Why use InDesign?

[Catten]

Hello,

I am a technical manual writer who is trying to convince my team to convert from Word (I know, I know) to InDesign. I am hoping someone can help me identify the pros and cons of making this switch and maybe offer some advice about how to most easily make the change. Can you help me?

Catten

 

[jmgalvin]

You’re really talking night and day here. Switching from Word to Indesign will take a rather long learning curve – especially in a production environment where time is critical. Unless somebody is used to page layout apps, it will take some time to master.

Indesign gives literally 1000 times more possibilities for laying out the work (typography alone would do that). It also allows editing of graphics right from the app and then updating the graphic in the page as well as the ability to just drag pics from things like photoshop and illustrator directly into the work. At the print stage, it offers far more control and its pdf export is superb.

That said, word processors are often better authoring environments for text. It’s simply faster and more direct. In most places where text is written and the publication is laid our, the writers use a word processor and the designers use the page layout.

My suggestion would be to download the trial at a minimum. Buying one copy of Creative Suite premium as a trial would be my best recommendation. That way you see how all the apps work together – producing a superb, but not 1-2-3 to use, finished product.


Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[Catten]

jmgalvin,

Thanks for your advice. I have InDesign as part of the Adobe CS package, and we all have some level of experience with Quark.

Our current process is to create a series of Word documents from templates, then PDF them into a final document. It's clunky at best. I am looking for a way to present this idea as a way to save time and effort.

Can you tell me if you can make an interactive PDf from InDesign? This would help my cause.

Thanks again,

Cat

 

[jmgalvin]

If you're familiar with Quark, you can get Indesign - especially if you show the control window.

Depending on what you mean by 'interactive' Indesign can export interactive pdf (but you should always have Acrobat pro too).

Just create any old doc and go to pdf export presets and pick one. You'll see checkboxes for retaining interactive elements. You'll have to read up on this in Help. Just search for "interactive". Normal bookmarks and links (document wide and to websites) can be handled through the interactive window. Fancier stuff can be handled through buttons (see Help for Buttons) created with the button tool, object menu/interactive, and by right clicking for the pop up menu.


Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4