Desktop publishing software like Adobe InDesign can be a frightening application for beginners to newsletter design. Especially if you are unfamiliar with fully integrated desktop publishing applications, or even those past applications like Adobe Pagemaker, you will be surprised at the scope and features of Adobe InDesign.

Fear not however, for I will teach you here some tips that should help you create a design for newsletter printing using Adobe InDesign. You do not want to miss out on the great benefits that InDesign gives you for your newsletter printing. So just read the tips below and learn to apply them.

1. Exploit those built in templates – Templates are the big help for beginners in Adobe InDesign. If you look at the collections of templates that InDesign has, you will be supremely excited about the different kinds of prints that you can do with this software. Of course, newsletter templates are part of this equation and you can use, even exploit those templates to easily create your own custom newsletters. If you are a beginner, you should always start out with those templates as you will be faster and better with your designing.

2. Make sure the margins and bleeds are set correctly – In Adobe InDesign, you can actually precisely set the margins and printing bleeds of your custom newsletter. While the Newsletter template should be able to handle putting in all the standard margins and bleed settings, it is important for you to recheck it just in case it needs adjustment. This is particularly important for newsletters with unusual layouts wherein the logo, articles and other text sections are placed beyond typical margins and bleeds.

3. Always have pre-made pre-edited text – In designing newsletters, you should always have pre-made and pre-edited text. While it is easy to change text within Adobe InDesign, the continuous readjustments that happen because of text editing can hamper the speed of your newsletter production. So it is best to actually compose and proofread the whole text of your articles before you insert them into InDesign. This allows you to format the whole text block just like a design element, without the fear of having to constantly readjust others when you change the content itself.

4. Acquire only the best quality images – While InDesign is pretty good at handling images for page insertion, it can only do too much with low resolution images. Web images in particular can be a bad fixture on your color newsletters since they will show pixels once printed onto the newsletter paper itself.

So it is important for you to acquire only the best images with high resolution settings for your InDesign newsletter document. Make sure that it is at 300dpi or higher for it to be ideal for newsletter printing. If you do have Adobe Photoshop at hand, this would be a real help in managing this images.

5. Group areas when possible – You can group different elements in Adobe InDesign. So for example, you can have your masthead, a text box, an entertainment column or even a comics strip grouped as one element themselves so that their different components can be moved and edited together. This allows you to move whole sections of your newsletters easily so that you can design the overall look and layout of the print quickly. So group some of your elements and areas together if possible. It will help you a lot.

Good! Now, just review all the tips above and try to remember them. Once you get into the real task of creating your newsletters, all these tips will be a great help, believe me. Good Luck!