hear someone say something that just doesn’t sound quite right. Lynda.com provides a scrolling transcript with each video which can be very helpful when you get stuck.

4. Download the exercise files.

Directions on that below.

Before you get started, the first thing you will want to do is download the Exercise Files for this Lynda.com lesson. You’ll see a download button write above the video. Note: This particular file is 621.28 MB (BIG!). Keep this in mind when you are ready to get start that it may take a few minutes for that to download based on your internet speed. If you are having issues getting the file, please let me know via email ASAP. I’m also going to add a friendly reminder that if you are going to use the computer lab, remember that the computer wipes your files every time you log out. Make sure that you always carry a flash drive or external hard drive with you!

Once it’s downloaded, unzip the file. You will notice that it contains folders which correspond with specific “chapters.”

We will using the files inside of Chapter 06 and Chapter 07 for this week.

I’ve provided a couple of screenshots above of what those files should look like. Yours should look the same if you are on a Mac. The files will work either way whether you are on a Windows or Mac computer.

Photoshop is probably the most famous graphic design application that was ever created.Everybody’s heard of Photoshop. At it’s core, Photoshop is an image manipulation and creation tool. It has a powerful feature set that makes creating and editing pixel-based graphics easier than ever. For this course, you’ll get the most out of understanding how to leverage Photoshop to cutout photos, but understand that is a very, very powerful tool.

To better understand Adobe Photoshop, we’ll be watching the Chapter 06 videos from “Introduction to Graphic Design” on Lynda.com and you will follow along with the corresponding exercise files. By the time you are done, you should have completely watching the following videos:

• Getting started with Photoshop
• Making selections in Photoshop
• Working with layer masks
• Challenge: Masking
• Solution: Masking
• Combining two images together
• Removing unwanted objects from photos
• Changing the color of photos
• Converting images to black and white
• Cropping images nondestructively
• Saving your work for print

InDesign is the page layout application that helps you aggregate the work that you’ve done in Photoshop and combine it with really amazing typographical tools to produce commercial print-ready files, interactive documents, and even tablet-based applications. I like to think of InDesign as sort of the steroid-infused cousin of Microsoft Word. InDesign lends itself really well to producing magazines, brochures, flyers, etc. Since this course focuses on PR Publications, specifically, we’ll be spending a lot of time familiarizing ourselves with InDesign.

To better understand Adobe InDesign, we’ll be watching the Chapter 07 videos from “Introduction to Graphic Design” on Lynda.com and, similarly to what we did with the Adobe Photoshop tutorials, you will follow along with the corresponding exercise files. By the time you are done, you should have completely watching the following videos:

• Getting started with InDesign
• Creating a wireframe in InDesign
• Importing graphics into InDesign
• Adjusting the fit of your graphics
• Creating master pages in InDesign
• Getting your color swatches into InDesign
• Importing text documents into InDesign
• Creating styles in InDesign
• Working with tabs
• Creating tables in InDesign
• Adding the final touches to your design
• Creating PDFs in InDesign
• Packaging your work for print

Now that we know more about the tools we will be using, it will be helpful to also know the specific elements of a newsletter or newspaper. These are some key terms worth knowing:

• Masthead
• Headlines
• Deck
• Subhead
• Bylines
• Body text
• Photo cutline
• Pull quote
• Dividers
• Jump Line

I go over these terms and show you where they correspond on the page in this video below:

This short assignment is to grab any newspaper and see if you can locate all of these elements. Take a photo of the marked up newspaper and submit it in a blog post. Give you blog post the tag “Newspaper Markup”. Here’s an example of a front page that displays all the elements:

Final task for the lesson! We are going to perform a Typesetting assignment where you recreate only the textual portion of the front page of a newsletter. I’ve provided you with an InDesign document that is already pre-populated with the masthead, images, and logos. You’re job is to place the following:

• Headlines
• Subheads
• Bylines
• Body text
• Photo cutlines
• Pull quotes
• Dividers
• Jump Line

You can download the necessary files by clicking the big button below:

If you need some extra guidance in how to lay text, refer back to the Typesetting video above.

When you are complete, Export your InDesign document as a PDF and post a link to it on your blog. Tag your blog post “Typesetting Assignment”

Whew. You, cadet, have made it through bootcamp like a champ. It’s now time to write a post reflecting on what this week was like. Here’s a template for a thorough blog post:

1. What were you asked to do?

2. How did you respond to what you were asked to do?

3. How did react to what you actually did?

4. Now go one level deeper: Why do you think your reaction was what it was?

Feel free to include images in your post if they help you convey what you are trying to say. Then tag your blog post “Reflection.”

Once you’ve completed the assignments and activities above, you need to complete the quiz on D2L if you are an OU student taking the course for credit. This quiz is due Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at noon.