A First InDesign Layout on Windows: Frames, Type, and Export

InDesign on Windows is a page-layout program. This hour builds one simple page: a page size, margins, two text frames that share one story, a linked image, a single paragraph style, and an exported PDF (Print). It is not a prepress course. A print shop can still reject the PDF for reasons this page does not teach, such as bleed, ink limits, or a PDF/X preset you were never asked to pick.

The catalog page is Adobe InDesign for Windows. Softcoria does not host the installer. InDesign is installed from the Creative Cloud desktop app with the Adobe ID that holds the Creative Cloud subscription. Activation needs an internet connection. If that account does not list InDesign, the desktop app will not become a full layout tool from this guide.

Install from Creative Cloud, on a PC Adobe lists

Open the Creative Cloud desktop app, sign in, and install InDesign from there. Do not run a setup file that arrived from a random archive. The checks in How to Safely Download and Install Software on Windows still apply: the publisher is Adobe, and the installer is the Creative Cloud app. These figures are for InDesign 2026 version 21.3 and later, as published on Adobe’s InDesign system requirements:

Operating system64-bit Windows 10 21H2 or 22H2, or Windows 11 23H2, 24H2, or 25H2 ProcessorA CPU with AVX2. Intel 3rd generation and older are not supported Memory8 GB of RAM, 16 GB recommended Disk3.6 GB, plus extra space while the installer runs Install locationAn internal drive. Do not install on a flash drive Display1024×768 minimum, 1920×1080 recommended NetworkInternet required to activate the subscription

AVX2 is a processor feature, not a Windows checkbox. A 64-bit edition of Windows on an Intel 3rd-generation CPU is still outside the list. Read System type in x64 vs x86 vs ARM64 Windows so you know the Windows edition, then treat the CPU rule separately. Other Windows 10 or 11 builds are outside the versions Adobe names.

The 3.6 GB figure is the installed application, not the room the installer needs while it unpacks, and not the room for your documents and linked images. Leave additional free space on the internal drive. A USB flash drive is the wrong target even if it has the gigabytes. At 1024×768 the panels crowd the page. 1920×1080 is the size Adobe recommends, and it is much easier to see a text frame and the Links panel at the same time.

New document, page size, and margins

Menu names below are the English interface. On a translated install, the same items sit in the same menus. Press Ctrl+N or choose File, New, Document. In the New Document dialog, start from a Print intent if InDesign offers intents. For this hour use one page, not a facing-page spread, so the margin fields read as top, bottom, left, and right rather than inside and outside.

1. Set the page size to A4 if you measure in millimeters, or Letter if you measure in inches. Orientation is portrait.
2. Set the margins to 15 mm on A4, or 0.6 in on Letter. Equal margins on all four sides are enough. You are leaving a band where body text should not sit.
3. Leave columns at 1. Leave bleed at 0. Bleed matters for ink that runs off a trimmed sheet. This hour does not teach that, and a zero bleed is an honest first file rather than a fake print-ready file.
4. Click Create. Save immediately with Ctrl+S as an InDesign document, .indd, in a folder you will keep. Name it something plain, such as first-layout.indd.

The colored margin guides are not objects. You cannot print them by accident as lines, and you should not draw your text on top of the guide as if the guide were a frame. The page outside the margins is still part of the page. Frames may cross a margin. For this exercise, keep the text frames inside the margin box so you can see the band you set.

Draw a text frame

Press T for the Type tool. The pointer becomes an I-beam with a small cross. Drag a rectangle in the upper part of the page, inside the margins: roughly the top third. Release. You have a text frame. Click inside it and type a short heading, then a few sentences. Real words are easier to judge than placeholder if you have them. If you do not, type three sentences about what the page is for.

Press V for the Selection tool when you want to move or resize the frame. Drag a handle. Dragging with the Type tool still active selects text instead of moving the frame. That mix-up is the usual reason a frame will not budge. Esc or V gets you back to the frame itself. The frame and the story inside it are different. Deleting the text does not delete the frame. Selecting the frame with the Selection tool and pressing Delete removes the frame and the text in it.

Thread a second frame

Make the first frame too small for the text, or type more, until a red plus sign appears at the lower-right corner of the frame. That plus is the out port. The words past the end of the frame are overset. They are not deleted. They are waiting in the same story.

1. Switch to the Selection tool (V).
2. Click the red plus. The pointer loads with the rest of the story.
3. Drag a second frame in the lower part of the page, still inside the margins. The text continues there.

The two frames are threaded. Editing the first frame reflows into the second. If you need to break that link later, double-click the out port or the in port of the thread. You do not have to do that this hour. Do not draw the second frame with the Type tool and then paste a separate copy of the text. That makes two stories. Threading makes one story in two frames, which is the point of the red plus.

If the second frame also shows a red plus, the story is still longer than both frames. Enlarge a frame, or cut a sentence. Edit, Edit in Story Editor (Ctrl+Y) shows the story, including the overset part, in a text window. That is useful when the plus is the only sign that words are missing on the page. Close the Story Editor when you are done. It does not replace the layout.

Place an image

File, Place, or Ctrl+D, is how InDesign puts a picture on the page. Choose a JPG or PNG that already lives in the same project folder as the .indd, or in a folder next to it that you do not plan to rename. Click Open. The pointer is now loaded with the image.

• Drag a rectangle where the picture should sit, for example to the right of the lower text frame. The picture is placed into a frame at that size.
• Or click once on an empty part of the page to drop the image at its full pixel size, then switch to the Selection tool and scale it with a corner handle while holding Shift if you need to protect the proportions on your version.

