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Pagemaker phase-out rumor 1

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dfl61

Technical User
Nov 21, 2002
3
US
I heard a rumor that Adobe was phasing-out Pagemaker after release 7 and won't be supporting Pagemaker. Does anyone know if this is true? I'm trying to decide whether to go with QuarkExpress5 or the Adobe Publishing package (which I prefer.) Any info will greatly appreciated.
 
The same rumors are flying around about Quark dissolving (since it is slow to be OSX compatible and pales in comparison to InDesign). Quark 6 will need to incorporate significant improvements to surpass Indesign 2.

Instead of the Adobe Publishing Collection, consider the Design Collection (InDesign replaces PageMaker at the same price with these collections).

InDesign opens PM files well and the feature set will blow Quark and PageMaker users away.
 
The people that KNOW that answer are not about to be telling. In my opinion, if Adobe phasesout PM, they will lose a large customer base that needs DTP at the PM price point, but that is NOT Microsloth Publisher. So unless they come up with an ID Lite, they will have to continue offering PM.

Of course, since most of PM's code is archaic, they might decide to release a crippled vs of ID. But again, the people that KNOW are not telling, anything you hear atthispoint is conjecture. When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.
 
I will be using the applications at a print shop that runs presses as well as color copies. We are reorganizing the business, getting some new equipment, and trying to find the "perfect" package, that will hopefully be around for awhile. Customers send in orders via email, fax, etc. in all formats,i.e., Publisher, Word, which need to be massaged into an acceptable format for the presses or copies. Most of the press work is 1 or 2 color. Logos & graphics are usually scanned then cleaned up in Photoshop. An "expert" friend of the owner is insisting that Quark is the way to go; I'm disagreeing. I also heard that In Design was being phased-out. Who knows??? I'll download a trial of ID. Thanks for your help.
 
Adobe is putting a lot of energy into ID, I owuld be totally surprised if they were going to phase that out. There are only 2 players in the DTP arena, Quark and ID. ID has the market as far as price and usability. quark, while initially less expensive requires a lot of expensive add-ons to be as usable as ID.

ID will easily cooperate with Word docs, something that PM always balked at. Nothing works easily with Publisher (wince) and being that Pub does not support CMYK, make sure you charge extra for any garbage brought in that format! It will require a lot more than massaging, and I don't know of any easy way other than to recreate the documents. Even PM's Pub import filter works only sporadically. When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.
 
dfl61 is trying to find the "perfect" package, that will hopefully be around for awhile.

Longevity was Quark's rise and fall. Quark came out with a good product early on and thought it had no competition. Quark depended too much on third party Xtensions to keep it as the leader. Now with the DTP expanse into Windows and OSX, Quark is starting to feel like the little guy. Quark needs to update itself to work with new Macs and the third party Xtension developers need to quickly follow suit.

I would give the life expectancy of any good page layout app about 2 years. You can't trust your workflow to so many third party extensions that need to be updated when you update the core program like Quark.

This is where InDesign steps on Quark. Pretty much everything is in one program. I've only needed to buy one plugin.

PageMaker? Is this program even mentioned in the Expert Center of adobe.com? There's your answer to a phase-out.

I have a feeling that PM7 was simply an update to allow PM compatibility on WinXP/2000. There's is not much Adobe could improve or update that isn't already in InDesign. If you look at Adobe's history, you will see them buy competitive programs, then retool or discontinue them. PageMaker is Adobe's soon-to-be-forgotten stepchild from Aldus.
 
>>I have a feeling that PM7 was simply an update to allow PM compatibility on WinXP/2000. There's is not much Adobe could improve or update that isn't already in InDesign.<<

I think you are correct on that one... PM7 is no more than PM6.5 reworked for W2K. In fact, you can take a .pmd file, rename it with a p65 ext., and open it in PM6.5. Only problems you might incure are if you used the new features such as placing .AI or .PSD graphics.

Will there be a PM8? What is Adobe's typical cycle ofr product upgrades.. 18 months? Mmmmm, PM7 is how old? If we don't see an upgrade after that 18 months, I doubt we will.

I still believe that Adobe will have to continue to offer an entry level package, similar to Photoshop LE or Elements. ID LE? Hmm.. not a good ring to that acronym! When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.
 
So what is the answer? It will probably be as V suggests, some sort of 'lightweight' ID. If PM will no longer be able to be run on the newer OSs (does it run on Mac OSX?) but so many people still use it, what will the majority of 'in-house' business users of PM switch to? ID? May be they will if the only alternatives are Quirk and Publisher and if they have any sesnse at all.
 
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