ed_foucher

I've been using PageMaker 6.5 to create Product catalogues and though I don't have a DTP background I find PageMaker not too friendly to use. For instance there's no UNDO! I was considering upgrading the software to QuarkExpress but then someone suggested that InDesign is now the commonly used program. Can anyone make a recommendation for me?

If it helps, the pdf version of the files I'm working with can be viewed at <http://www.royalcylinders.com/>

Also would anyone know if the native PM6.5 files can be imported directly into InDesign?
Thanks for any help!
Ed

heather bell

Yes, yes and yes.
PageMaker is not friendly, however, you CAN undo, so I am not sure what you're talking about.
InDesign will open PageMaker 6.5 direct, if you install InDesign on your computer and go to your file folder options and set InDesign as your default program for P65 files, you'll never have to see PageMaker again, won't that be nice? You can always just right click and open with if you don't feel like changing it permanently.
InDesign, IMHO, is the best of many world for the kind of layout you describe, all the great features of Quark, the simple parts of Illustrator, and more. Great program. Easy to save EPS, options for converting text to paths, save a JPG direct for the web, great stuff.
I find it really easy to use, but then again, I think PageMaker is really easy to use too, I just hate it.
Hope that helps.

bob levine

There's a whole section in the FAQ on reasons to move to InDesign.


ID will open PM 6.0-7.0 files though you should note that the conversion
will be anything from near perfect to completely unusable. Why not
download the 30 day demo and give it a test drive yourself.

BTW, you can by the entire Creative Suite for about the same cost as a
copy of Quark and InDesign is a far better program.

Bob

peter_spier

Plus you get the benefit of this forum, something else Quark can't compete with.

I got my earliest DTP training in Pagemaker, but up until about 5 years ago, while I was working for printers, I used Quark almost exclusively, and probably spent 30 hours or more a week working with it. When I went free-lance I made the switch to InDesign which I find to be much easier to use, as well as more powerful in many respects, than either Quark or Pagemaker.

The integration of the suite is awesome. Support for native Photoshop and Illustrator import means you no longer need to save multiple versions of your art.

I got a survey from Adobe this week asking me how, as a registered owner, I've been using PM over the last two years, and it was darn hard to say I haven't used it at all -- the software wasn't set up to hear that. I suspect this is an effort to see just how much industry support is left, and how many people who still use it have tried ID. If there are enough responders like me, marketing will have all the ammo they need to kill it off for good, and I won't miss it a bit.

stu_bloom_x

John Davies, "Moving on to InDesign" #2, 24 Jan 2006 4:08 pm </cgi-bin/webx?13@@.3bbe32cb/1>

scott_falkner

PageMaker's Undo is, to be generous, crap. Yo can undo some actions, but not all, And most of the time, anthing you can undo is cancelled out by switching tools.

InDesign, on the other had, can undo everything I've thrown at it, and then some. Add to that a decent multiple undo that will let you undo any of the last several actions you've done.

So, you can change the page size, then the margin, then the defintions of several styles in the do***ent's style sheet. Then you can delete som pages. Not happy? Delete any of the last several steps.

PageMaker won't let you undo any of that, but InDesign will let you undo as much as you like. Try to beat that with a stick, PageMekr appologists.

bob levine

Not only all of that...but you can undo right back through a save.

Bob

ken_grace

providing you don't shut the program.

k

bob levine

You don't even need to shut down the program...just close the file.

Bob

ken_grace

Yes, I was just making the point that while you can undo back through a
save, you can't open a saved file and expect to undo.

k