I bought a new Lexmar USB Drive (16 gb) to copy the Adobe CS2 Suite. I couldn't burn Adobe InDesign and I had no flash drive with enough free capacity.
WTF?! It takes over 35 minutes to transfer 1.7 gb of data from my Internet computer to the drive!
It took me LESS time to download all the software (about 10 minutes in all)! Crazy!!! Seriously!
I tried downloading the FULL Adobe CS2 package (4 disks) because they claimed to have "Acrobat Professional". What bullshit that is... I tried installing and there was no Acrobat software to install!
What false advertising!
Hey, questccg, is there anything we can do to help you?
InDesign can import pictures (see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/using/WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751...).
It can aslo create headers and footers (see http://blogs.adobe.com/vikrant/2012/12/add-headers-and-footers-indesign/) You need to create Master Pages - a sort of template.
Indesign is an awesome program.
Unfortunately I had more of a "magazine" publishing in mind rather than an Illustrator product with pages and tables. Microsoft Word still is more user friendly and allows for multiple document sections.
Like I said I was expecting something like Corel Draw "on steroids".
I had the impression that the product would have been more "design"-oriented maybe like a combination of Powerpoint and Word.
But instead you need to use OTHER Adobe products to make the overall look of the product and then place it in the InDesign product... Again not what I was expecting...
It's kind of like JASC PaintShop Pro versus Photoshop + Illustrator. In JASC you have pixel layers and VECTOR layers which allows you to add vector content to your images. And yes you can convert a vector layer to a pixel layer. It's NOT as powerful as Photoshop + Illustrator, but there again, it is only ONE tool you need to use.
It's used for magazine publishing so it really does do that :s
And about being more user friendly: it's all about how well you know the program.
Powerpoint and word are as far from design as apples and uhm... carrots. And sure you can use one screwdriver as a hammer and a wrench but hey... it's a screwdriver.
Indesign has rudimentary vectortools but yeah you need other programs to place stuff into (not necessarily adobe)... You need files: jpg, pdf, etc and it all comes together very well.
Indesign has multiple docs, it even has books and all that jazz?
There's no such thing though as a vector AND pixel picture (in the end).
But i know what you're saying, you want one total package that does the job (kinda) and you want it to resemble what you know. If you know photoshop or illustrator though indesign is a cakewalk too.
Maybe you should try fireworks though, i always consider it to be a combination of photoshop and illustrator with a smidge of indesign. Sure it still has the macromedia quirks from yesteryear and yeah it's been basically dumped and discontinued by adobe (shame on them) but it seems to be what you're looking for.
Don't use word unless it's for writing text or novels; and don't use powerpoint unless you're a business guru trying to explain the simplest things by using 5 different clipart-ridden, crappily animated slides.
But seriously: fireworks or a good indesignbook is what you need.
@questccg -- You probably haven't used PS (photoshop) enough to understand that you don't necessarily need Ai to do vector work. Photoshop is an all-purpose program that stands alone in the Adobe Suite. Photo editing, compositing, simple video editing, animation, vector art and typography. It's primarily an editing tool which expanded into an everyday creative tool. Everything can be ported into PS and PS needs very little assistance to produce phenomenal work. If you're comparing it to PaintShop Pro, PS is leagues ahead and stands strides above when you learn to leverage all there is to use. Though Adobe has been compacting so much into PS, it's still one of the popular go-tos for graphic artists outside of Illustrator or Corel Draw.
I will agree that it's not your everyday editor/compositor/creator. Usability factor has PSP with a shorter learning curve, but like most programs when you want to do more it just can't handle the jazz.
On to the actual matter of InDesign, it's all about what you're looking to do. Indesign is a DTP. Period. What were you expecting? Corel Draw on 'roids does sound nice but in the end, DTPs are DTPs. Have you ever used Quark (grandfather of DTP)?
Adobe really knows how to get you to purchase a suite because that IS their goal. Multiple precision tools that can be used together to create wonder or alone to get a specific job done. Any designer will tell you they probably own any one of 3 programs in some capacity at home. Vector tool, Image editing/compositing tool, Video/Multimedia editor. Any All-in-One will never give you enough goods in any one field. I loved the Corel Suite until about 4 years ago when I finally migrated to Adobe CS (due to work and the majority of my files. They fall in line with Adobe in that regards; separate tools combined to create one powerful suite.
You can stick with your MS word and PowerPoint all you want IF that's what gets the job done for you. I'm not knocking them by any means. In a way InDesign gives you more power than PowerPoint ever will, but if you can't/don't use the majority of the publishing tools and practices for print production InDesign may be too much muscle to handle. And in both cases (Indesign and PowerPoint) you almost always have to import assets to actually make anything look good.
A bigger gun doesn't always equate to more kills. Precision tools have their purpose. If you're looking for all in one desktop publishing tool/program that can draw raster and vector, do typography, image manipulation and support filters and layers, import and edit assets .... keep me posted. I'd love to know what's out there. Living in my Adobe world, I'm unfortunately not privy to such a tool. Just sharing my point of view from a Corel and Adobe Suite user to someone who may have failing hope in such programs.
Cheers.
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I can't wrap my head around why InDesign is such a SH!TTY program. Like why didn't they just add Pages to Illustrator and work with direct PDF files?!
I can't find anything good to say about this piece of software.
I can't IMPORT images from the hard drive - I need to Copy/Paste stuff from Illustrator or Photoshop - REALLY?!?! That's the best this software can do?
It's got nothing for creating header/footers and defining sections of a document... I'm going back to MS Word, even if I will need to use a converter to produce a PDF document.
I just don't GET IT!?!?
Note: I was hoping for something like Corel Draw on Steroids... It's like Illustrator with pages... Why didn't they just ADD pages to Illustrator?!?! So confusing...