Place links the file. The pixels stay in the JPG or PNG. The .indd remembers the path. Window, Links opens the Links panel, which lists the file name. If you later move only the InDesign file and not the picture, that link breaks. Keep the picture where Place found it, at least until you understand packaging.

If the picture is cropped badly, select the frame and use Object, Fitting, Fit Content Proportionally. That fits the image inside the frame without stretching it. Fitting is not the same as relinking. It does not go looking for a file that moved.

One paragraph style

A paragraph style is a named set of type settings. Change the style, and every paragraph that uses it updates. This hour needs one style, not a style sheet for a book.

1. With the Type tool, click in a body paragraph, not the heading if you can tell them apart. Set a readable size from the Properties panel or the Control bar, such as 11 pt, and a line spacing a little larger than the size. Use a font already installed on the PC.
2. Open Window, Styles, Paragraph Styles. From the panel menu, choose New Paragraph Style. Name it Body. Turn on Apply Style to Selection if you see that box, then click OK.
3. Click in another body paragraph and click Body in the panel. Both paragraphs now share the style.

If you later change Body’s size, both paragraphs change. That is the reason to use the style instead of formatting each paragraph by hand. Character styles exist for a single word inside a paragraph. Skip them this hour. Do not build a second style until Body is applied and saved.

Export PDF (Print)

Save the .indd first. Then choose File, Export, or press Ctrl+E. Set the type to Adobe PDF (Print). This is the print-oriented PDF, not Adobe PDF (Interactive), which is aimed at on-screen documents with buttons and media. Name the PDF and continue.

In the export dialog, the Adobe PDF preset list includes [High Quality Print]. That preset is a reasonable first export for a desktop printer or a review PDF. A print shop may ask for a different preset or for PDF/X. Choosing High Quality Print does not mean the file has been preflighted. Look at the page range so you export the page you built, then export.

Open the PDF in a reader and check three things: the text from both frames is there, the image is there, and you do not see InDesign’s margin guides. Those guides are not part of the PDF. If a sentence is missing, it was still overset. Go back to the .indd, fix the thread or the frame, save, and export again. Editing the PDF does not fix the layout.

A package is not that PDF

File, Package copies the job into a folder: the InDesign file, the linked images, a report, and the fonts the license allows InDesign to copy. You send a package when another person must open the .indd and edit it. You send the PDF (Print) when someone needs to read or print the pages and does not have InDesign.

Packaging does not repair a missing link or a missing font. Fix those in the Links panel and in Type, Find Font before you package, or the folder you send will carry the same problem. Some fonts cannot be packaged because of their license. A package is also not a prepress sign-off. It does not set bleed, it does not convert colors to a shop’s standard, and it does not prove the PDF matches a contract proof. Use it as the “editable job folder,” and use PDF (Print) as the “finished pages” file.

Missing fonts, overset text, and a moved image

• Missing fonts. When you open the file on a PC that does not have the typeface, InDesign warns you. It can also highlight substituted text, often in pink, when that composition preference is on. The text is still there, drawn with a different font, so line endings may move. Install the font, or use Type, Find Font to replace it with one this PC has, then update Body so the style matches. Find Font changes the typeface. It does not invent the original font files.
• Overset text. The red plus on the out port means the story continues past the frame. Enlarge the frame, thread another frame from that plus, or cut the copy. Story Editor (Ctrl+Y) shows the hidden words. A PDF export will not include text that never fitted on the page.
• The image link is missing because the file moved. The Links panel shows the picture as missing and remembers the old path. Select that row and choose Relink, then point at the file in its new folder. Place did not embed the pixels. Sending the .indd alone was never enough. Either relink, or package the job so the image is copied beside the layout.

Save the .indd after each of those fixes, then export PDF (Print) again if the pages changed. Activation still depends on the Creative Cloud sign-in. A layout file on disk does not renew a subscription.

FAQ

Where do I install InDesign from?

From the Creative Cloud desktop app, signed in to the Adobe ID that owns the subscription. Internet is required to activate. Softcoria does not host the installer.

Does a PDF (Print) replace a package?

No. PDF (Print) is a finished file for reading or printing. File, Package collects the InDesign file, linked images, and fonts the license allows so someone else can edit the layout. They solve different jobs.

Why is there a red plus on a text frame?

The story is overset. The text is still in the frame’s story, but it does not fit. Enlarge the frame, thread another frame, or edit the copy. The red plus is the out port, not a corrupt file.

Why does an image go missing after I move the file?

Place links the image. It does not embed it by default. If the picture file moves or is renamed, the Links panel marks it missing. Relink it to the file in its new folder, or send the image with the layout.

Which Windows does InDesign 2026 version 21.3 and later require?

64-bit Windows 10 version 21H2 or 22H2, or Windows 11 version 23H2, 24H2, or 25H2, on a CPU with AVX2. Intel 3rd generation and older are not supported.

Does this hour replace a prepress course?

No. You will set a page, thread two text frames, place one image, make one paragraph style, and export PDF (Print). Bleed, color management, and a print shop’s PDF/X request are outside this hour.

Related guides

• How to Safely Download and Install Software on Windows — the installer is the Creative Cloud app from Adobe, not a file from this catalog.
• x64 vs x86 vs ARM64 Windows — confirm 64-bit Windows, then apply Adobe’s AVX2 rule separately.

Related software

• Adobe InDesign — the Softcoria page. The installer is not hosted here.
• Photo and design software for Windows — other catalog listings. They do not replace a package or a PDF export.