CONTENTS
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1. A PAGEMAKER EDITION OF INDESIGN
2. MEANING IN A NAME
3. SAVING BACK TO AN EARLIER VERSION
4. AN AWARD FOR ME
5. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
6. UTILITIES/UPDATES
7. HINTS
8. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
9. LAST WORD
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1. A PAGEMAKER EDITION OF INDESIGN
==================================
Adobe Systems has announced the InDesign CS PageMaker Edition, a version of InDesign CS with a set of plugins and extras intended to help PageMaker users make an easier transition to InDesign. The extras will be included in future releases of InDesign but, for the current release are available either as a special edition, or as a downloadable plugin pack at extra cost for those who already have InDesign CS.
The PageMaker edition of InDesign will be available at approximately half price for those who already have a licensed version of PageMaker.
It brings some of the things PageMaker users have complained is missing from InDesign, on top of those which were added with the CS version of InDesign such as the control palette and the text editor.
The Plug-in Pack extends conversion support to PageMaker 6.0 documents, as well as 6.5-7.x and QuarkXPress 3.3-4x files, and, one of the most sought after items will be the ALAP InBooklet Special Edition plug-in which will either rearrange a document's pages at print time into an imposition, or create a new imposed document with control over margins, gaps, bleeds, creep and crossover traps.
Other features include a bullets and numbering plugin, which is a little better than was in PM, Data merge (somewhat better), the Position tool which works similarly to the Crop tool in PageMaker plus sort of combines some aspects of the other two selection tools (I get confused), and the ability to switch keyboard shortcuts in InDesign CS to match PageMaker shortcuts (well worthwhile for those used to PM who keep hitting the wrong keys in IND).
A template browser links to more than 80 professional templates covering advertisements, business cards, certificates and letterhead design among other items. This browser can also be useful for organising your own templates. There are also some Total Training video instruction CDs with the InDesign CS PageMaker Edition (though presumably not with the downloadable plugin set.
The InDesign CS PageMaker Edition for Mac OS X and Windows will be available in the US and Canada in the first quarter of 2004. For registered owners of any version of Adobe PageMaker, the price will be US$349. Education crossgrade from PM will cost about US$219. For more information please visit: www.adobe.com/products/indesign/pm_ind.html.
The Adobe PageMaker Plug-in Pack will be available for download from the Adobe Store for US$49.
The Adobe PageMaker Plug-in Pack is expected to be included with the Creative Suite Premium Edition in Spring 2004, for US$1229 and the Standard Edition for US$999.
So, basically, it is going to be part of the full suite in the near future, but there will be some special offers for PageMaker users to upgrade, and if you already have InDesign CS, either as part of the suite or as the single program, you will be able to download the extras for US$49.
In answer to one question we'be already received, the InDesign PageMaker plugins will only work with InDesign CS (otherwise known as InDesign 3), not with version 2. For PageMaker users who already have a copy of InDesign, the upgrade from v.2 to CS of InDesign would cost US$169 but on top of that you'd need the download version of the plugins at US$49 -- a total of US$218.
The extras in the CS version of the control palette, the text editor will make it more familiar to PageMaker users even without the PM Pack, but add that with its included copy of InBooklet (a slightly cut-down version but doing more than BuildBooklet did in PageMaker) make the plugin pack good value. Then there are the wonders of "nested styles".
2. MEANING IN A NAME
====================
What's in a name? In response to a question from someone whose casual freelance editing role as an editorial assistant had been upgraded in name to that of managing editor on the web site version, we pointed out that it could have unwelcome consequences:
"Managing editors take responsibility, editorial assistants do not. If someone was looking to sue or just to get something put right, the person they'd probably go for is the managing editor. So, while, it may or may not have a relation to payment, if you don't at least have the right to see (and alter) all the final proofs, you should be getting the ME title taken off as quickly as possible, regardless of payment."
3. SAVING BACK TO AN EARLIER VERSION
====================================
The problem of opening one version in another with InDesign 3 is that it can't save back to version 2. InD 3 will open v.2 files though it opens them as "converted" and expects you to decide whether to save under a new name or save over the old file. QuarkXPress is somewhat better in that version 6 will save back to 5, but not to 4 (which seems to be still the most common version).
However, for Adobe, the real cause of the problem seems to be that they announced that the new version would save back to v.2 and actually put it in the manual (correcting that statement in the readme file on the installation disk -- which of course nobody reads).
It was made worse by there being a plugin for v.3 which saves to an "interchange format", but what they'be failed to produce is the promised plugin for InD v.2. Several people associated with Adobe have said that "the engineers" tried to produce that plugin but it just doesn't work.
Those kind of statements leave me with mental pictures of men in dirty overalls with spanners in hand wiping furrowed brows. While I can associate the word "engineer" with a man who designs bridges and railway engines (or even with the American use as a man who drives the latter), it doesn't fit with someone seated at a computer.
The problem of saving back to an earlier version is one which has been a problem for many new versions of software. At best, such conversions lose some features, and are seldom without problems -- for which the software company then gets the blame. InDesign has not previously saved back to a previous version, but this requirement has only become a demand now that a substantial number of people are using an earlier version of the program.
The choices for users are to stay with the older version until most people have upgraded, to put in place a workflow such that there is no backtracking and with proofing and approval being done on PDFs, or to have both versions on some workstations and make it clear that a decision on what version to use has implications which cannot be undone.
None of those "solutions" is going to be fully satisfactory.
