InDesign expert Mike Rankin is introducing his first course on lynda.com. With a background that includes prepress, XML workflow, and technical support, you might expect the course to be factually sound, earnestly efficient, and, well, kinda dull. Instead, it's an eye-opening tour of visual effects you'd never imagine possible in InDesign, or without Photoshop. That's because Mike's background also includes design and illustration sprinkled with lots of sly humor.

The first installment in the course teaches you how to use InDesign's drop shadow to create a blur. Big woo, right? But here's what a little blur can do:

As Mike explains, you can use blur effects to add the look of smoke, fog, sand, and spray paint to your layouts, and it's especially helpful for text, which remains live no matter how many fancy effects you apply to it.

Watch the first video for free here. Subsequent installments will alternate between free to all and subscriber-only.