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By Janet Mobley
In the Dark of Night
Through the years
I have updated PageMaker and went from Aldus to Adobe and have been
a satisfied user, including of the latest version, 7.0. When I learned
that Adobe had no plans to upgrade PageMaker, I was very sad. I wasn't
looking forward to learning InDesign, the replacement for PageMaker,
a much heftier program and with a heftier price tag, too.
I had installed the trial version of InDesign from the October MacAddict
disc and found it to be cumbersome. I could open the PageMaker newsletter
master copy in InDesign and I found a lot of strange looking boxes.
Little seemed to work as it had in PageMaker. Then I got the full version
of InDesign from Lorene. One of the perks of being a Board member of
NCMUG is that our Vendor Queen, Lorene Romero, gets programs for us
to keep in exchange for writing a newsletter review.
The word, "cumbersome" kept going through my head. I had trouble
setting the column guides, something that should be easy to do. I called
Adobe, my quarter, and after waiting for 20 minutes for Tech. Support,
and a real person to answer, the technician told me this was the easiest
question he had all day! That didn't make me feel good. But it was a
simple fix. There is a Normal View Mode box and a Preview Mode box at
the bottom of the Tools palette. Nowhere in the manual could I find
any reference to those boxes or that they had to do with the Guides
visibility.
Each problem seemed to have a somewhat complicated solution. Why didn't
Adobe use the same commands and places where the commands are found
in PageMaker? True, InDesign is a bigger program, but to make it easier
on the user would seem to me to be an advantage instead of having to
learn new places to find commands. As most of the new users will be
former PageMaker or Quark users, it seems logical to make the commands
similar. I've never used Quark but I doubt that Adobe would make their
program more compatible with Quark than with PageMaker.
One advantage that I found right away was I could open my Master PageMaker
Newsletter file in InDesign and the Styles palette showed and other
formatting that I had saved was ported over into the new program. When
I had to make a change in a Color or a Rule and wanted it to be permanent,
that entailed a bit of doing.
I didn't like the way graphics are placed in InDesign. To resize a graphic,
one holds down both the shift and command keys, whereas in PageMaker
all one has to do is hold down the shift key and put the cursor on a
corner and either stretch or diminish to change the size very easily.
Placing text was another chore. I had to use the text tool to draw a
box the size of the column. That wasn't bad but it had five columns
within the text box. I had five columns on my page and the text box
showed up with the same number. I finally found that I had to click
on the box and go to Objects/Text Frame Options and then change to one
column. One step too many.
Twilight
When I got to the Expo floor at the Moscone Center, I went to the Adobe
booth to take note of the demos being given about InDesign. There were
three demos that I could attend. Yea! I took a few notes and resolved
to read the manual.
Terry White of Adobe Systems gave the first demo on the conference floor.
Adobe had two "theaters" right next to each other and in close
proximity to the Microsoft booth. The loudspeakers used by the presenters
seemed to be at full volume. Terry has a deep, resonant voice and there
was no difficulty hearing him. When the next demo started a couple of
hours later, I got a front row seat; good thing, too, as the electricity
for the booth was off. The man doing the demo, David Blatner, had to
shout and was further hampered as there was just a black screen where
he was going to show his examples.
Finally, after a half hour the electricity was returned and a hoarse
presenter continued with his demo. The final demo, by Deke McClelland
had more tips and tricks. All three presenters stressed that there are
multiple un-dos in InDesign just by typing Command Z. In spite of the
sound and other technical problems, I picked up several tips from these
presentations.
The Lights Dawns
I went home to try out the new information I had learned. By then the
Visual QuickStart Guide, InDesign 2 by Sandee Cohen had arrived. I went
through the book and also the manual that came with the program. I made
a newsletter master by opening the PageMaker master in InDesign, which
converted it into ID. I got things pretty well set up and placed a couple
of articles. I`m sure I could have produced the newsletter at this point
and would have found ways of doing things with the aid of these two
books. But there was more to come.
Into the Noonday Sun
Tuesday night arrived and I went to the NCMUG board meeting where Lorene
Romero gave me a copy of the Adobe InDesign 2.0 Classroom in a Book.
Oh joy! I've always liked the Classroom books as they have many lessons
that start with the simple and go to the complex in a very orderly and
concise manner. I like having the examples that Adobe includes that
help the student learn. I think Adobe should include their classroom
books with every program. It would make learning so much easier.
When I finally started using the Help portion of InDesign, I discovered
I could find solutions very easily. Between the Help section and the
classroom book, I am learning InDesign. I'm now to the point of enjoying
using InDesign. True, I'm a long way from being completely comfortable
with the program or able to use it to its full potential. I have produced
the NCMUG newsletters since February using InDesign.
Hopefully, as I learn more, I will try some different ways of using
the program. And maybe I will try some new and different elements of
design. I'm finding that it is fun to go through the lessons in the
Classroom in a Book and thinking of ways to use new ideas in the newsletters
I produce for three organizations.
This article originally appeared in NCMUG News, the newsletter of
North Coast Mac Users Group, Santa Rosa, CA, USA
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