IDCS PageMaker edition

[terrie]

I promised KT that I'd post a copy of the review I did of IDCS PageMaker editon that was published in PC Graphics Report (March 2004, http://pcgraphicsreport.com/ ):

"We PageMaker users are being enticed by Adobe to abandon the venerable (ok, old and creaky) software and join the ranks of InDesign users with the release of InDesign CS PageMaker Edition ($349.00 directly from Adobe to a low of $284.00 from an online retailer). This is InDesign CS (version 3.0 of InDesign) with the addition of a separately installed PageMaker Plug-in.

InDesign CS is installed first. Color Management users beware! A shortcut to Adobe Gamma Loader is placed in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. I’d suggest you delete the shortcut before rebooting or you may end up with monitor calibration problems. I can’t comment on the Total Training video for InDesign CS, as again Adobe has failed to require closed captioning for those of us who are hearing impaired or deaf.

When InDesign CS has been successfuly installed, you may then install the PageMaker Plug-in. While there are are eight potentially useful tools available (you can choose which, if any, of the tools to be installed), perhaps the most important aspect of the Plug-in is the wealth of information added to the Help function comparing and contrasting InDesign and PageMaker which should go a long way to easing the transition from PageMaker to InDesign.

When you open InDesign CS PageMaker Edition for the first time, the PageMaker Plug-in Pack window is open in the middle of the pasteboard with six options displayed. There is also a checkbox to toggle this window on/off at startup. After your first browse, I’d suggested turning it off as all of the options are available via the regular menus.

Perhaps the most potentially useful of the options is “Tutorials” which, when clicked, will open a browser window with Help set to a list of nine tutorials. Adobe might have better chosen to place first “Making the Switch from PageMaker to InDesign” (the fourth item from the bottom of the Help Contents list on the left hand side of the Help screen). The topics for this item compare and contrast InDesign and PageMaker and give one a feel for what assumptions not to make about how things work.

Under the Plugin Pack window you’ll see the PageMaker Plug-in Pack Toolbar (icons for “new document”, “open”, “save”, “print”, “increase font size”, etc.). As the Toolbar is sitting in the middle of the workarea, the first thing you want to do is to dock it (top, bottom or side of the workarea) using the first icon on the left of the Toolbar (kind of looks like a vertical ruler).

While there is much that is familiar in the InDesign workarea, there are new and useful approaches to the PageMaker way. The Control Palette, rather than floating is docked at the top of the screen (it can float, dock at the bottom or hidden). As in PageMaker, the options displayed vary based on what you are doing. The floating Tools palette is displayed to the left of the workarea as in PageMaker, but the other palettes are docked and only partially visible on the right hand portion of the screen. Click on a tab and the palette flies out for use. I quickly got a crick in my neck trying to read the tab names sideways and discovered that I could create my own own floating palette (or set of palettes) by dragging the palette(s) out from the docking area. You can roll up a floating palette by clicking on the “-“ in the upper right hand corner of the palette. This review is too brief to outline what InDesign offers that PageMaker doesn’t but one of the best to my mind is virtually unlimited Undo’s and the most annoying is the lack of a recently opened files command in the File menu if one has used TweakUI to disable “Recent Files” (“IE” tab, enable both “Add new documents to Documents on Start Menu” and “Show Documents on Start Menu” to make “Open Recent” available).

The key question. Is InDesign CS PageMaker Edition worth the money? I think so. While there is certainly going to be a learning curve, Adobe has given a guiding hand to lower the curve with the PageMaker Plug-in and InDesign is a much more robust and sophisticated program than the venerable but creaky PageMaker. (T. LaBarbera, http://tlbtlb.com/ , sysop Compuserve’s Publishing Production forum)"


Terrie

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by terrie

I promised KT that I'd post a copy of the review I did of IDCS PageMaker editon that was published in PC Graphics Report …

Thanks, Terrie! Interesting.

