INDESIGN FEATURES
Captivate your audience with stylish, professional presentations.
Design effective slide decks that help you make a lasting impression with Adobe InDesign.
Tell a visual story to create engaging presentations.
Create dazzling pitch decks, business presentations, and summaries of research findings, or share ideas with a slide deck. But even the best presentation software is only as good as the slideshow you design with it — and a weak deck can undermine even a great presenter — so keep these principles in mind as you build your presentation.
Stick to a visual theme.
A cohesive look with consistent typography and a simple color scheme will help your audience stay focused on the content of your slides.
Keep it simple.
Avoid cluttering your deck with endless charts, tables, or bullet points too small for everyone to read. Allow for plenty of white space on each slide so crucial information stands out.
Find the right tools for every job.
Pie charts are great for demonstrating percentages. Vertical bar charts show changes over time better than horizontal bar charts, which are best for comparing quantities. Try an infographic to help your audience visualize your data.
Incorporate video, audio, or animations.
Get people to pay more attention with animated presentations that feature video, audio, and elegant transitions to break up static slides.
Do more with tools from Adobe Creative Cloud.
Access other Creative Cloud tools that make InDesign an even more effective presentation maker.
Choose unique fonts.
Pick from over 17,000 high-quality fonts from Adobe Fonts to make your information organized and easy to read. User-friendly font styles make slides simpler to digest.
Start with Adobe Stock.
Find inspiration with Stock assets. Use Stock photos for stunning background images or transitional slides, and use Stock to find a presentation template as a basis for your custom design.
How to design a presentation from scratch.
With some creativity, and these simple steps, you can create a custom presentation with InDesign.
1. Find the right page size.
Whether you’re presenting a keynote on a massive screen or creating for mobile devices, start by selecting the dimensions you’ll use for your presentation.
2. Choose your background.
Pick a striking background image that works with text overlay. The deck’s title can also become part of the background.
3. Create paragraph styles.
Create no more than three text styles so you can keep the title font, body font, and footnote font consistent throughout the presentation. Set paragraph styles to change font and size with a click of a button.
4. Set up master pages.
Create a few master pages to help ensure your presentation looks professional and well designed. Add image and text frames to the master pages so you can drop your content in later without having to overthink the layout.
5. Add images and text.
Drag and drop Photoshop (PSD) files, PDFs, Illustrator (AI) files, JPEGs, PNGs, or GIFs into the image frames. To add text, just copy and paste text files or select the Type tool from the toolbar and type directly into the text frame.
6. Add page numbers.
Insert page numbers to keep you and your audience on the same page. InDesign can automatically number the slides.
7. Add finishing touches.
From movies and sound clips to hyperlinks, cross references, and page transitions, you’ve got plenty of interactive options to make your story more compelling.
8. Export your slide deck.
The final step is to export your presentation in a format that can be projected or distributed in any presentation program. Exporting as Adobe PDF (Interactive) lets you play or click through interactive content in real time during the presentation.
Discover more presentation design skills.
Explore these tutorials to start mastering design tools and techniques to help you create beautiful presentations with InDesign.
Create stylish layouts.
Learn how to design slide layouts with text and graphics that will effectively deliver information and impress your audience in projected or online presentations.
Keep it organized.
Enhance your slideshows with tables that clearly display information and can be adjusted to different sizes with ease.
Make it interactive.
Bring animated videos, hyperlinks, slide transitions, and more into your slideshow with interactive presentations in PDF format.
Explore free presentation templates.
Add polish to your professional presentations with stylish templates.
See all presentation templates
See all InDesign templates
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Video tutorial to creating stylishing presentation slide layouts
Video of adding videos, hyperlinks, and slide transitions into your presentation
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- Design & Illustration
How to Make an InDesign Presentation Template
Ready to present your amazing business ideas? This InDesign presentation template will help you get what you need to launch your next project.
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create an InDesign presentation template. You will learn how to create a multi-page document and organize it with multiple layers. Paragraph styles will come in handy, making it easy for you to apply formats to lengthy amounts of text.
If you are looking into creating your own templates, you'll pick up some essential tips here. By organizing your file, you'll be making it easier for other people to use your templates and edit them. Ready to start designing your first template?
