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Building Presentations in InDesign

Mark Heaps
Mark Heaps
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InDesign Magazine issue 114This article appeared in Issue 114 of InDesign Magazine.

Mark Heaps shows how to craft presentations in InDesign that are both beautiful and memorable.

InDesign is a wonderful application that over the years has adapted to its users’ many needs and desires. What was once a simple layout application for magazines and books has turned into a tool that can publish to the web, generate interactive PDFs, and more. However, making presentations (often called “slide decks”) is one design task few people think to use InDesign for. I think it’s time to change that, because InDesign can be a very powerful tool for presentation design, as I’ll explain.

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Mark Heaps
Mark Heaps
Mark Heaps is the Executive Director for Heaps LLC. in Austin, Texas, a digital communications studio that specializes in moving passive audiences to participatory ones. Mark’s clients have included Google, Apple, HP, Dell and many more. He’s been a featured speaker at Adobe MAX, SXSW-Interactive, and CreativePro Week, and was previously the Director of Development for Duarte Inc.
  • Anita Lima says:
    October 12, 2018 at 4:10 pm

    I’ve been creating presentations using PowerPoint, Keynote and InDesign for longer than I care to remember. If you compare and contrast each app you’ll see that each one has its strong and weak points.

    Granted, PowerPoint and Keynote have all the bells, whistles and transitions you could possibly need, but if you want class, I believe InDesign is the application to use. And let’s face it, less is more!

    I have followed Garr Reynolds’ & Nancy Duarte’s teachings for years, and believe InDesign,(with a little help from Photoshop & Illustrator), provides all the tools you need.

    Great article!

    Reply
    • Mark Stephen Heaps says:
      November 16, 2018 at 6:06 pm

      Hi Anita,

      I worked for Nancy Duarte for nearly 8 years and had quite a few interactions with Garr. I’m definitely a believer in less is more, and you’re right that all of their programs have their pros and cons. Thanks for checking out the article.

      Reply
  • Ole Florager says:
    November 29, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    Thanks Mark, great article. This might be a bold request but would be helpful and appreciated if the base template with the standard styles could be shared for the 16:9 aspect presentation. Thanks for considering.

    Reply
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