I haven’t gone and checked, but it would be sensible if Adobe would make that plug-in available to PageMaker users who have already taken up InDesign CS.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by ktinkel

but it would be sensible if Adobe would make that plug-in available to PageMaker users who have already taken up InDesign CS.

It's US$49.

http://store.adobe.com/store/product...Adbe_IDSN_PMKR

[Mike]

Originally Posted by ktinkel

Thanks, Terrie! Interesting.

I haven’t gone and checked, but it would be sensible if Adobe would make that plug-in available to PageMaker users who have already taken up InDesign CS.

They did provide the PageMaker plug-in for sale as a separate item. When I bought Design Studio Adobe's web site listed the PM plug-in as part of the package. It wasn't included but wehen I complained they sent me a free copy.

To be honest, I installed it, looked at it, and have never used it. Maybe I should take another look at it to see if it does provide anything useful.

[carusoswi]

Terry:
"discovered that I could create my own own floating palette (or set of palettes) by dragging the palette(s) out from the docking area."

How do you accomplish this. If I drop down the "Window" menu and click on "Pages" or "Stroke", they pop out from the right side of my work area. I can drag them up and down, but not to the left so that they float. I also don't see the "-" to which you refer. What are you doing that I am obviously missing.

Thanks.
Caruso

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

It's US$49.

Tsk.

[terrie]

>>jonathan: It's US$49.

Thanks for checking that...I thought it was available for a "nominal" price...

Terrie

[terrie]

>>caruso: How do you accomplish this. If I drop down the "Window" menu and click on "Pages" or "Stroke", they pop out from the right side of my work area. I can drag them up and down, but not to the left so that they float. I also don't see the "-" to which you refer. What are you doing that I am obviously missing.

You actually drag the individual palette itself out into the "prime" window--drag on the name of the palette.

Just tried this to make sure I was remembering correctly...

1. Drag a palette out into the work area

2. Drag another palette the same way and drag it ON TOP OF the palette you dragged in step 1

3. Repeat with all the palettes you may use regularly--I have pages, layers, char styles, para styles, align and info. This creates one master palette with all the palettes you dragged showing with their individual tabs.

Then if you look at this master palette, you'll see that it has both a minimize (-) and a close (x) window icons. I moved this master palette up into the upper right hand portion of the ID window--it's an empty area--and click on the minimize icon (-) to have it "roll up" out of the way...

Note: when you are dragging the palettes out from the right hand portion of the screen onto your new set of palettes, you can inadvertantly end up with the new palette kind of above the other palettes you dragged...if that happens, just drag the palette title down into the other palettes...

Let me know if that's not clear...

I've added some thumbnails:

ID1.jpg = 1st palette dragged to workspace, pages palette
ID2.jpg = 2nd palette dragged on top of 1st palette, layers palette
ID3.jpg = all the palettes in the new master custom palette at the top right of the screen
ID4.jpg = close up of my custom master palette with pages, layers, char styles, para styles, info, align

Terrie

[carusoswi]

"drag on the name of the pallette," 'drag on the name of the pallette," "drag on the name of the pallette."

Well, I'll be! When you "drag on the name of the pallette" it works just as you said it would. Now, who would ever think of dragging on the name of the pallette? Windows conditions us to drag everywhere else. It's nice that, when you then close the pallette, it reopens as a floater when you recall it. Wonderful! I couldn't imagine why Adobe would want to crowd everything off to the right like that (still can't see the logic), but it's great they provided us a way to move those pallettes around. Thanks for setting me straight.
Caruso

[Dave Saunders]

Given that InDesign CS has a pretty good Workspaces feature, what I don't understand is why Adobe doesn't package a variety of workspaces with the product to give new users a sense of the flexibility of the palette set-ups.

The one they use as default is presumably some proud person's baby, but it strikes me as utterly unusable. Talk about showing a feature in its worst possible light.

Dave