In a hurry? We’ve got amazing InDesign templates and presentation folder templates in InDesign over at Envato Elements and ga-analytics#sendMarketClickEvent">GraphicRiver . Go check them out!
What You Will Need for Your InDesign Presentation Template
You'll need access to Adobe InDesign; if you don't have the software, you can download a trial from the Adobe website . You'll also need:
- Smiling Arabic entrepreneur
- Thoughtful young businesswoman
- Young Asian businesswoman
- Portrait of a black woman
- Portrait of a young African American woman
- Group of young entrepreneurs
- Hexagon logo template
- Ardent Sans
Download the assets and make sure the font is installed on your system before starting. When you are ready, we can dive in!
1. Setting Up an InDesign Presentation Template
In InDesign , go to File > New . Name the document Presentation Template and set the file to the following dimensions:
- Width to 21 cm
- Height to 29.7 cm
- Orientation to Portrait
- Units to Centimeters
- Check Facing Pages
- Margins: 1.5 cm
- Bleeds to 0.3 cm
Click Create.
For this open presentation template tutorial , we will work with three Layers. Organizing layers is an important practice when designing a template as they will make it easier for the user to edit.
Bring up the Layers panel by going to Window > Layers. Double-click on Layer 1 and rename it Background.
On the Layers panel main menu, select New Layer. Name it Images. Click OK.
Additionally, create a new layer named Copy. Click OK.
Head over to Window > Color > Swatches to expand the Swatches panel. Choose New Color Swatch button from the main menu. Set the Swatch Name and values to the following:
- Light Blue: C=70 M=20 Y=0 K=0
- Dark Blue: C=90 M=80 Y=20 K=40
Click Add and OK after you input each of the color values.
For this tutorial, we will create a list of Paragraph Styles that we will use to format the presentation template.
Head over to Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles to open the Paragraph Styles panel. On the main menu, select New Paragraph Style , and set the Style Name to Title . Select the Basic Character Formats option from the left side menu. Use the following settings:
- Font Family: Ardent Sans
- Font Style: Extra-Bold
- Size: 30 pt
Select the Character Color option from the left side menu. Set the color to the Dark Blue swatch. Click OK.
Create a New Paragraph Style, set the Style Name to Intro. Set the Basic Character Formats option to the following:
- Font Style: Book
- Size: 14 pt
- Leading: 20 pt
Select the Character Color option from the left side menu. Set the color to the Light Blue swatch. Click OK.
Create a New Paragraph Style , and set the Style Name to Copy. Set the Basic Character Formats option to the following:
- Leading: 12 pt
- Tracking: 10 pt
Select the Indents and Spacing option from the left side menu. Set the Space Between Paragraph Using Same Style to 0.2 cm.
Create a New Paragraph Style , and set the Style Name to Pull-quote. Set the Basic Character Formats option to the following:
- Font Style: Regular
- Leading: 33 pt
Select the Character Color option from the left side menu. Set the color to the [Paper] swatch. Click OK.
2. Setting Up Parent Pages for Your InDesign Portfolio Template
Head over to the Pages panel (Window > Pages) and double-click on the A-Parent pages.
Go to Layout > Create Guides. In the Create Guides option window, use the following settings:
- Columns Number: 3
- Columns Gutter: 0.5 cm
- Fit Guides to: Margins
On the Layers panel, select the Copy layer to create a folio. The folio is the page number indicator.
Using the Text Tool (T), create a text frame and add content. To add a page number, right-click while in the text frame, and select Insert Special Character > Markers > Current Page Number.
Place the text frame in the bottom left corner of the left page.
Using the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character), format the frame with the following settings:
On the Swatches panel, select the Dark Blue swatch.
Select the folio and press Option-Shift and drag towards the right page. Option will duplicate, while Shift will maintain the same horizontal position of the object.
Using the Paragraph panel (Window > Types & Table > Paragraph) , set the text frame to align right. Move the page number towards the outside of the spread for consistency.
3. Designing the Cover for Your InDesign Presentation Template
Before we start working on the cover page, we need to delete the folio that was created on the A-Parent page. Press Shift-Command as you click on the folio and press Delete. This will override the item to either delete or customize it.
