AI-Enhanced InDesign for Reports & Proposals

Perfect for professionals, academics, and researchers, this course demonstrates how to transform text-heavy documents into clean, visually engaging reports using Adobe InDesign. Across two sessions, you'll explore best practices for document setup, master pages, paragraph and character styles, tables of contents, and automated formatting tools that save time and ensure consistency. You'll also learn how to use InDesign's AI-assisted features to improve design flow and refine layouts. By the end of the workshop, you'll have the skills and confidence to design proposal and research report layouts that are both efficient and publication-ready.

Learning Objectives:
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Identify InDesign's key layout, style, and automation tools for document formatting.
2. Explain how AI and automation streamline long-document workflows.
3. Apply master pages, styles, and tables of contents to structure professional documents.
4. Evaluate layout clarity, visual hierarchy, and consistency in multi-page documents.
5. Create a formatted proposal or research report with AI-enhanced layout features.

Topics Covered:
Session 1 (3 hours): InDesign Foundations for Reports & Proposals
- Introduction to long-document workflows in InDesign
- Setting up documents: margins, columns, and grids
- Using master pages and section markers
- Applying paragraph and character styles for text consistency
- Importing Word/Google Docs text with automated formatting options
- In-class practice: formatting a 3-5 page section of a report

Session 2 (3 hours): Automation & AI for Polished Layouts
- Using tables of contents and automated numbering features
- Creating and applying object styles for tables, charts, and callouts
- Exploring Adobe InDesign AI tools for layout assistance
- Exporting to interactive PDF and print-ready formats
- Review: evaluating layout consistency and readability
- Final project: Exporting a formatted, professional proposal/research report

Prerequisites:
None, but an Adobe InDesign subscription is required (participants may use the free trial).