Expert: Ken Black - 8/11/2009

Question
I lost a Mac G4 and PageMaker 7.0 to Hurricane Ike last fall. I now have an Intel Mac and am ready to use an app other than Microsoft Word 2008 for various individual, school, church projects. Please let me know whether Adobe InDesign (version ?) is the most viable replacement for PageMaker. I have also considered Quarkxpress; however, my long familiarity with PageMaker (since 1988, home use only) leads me toward InDesign.
Thanks

Answer
Hi Philip,

While both Pagemaker and Indesign are Adobe products that are layout programs, the similarities pretty much end there. Indesign was created as Adobe's answer to QuarkXpress and has, in my opinion more similarities to Quark or a bit like Illustrator mixed with Quark if you can picture that.

Honestly, any version of Indesign is going to have some small challenges when changing from Pagemaker, at first. If cost isn't a factor, go with the latest version, which is 6, but commonly known as CS 4 when part of the Creative Suite. You probably could save a few dollars by buying a used copy of an earlier version. I recommend avoiding version 5 or CS 3. Personally, it is a bit buggy and those issues have been dealt with in the newest release. Another note on CS 4, the interface has been updated a bit from earlier versions. As for Quark Xpress, don't get me wrong, I was once a Quark Evangelist so to speak, but I find that Indesign is far more intuitive and I say that as I use both programs regularly.

I say, go with Indesign CS 4. Pick up the Design Premium version which gives you Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver and some other goodies, for the best overall value for the money.

Good Luck,

Thanks,

Ken Black

www.bestprintingonline.com