The front part of the lesson for the word Cavities does show how to use ID's Free Transform tool, but even for the short word in this example, the exercise is too time consuming.

The effect of enveloping text into the smile shape would be much more easily done, and with better control, if Illustrator's or Freehand's enveloping were used. By the time the InDesign user had finished drawing the baseline and manipulated the first two letters, the person using Illustrator or FreeHand would be done.

From that point it is a simple matter to copy and paste from those applications into InDesign. Illustrator users need to make sure the AICB is checked with Preserve Paths. FreeHand users need to choose Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop 4/5 for colors. (There is a color shift from FreeHand to InDesign, but the paths remain perfect.)

The other parts of the article are excellent, I especially like the use of compound paths to automatically reverse type as it passes over another element.