On the Layers panel, select the Background layer.
Using the Rectangle Tool (M), create a rectangle that measures 12.6 cm in Width and 20 cm in Height. I am setting the color to the Dark Blue swatch so you can see the changes easily.
Select the object and head over to Object > Transform > Shear. On the Shear window, set the Shear Angle to 35°. Select the Vertical Axis and click OK.
Position the object towards the top of the page, leaving a small gap at the bottom.
Select the object and press Command-D to Place an image. Navigate to the Smiling Arabic entrepreneur and click Open.
On the Control panel, set the Scale X and Y percentages to 55%.
Select the object and press Command-C to Copy and Option-Shift-Command-V to Paste in Place. Using the Direct Selection Tool (A), delete the image in the frame.
On the Effects panel (Window > Effects), set the Blending Mode to Color.
Select the Polygon Tool from the toolbar . Click on the board to open the Polygon options window. Under Options, set the Width to 10.8 cm and the Height to 7.63 cm.
Under Polygon Settings, set the Number of sides to 3. Click OK.
On the Swatches panel, set the color to Dark blue.
Head over to the Control panel and set the Rotation Angle to -90° .
Place the rectangle on the lower left side of the image. Resize evenly as you need by pressing Shift and dragging from any of the points.
Below, I added a couple more triangles to create a balanced composition.
Select all the objects on the page and head over to the Layers panel. If you’ve been working on the wrong layer, you can move the objects to a different layer. Drag the square on the right side of the highlighted layer to the layer you want to move the objects to.
Press Command-D to Place a logo of your choice, placing it on the right side of the page.
Using the Text Tool (T), create a text frame under the logo to add a title. Use the Paragraph Styles to format the text. In this case, I used the Intro style for ‘Presentation.’ On the Control panel, change the Font Family to Extra-Bold.
4. Designing the Inside Spreads of Your InDesign Presentation Template
Select the sheared object from the cover and Copy and Paste it to the inside spread. Using the Selection Tool (V), make the object shorter by dragging the top or bottom middle point.
On the Swatches panel, set the color to Dark Blue. On the Control panel, lower the Opacity to 10%.
Lock the Background layer and select the Copy layer.
Select the Text Tool (T) from the toolbar. Draw a text frame that covers the width of the page. Add content and use the Paragraph Styles panel to format the text. Use the Title and Intro styles.
Create a second text frame for the body copy. Add copy and use the Paragraph Styles panel to format the content to Copy.
While selecting the text frame, press Command-B to open the Text Frame Options window. Set the Number of Columns to 2 and click OK.
Using the Rectangle Tool (M), create a rectangle that covers the right page on the spread.
Using the Swatches panel, set the color to Dark Blue.
Move this to the Background layer. Lock the Background layer.
Duplicate the triangle from the front cover by pressing Command-C to Copy and Command-V to Paste.
Resize the rectangle, and feel free to add your own spin. Press Shift to resize the triangle proportionally.
While selecting it, press Command-D to Place an image. Navigate to the Thoughtful young businesswoman image and click Open.
Using the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the image and head over to the Control bar. Set the Scale X and Y Percentage to 45%. Set the Rotation Angle to -35°.
Duplicate the triangle and, using the Direct Selection Tool (A), delete the image. Set the color of the new triangle on the Swatches panel to Dark Blue. On the Effects panel, set the Blending Mode to Color.
Duplicate the triangle once more. Head over to the Control bar and set the Rotate Angle to 90°. On the Swatches panel, set the color to Dark Blue and Tint to 50%. On the Effects panel, make sure the Blending Mode is set to Normal.
Select the Copy layer on the Layers panel.
Using the Text Tool (T), create a text frame and add copy. Using the Paragraph Styles panel, format the text frame to the Pull-Quote style.
On the Layers panel, select the Images layer.
Using the Rectangle Tool (M), draw a rectangle that measures 28 cm in Width and 15 cm in Height.
Using the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the two points on the right. Head over to Object > Transform > Shear. In the Shear option window, set the Shear Angle to 35° and the Axis to Horizontal. Click OK.
Press Command-D to place an image within the object. Navigate to the Group of young entrepreneurs image. Select the image with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and head over to the Control panel. Set the Scale X and Y Percentage axis to 60%.
