InDesign: Summary

[smurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I received a surprising volume of mail in response to my
query about InDesign, Adobe's new DTP product.
Several people asked me to post a summary, so here it is.

 - From a source in the know:
InDesign is aimed at a high-end market:
"it's target market is magazine publishers, design
studios, and advertising agencies.  If you're looking for a serious
powerhouse, this is it.  If you don't need that much power, I'd look at
PageMaker 6.5 Plus."

 - Everyone indicated that the package is enormously
powerful in certain areas (particularly text handling),
but lacks certain things we think of as very basic,
such as generated lists (ToC, Index), and even tables. I saw this
in one of Adobe's white papers on the product too. They had
a reason (excuse) for this but I was not convinced, personally.

(As an aside, I was equally unimpressed when I first looked at
FrameMaker a few years ago. The Adobe rep claimed that the
absence of many features, such as the capability [back then] to sort
tables and so forth was deliberate, to allow third parties to step in
and take the lead. The real problem was that the reps were trying
to sell FM in terms of its "features," such as the ability to wrap text   
around
graphics, which did not stack up favorably even to WordPerfect,
instead of showing FM's singular value for authors of long documents
and structured information. I had to actually buy and start using
FM before I understood this.)

 - All who had used it said InDesign is very stable and well-
engineered, but a resource hog. I'm used to that with everything,
these days...

 - Several people suggested that I ask Adobe to set up a local
demo of InDesign in the Washington DC area, and informed me that
this was happening (as Kay Ethier announced) in other areas
such as Research Triangle Park. Good idea. Anyone from Adobe
listening?

 - Two people challenged my quick dismissal of FrameMaker
as a tool for producing newsletters. They made good arguments,
and I am going to re-visit this. I am so used to doing the "user manual"
thing that I had almost forgotten about FM's ability to handle
multiple flows and so forth. I took a second look at the
amazing templates by Valiulis & Wasson on the Adobe website,
and was humbled by them. There is a lot more power and room
for creativity in FM than I had given it credit for. However, I have
to say that the product doesn't offer much help in doing this.

 - There is a lot more information on Adobe's web site for anyone
else who is interested in InDesign.

Steve Murphy
MURPHUS
7138 Tolliver Street
Alexandria, VA 22306
(703) 765-7320
sdm@murphus.com
http:www.murphus.com

Steve Murphy
Senior Documentation Specialist
Adobe Certified Expert/FrameMaker, Acrobat
SOFTWORKS, Inc.
5845 Richmond Highway
Alexandria, VA  22303 USA
(703) 317-8879
smurphy@softworkscc.com

"Witty quote to show my erudition, sense of humor, and overall   
brilliance." --Someone Famous

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