Adobe InDesign tips and tutorials often focus on individual tools, but the real productivity gains come from understanding repeatable workflows. Over the years, a handful of InDesign videos on my YouTube channel have consistently stood out—not because they’re flashy, but because they solve common layout, text, and export problems that come up again and again in real projects.
This post brings those five most popular InDesign tutorials together on a single page. Each one focuses on a specific task, explains why the tool works the way it does, and shows a workflow that scales beyond a one-off fix.
If you use InDesign regularly—for teaching materials, reports, marketing layouts, or digital assets—these are well worth having in your back pocket.
Why These Adobe InDesign Tips and Tutorials Matter
When you use Adobe InDesign regularly, small inefficiencies have a habit of compounding. Manually fixing alignment, re-exporting assets at different sizes, nudging text frames into place, or repairing broken tables might not feel like a big deal in isolation—but over time, they slow everything down and introduce inconsistency. The workflows in these tutorials are designed to solve that problem. Instead of one-off fixes, each approach shows how InDesign is intended to be used, with styles, structure, and reusable logic built in from the start. As a result, documents become easier to update, layouts stay consistent, and common formatting issues stop reappearing. These are the kinds of techniques that quietly improve every project you touch.
1. Exporting Transparent PNGs from InDesign (and When to Use Photoshop Instead)
Exporting a PNG with a transparent background from InDesign is straightforward—but only if the size you need matches the size of the layout. As soon as you need flexibility, things get more complicated.
In this video, I cover two approaches:
- Exporting a transparent PNG directly from InDesign
- Copying artwork into Photoshop as a Smart Object and exporting from there
The second approach gives you far more control over scaling, cropping, and output quality—especially for logos or reusable assets.
Pro tip:
If you’ll ever need the graphic at multiple sizes, paste it into Photoshop as a Smart Object. You can scale it up or down without losing quality, which is far more forgiving than exporting multiple PNGs from InDesign.
2. Aligning Paragraphs Cleanly Using Tabs and Indents
This is one of those techniques that looks complicated until you understand what’s really happening.
In this tutorial, I show how to:
- Use tabs to align paragraph content
- Combine left indent and negative first-line indent
- Turn on hidden characters to see what’s actually going on
- Save everything as a reusable paragraph style
- Use nested styles to automatically format text up to a tab
Once set up, this approach makes it easy to format lists, definitions, or labelled paragraphs consistently across long documents.
Pro tip:
A negative first-line indent paired with a left indent is the key to clean alignment. Wrap it in a paragraph style and it becomes one of the most reliable InDesign workflow techniques for consistent text layout.
3. Changing Bullet Size and Colour Using InDesign Formatting Techniques
Bullets in InDesign often feel frustrating to work with—until you realise they’re just characters with their own formatting.
In this video, I walk through:
- Creating a paragraph style for a bulleted list
- Creating a separate character style for the bullet itself
- Attaching that character style inside the paragraph style
- Adjusting bullet size, colour, and baseline independently
- Using alternative bullet symbols when needed
This gives you much more control and avoids breaking your text formatting.
Pro tip:
Never resize bullets by changing paragraph text size. Use a dedicated character style for bullets so you can tweak size and colour without affecting the list text.
4. Shaping Text Frames to Follow Images and Architecture
Text frames in InDesign don’t have to be rectangles—and once you start shaping them intentionally, these InDesign layout techniques open up far more creative options.
This tutorial covers several practical methods:
- Adjusting text frame points with the Direct Selection Tool
- Combining shapes using Pathfinder to create curved frames
- Adding anchor points to an existing text frame
- Using inset spacing to keep text readable near edges
These techniques are especially useful when working with photography, architecture, or strong diagonals.
Pro tip:
Lock your image layer before reshaping text frames. It prevents accidental movement and makes precise edits much easier.
5. Moving Rows in InDesign Tables with Practical InDesign Tips
Tables are one of those areas where InDesign can feel unforgiving. A simple cut-and-paste can easily mess up alignment or formatting.
In this quick tip, I show a reliable method to reorder rows:
- Copy the rows you want to move
- Insert the same number of rows in the new location
- Paste into the new rows
- Delete the originals
It’s simple—but it avoids a lot of frustration.
Pro tip:
Always insert rows before pasting. Matching row and column structure is what keeps tables intact.
Final Thoughts on Why These Adobe InDesign Workflows Matter
All five of these tutorials focus on the same idea: working with InDesign the way it’s designed to be used, rather than fighting it.
Together, these Adobe InDesign tips and tutorials cover exporting assets cleanly, aligning text precisely, styling lists properly, designing layouts around images, and editing tables safely. Each workflow is designed to remove friction and reduce the kind of repetitive fixes that slow projects down over time.
If you’ve ever found yourself nudging elements pixel by pixel or correcting the same formatting issues again and again, these approaches are meant to stop that cycle and make your documents easier to manage as they grow.
If there’s a specific InDesign problem you keep running into—or a workflow you’d like me to break down in more detail—feel free to get in touch or leave a comment.
Related InDesign articles
Changing units of measurement in InDesign
https://benhalsall.com/indesign-changing-units-of-measurement-for-one-or-all-of-your-documents-tutorial-reginatraining-yqr-adobeindesign-cm-in/
Create custom image frames with shapes and Pathfinder
https://benhalsall.com/indesign-create-custom-image-frames-with-shapes-type-the-pathfinder-in-this-graphic-design-class/
Rotate the frame without rotating the image in InDesign
https://benhalsall.com/adobe-indesign-beginner-tutorial-covering-image-placement-and-5-other-free-classes/
Adobe InDesign User Guide
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/user-guide.html