Duplicate the object by pressing Command-C to Copy and Command-C to Paste. On the Swatches panel, set the color to Dark Blue. On the Effect panel, set the Blending Mode to Color.
Duplicate the shape once more. This time, set the Blending Mode to Normal.
Head over to the Control panel, and select the Flip Horizontal and Flip Vertical buttons.
On the Layers panel, lock the Images layer and select the Copy layer.
Select the text frames from page 2. Press Command-C to Copy and Command-V to Paste the two frames on page 4. Shorten the two-column frame.
You will notice that the text frame now has a red plus sign on the bottom right corner. Click on it and proceed to draw a text frame on page 5.
While selecting the new frame, press Command-B to open the Text Frame option window. Set the Columns Number to 2.
Duplicate the pull-quote from page 3 onto page 5. Place it next to the top image. Using the Paragraph panel, set the text to align Right.
Using the Rectangle Tool (M), create a rectangle that measures the Width of the column and 6.5 cm in Height.
Press Command-D to Place an image. Navigate to the Young Asian businesswoman image and click Open. Select the image with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and resize evenly by holding down Shift and dragging from any of the points.
Duplicate the rectangle and set the color to [Black] from the Color Swatches.
Duplicate one of the sheared shapes used on the top portion of the page by pressing Command-C to Copy and Command-V to Paste. Rotate the shape with the Rotate Tool (R) until the shear/angle is at the top. Resize the shape with the Selection Tool (V) to fit the width of the profile picture.
On the Swatches panel, set the color to Light Blue and the Tint to 30%.
Create a text frame with the Text Tool (T) and add copy. Use the Paragraph Styles panel to style the text frame to the Copy style. On the Control panel, set Font Family of the first line to Extra-Bold and the second line to Regular Italic.
Duplicate the three objects by selecting all three, pressing Option-Shift , and dragging towards the right.
Select each additional profile and press Command-D to Place new images. Navigate to the Portrait of a black woman and Portrait of a young African American woman images. Click Open.
5. Designing the Back Cover of Your InDesign Portfolio Template
Press Shift-Command to override the page number and press Delete.
Duplicate the sheared shape from the previous spread. On the Control panel, set the Rotation Angle to 180°. Use the Selection Tool (V) to resize the shape.
Using the Text Tool (T), add a text frame over the blue background.
Format the text using the Paragraph Styles panel, and select the Intro style. On the Control panel, set the Font Family to Extra-Bold.
On the Swatches panel, set the color to [None].
Create a text frame with the Text Tool (T). Place this frame on the bottom left corner of the page. Add copy and format the text with the Copy style from the Paragraph Styles panel.
6. How to Export a File for Printing
When you are done designing your presentation template, you might want to export it for professional printing. Take a look around all the edges to make sure all the images and vectors bleeding out are touching the bleeds.
To export the file, go to File > Export. Name the file Presentation Template and choose Adobe PDF (Print) from the Format dropdown menu. Click Save.
In the Export Adobe PDF window, set the Adobe PDF Preset to Press Quality.
On the left side of the panel, select Marks and Bleeds. Check All Printer’s Marks and Use Document Bleed Settings. Click Export. You will have a ready-to-print PDF file.
Great Job! You’ve Finished This Tutorial!
In this tutorial, you learned how to make an InDesign presentation template. We covered key tools that will help anyone edit a template quickly and easily. Today, you learned to:
- set up a ready-to-print InDesign file
- organize a file with multiple layers
- add color swatches
- use paragraph styles to format text
- format text frames into multiple columns
If you are new to InDesign and need InDesign templates right away, head over to Envato Elements and ga-analytics#sendMarketClickEvent">GraphicRiver . We’ve got many options to explore!
If you liked this tutorial, you might like these:
- Creative Writing
- Film & Video
- Graphic Design
- Illustration
- Photography
- UI/UX Design
- Web Development
- Business Analytics
- Freelance & Entrepreneurship
- Leadership & Management
- Productivity
Playback Speed
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Create a Powerful Presentation With Adobe InDesign
Maja faber, surface pattern designer, watch this class and thousands more, lessons in this class, 2. class project, 3. resources and downloads, 4. purpose of your presentation, 5. create a new document, 6. working with type, 7. paragraph style, 8. bullet lists, 9. placing images, 10. formatting images, 11. margins and columns, 13. master pages, 15. layout plan, 17. text page: mission statement, 18. text page: about, 19. text and image pages, 20. collage page, 21. image pages, 22. infographics: place pre-made, 23. infographics: make your own, 24. contact page, 26. thank you.
