Over the last 12 months, I’ve recorded approximately 144 hours of video training on Adobe’s CS5 applications. That’s 12 courses in all, and enough video to consume 18 days of your life if you did nothing but watch me 8 hours a day. (Please don’t do that, however. I don’t want to be responsible for the consequences!)

And yet I’ve covered only Photoshop, Photoshop Extended, and Illustrator. Which means I’ve ignored InDesign, a program about which I wrote the first book (InDesign for Dummies), recorded the first video course (Total Training for InDesign 1.5), and have unfailingly supported ever since.

Except for CS5. No book, no video. Despite the fact that one-time InDesign product manager, Michael Ninness, dubbed CS5’s Track Changes the “Deke and Colleen feature,” I still missed it.

Until now! July 7 saw my return to my beloved page-layout program, Up and Running with InDesign. This 2-hour 31-minute video course does just what it promises by getting you up and running with InDesign in the shortest amount of time possible.

Here’s the official description:

Up and Running with InDesign is a streamlined introduction to Adobe’s popular publishing application.  Expert Deke McClelland shows how to design polished multi-page documents for print and electronic output, in the shortest time possible. The course covers the basics of formatting type, flowing text, placing images, and combining type and graphics (above).

Just 12 days later, on July 19, lynda.com released my latest quick-start course, Up and Running with Illustrator. Here’s the (remarkably similar) official description of it:

Up and Running with Illustrator is a streamlined introduction to Adobe’s popular vector drawing application. Expert Deke McClelland shows how to create professional-quality illustrations for print and electronic output, in the shortest time possible. The course covers the basics of setting up artboards, formatting type, drawing and combing path outlines, creating and editing gradients (below), and applying dynamic effects.

For those wondering when I’ll come out with a similar course for Photoshop, there will be two: Up and Running with Photoshop for Design, already in production, and Up and Running with Photoshop for Photography, which I’m working on now. Look for both courses in the next few weeks.