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
News InDesign 19.2 fixes some issues Discontinuation of Creative Cloud Synced files The InDesign + Long Documents Summit (use discount code CPSECRETS for $100 off!) CreativePro Week (use CPSECRETS for $100 off any multi-day pass) Julie Shaffer Shaffer Creative Certified Professional Services Marketer (CPSM) program, from SMPS: https://www.smps.org/certification/ Interview with Julie Shaffer, Certified Marketing Pro Don’t Let Adobe InDesign/InCopy Notes Go Unnoticed Secrets of the Scripts Panel What Do the Default Sample Scripts Do in InDesign? Community Scripts for All Organizing Scripts into Folders Managing InDesign Scripts Easily manage dozens of scripts among multiple InDesign versions (from InDesign Tips for Design Geeks) Unicode Injector: such a cool script! Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts to Scripts Using Quick Apply to Run Scripts Obscure Feature of the Week: Wavy How to Fix the Fill on Items with Wavy Strokes InDesign How-to: Use Conditional Text More articles on Conditional Text
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