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About This Class
In this class you will learn how to create powerful presentations with high impact in Adobe InDesign.
The class is built up of two parts. First you will learn all of the functions and techniques that you need to know. Then you will learn more about the layout, different types of pages and how to create all of the pages of your layout.
Part 1 Lessons 5 to 14 is all about how to use the different functions of Adobe InDesign and the techniques that you need to have knowledge of to create a presentation.
Part 2 Lessons 15 to 24 is all about the design and layout and how to create the different pages of our presentation. You need the knowledge from part one of class to be able to follow along in part two.
Who is this class for? This class is for business users of Adobe InDesign, graphic designers and other creatives who wants to learn how to create stunning presentations with high impact. The purpose can be both for print and digital use, and you can even use what you learn in this class to create other layouts in Indesign that includes text and images.
About the teacher Maja Faber is a surface pattern designer, Illustrator and graphic designer from Stockholm, Sweden, who has been working with graphic design for nearly a decade. Adobe InDesign is often preferred amongst her clients when it comes to presentations, as it allows for a much higher quality of the design and layout than with for example Power Point.
Resources & Downloads For the best possible learning experience all of the resources that are used in class is available to download on the Project & resources tab here in class. So that you can follow Maja's steps to create the same presentation as her.
Note that if you're using an older version if InDesign then CC 2020, you should download the eps-files named CS5 (the logo and the icons), to be able to use them in InDesign version CS5 and up.
Meet Your Teacher
Surface Pattern Designer
I’m Maja Faber. A pattern designer, teacher, and creative entrepreneur from Sweden.
I love to create and I love to teach! And I LOVE to share what I know with other creatives, who are on their journey to live the creative life of their dreams.
My creative journey started with me believing that I couldn’t draw and sitting at my job as a marketing manager, having this itchy feeling that I was meant to do something else with my life. In 2015 I found surface pattern design by a chance, got instantly hooked and what started as a hobby soon became a dream to start my own business one day. Fast forward a few years and here I am today - a creative entrepreneur, surface pattern designer and online educator.
I share my full story of how and why I s... See full profile
Related Skills
Hands-on class project.
Your project in this class is to create a powerful presentation in Adobe InDesign. You can download all of the resources in class and follow the steps to create the same 10 page presentation as me.
In the lesson about exporting your presentation you will learn how to export your presentation to be able to upload it here in class.
EXAMPLE PROJECT
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In October 2018, we updated our review system to improve the way we collect feedback. Below are the reviews written before that update.
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Make engaging presentations in InDesign. · 1. Set your page dimensions. · 2. Choose a background image. · 3. Add images and text. · 4. Insert page numbers. · 5.
Learn how to create professionally designed presentation slides, using Adobe InDesign, that impress your audience and make a lasting impression.
You don't need Microsoft Powerpoint - you can use Adobe InDesign for Powerpoint instead. You can create slides inside it and use it to
Tune in and learn how to use Adobe Color, Capture, and Creative Cloud libraries to help take your next InDesign presentations to the next
This Skillshare class is all about Adobe InDesign and how to create powerful presentations.It's a class for creatives who wants to learn how
Follow along in this tutorial and #learn how to create interactive slide presentations for mobile platform, using #Adobe InDesign.
In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to design a small set of presentation slides in Adobe InDesign and add simple animations to
I will teach you how to properly ADOBE INDESIGN CC this tutorial is for complete beginners. Also with this video you will learn how to apply
Select the Text Tool (T) from the toolbar. Draw a text frame that covers the width of the page. Add content and use the Paragraph Styles panel
Adobe InDesign is capable of importing images, videos, & Photoshop files. Once we have created a good background for our presentation, we can create pages and
Make sure that you get the right format from the print shop or wherever you will print your presentation before you start. Normally it's cheaper to print in