4. AN AWARD FOR ME
==================
With the worldwide publicity being achieved for the wrong reasons by "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, there have been more mentions than usual of the Government-sponsored "Australian of the Year" award for which he is one of the 20 or so finalists. However, in addition to those 20 there are around 2500 people who were nominated, did not get to a second level, but still received a certificate from the chairman of the National Australia Day Council, former Olympic gold medal swimmer Lisa Curry Kenny MBE OAM.
Why is this of interest to this newsletter? Well one of those 2500 was .... me. And the award was "for the role you play in a world wide peer group for the PageMaker computer program and for Desktop publishing in general based on both technical expertise and leadership". That PageMaker group is the list for which you'll find details at <http://www.makingpages.org/pagemaker> and it is increasingly discussing InDesign and general DTP matters on a basis that we are a group of people who "make pages".
5. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
========================
Paul asked us about opening PageMaker files in InDesign CS: "I recently installed InDesign 3 on my Apple iBook 900. I have a number
of PageMaker 6.5 files on the HD and wish to convert them to InDesign 3 but they will not open in InDesign. I am trying to open them from within InDesign but get the following message: 'Cannot open the file. InDesign may not support the file format, a
plugin that supports the file format maybe missing, or a file may be open in another application'."
We confirmed that InDesign CS should open PM 6.5 and 7 files without problems. Anyone else had any such problem?
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And another problem for which we do not have an answer: Dave Ralph, who runs a local newspaper on an island of the Bahamas, uses PageMaker 7 and Windows XP and has had problems with black rectangles appearing in the bottom right hand corners of both local laser printouts and in PDFs. We suspected memory, or sequence of items in the file (the old large-items-near-the-end-of-the-process problem), but that does not seem to apply here as it happens more often on the computer connected directly to the printer than on one connected via a small network. He sent us a PDF of a file on which it happened, and the file itself. We could not reproduce the problem.
OK, there are a couple of things we don't really like in the file -- the graphics (it is a page of real estate properties for sale) are JPEGs, and they are embedded rather than linked -- but they are tiny single-column pics and the entire file is only 1.8MB. Grayscale JPEGs are not a problem elsewhere, certainly not at those kinds of size.
6. UTILITIES/UPDATES/PLUGINS
============================
Apple released a G5 firmware update: It "provides some performance improvements for some PCI-X configurations, patches a security hole and improves fan behavior in Open Firmware".
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If you are having trouble with scrolling from a mouse in Windows, you may like to look at KatMouse <http://kickme.to/katmouse>. With this free utility, moving the mouse wheel will scroll the window directly beneath the mouse cursor (not the one with the keyboard focus) and also have different settings for different applications.
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Scripting is coming to OpenOffice. It will be a new feature in OpenOffice 2.0 but in the meantime the scripting framework is
available in developer builds from 680_m15 onwards but is disabled by default; for details on how to enable the feature and
about the project itself go to <http://framework.openoffice.org/scripting>
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Adobe have announced an upgrade for FrameMaker, coming this month. Windows only. The update to 7.1 includes new features for cross-referencing between documents and allows multiple variations of a document to be stored as a single file. Users can now migrate legacy technical documents and assets from QuarkXPress and PageMaker formats, while expanded support for popular graphics file formats means Photoshop files can be imported directly into FrameMaker, See <http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200312/120103FRAMEMAKER.html>
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There is also a promised free update for QuarkXPress 6 on the way: 6.1. What seems to be an informed piece on what it will include is on Graphics.com at <http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2054>
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Pitstop Professional 6.01 from Enfocus Software is compatible with Mac OSX and PDF 1.5 (Acrobat 6), including JPEG 2000 compression, 16 bit image depth and layers. Integration of the Pantone Color Library allows the user to change Process colors to Pantone colors, change Pantone colors to process colors and change Pantone colors to a different Pantone color. <http://www.enfocus.com/>
7. HINTS
========
If Photoshop starts to act in a bizarre way, restart the program while holding down Shift+Ctrl+Alt and it will ask you if you want to delete the preference file.
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If you print spreads from InDesign, it will insist on putting page 1 in the middle of the printout page instead of on the right of a spread. To overcome this, insert two blank pages before the first page and preserve the correct pagination by starting a new section with the real page one at the start of a new section.
8. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
=========================
There are new forums for InDesign, QuarkXPress and some others on the ever useful xpresso bar website run by Amy Rothstein. they are at <http://www.xpressobar.com>. anyone can search and read without registering, but you must register to post. The InDesign forum is intended mainly for former QXP users. No posts when we checked a while ago but Xpressobar is a well known QXP resource and we'd expect the new forum to catch on quickly.
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Graphics Cafe is a graphics discussion list: <http://www.listmoms.net/lists/#graphics-cafe>. On the same page you will find details of their other lists, including ones for Mac, Windows, Photoshop, Eudora, and even for platform wars.
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Greg Vander Houwen's site Photoshop Techniques is a useful source: <http://www.photoshoptechniques.com/>. It's also the home of the PST Mug <http://www.photoshoptechniques.com/main/mug.php>
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User information on color laser printers (especially for use with Macs) at <http://www.macintouch.com/colorlaserprinters.html>
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Newsroom-l, is an email list of news and issues for journalists run by Jules Siegel who will be well known to many InDesign users as well as to readers of Playboy and Rolling Stone. See <http://www.newsroom-l.net>
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Tek-Tips Forums for QuarkXPress: <http://www.tek-tips.com/gthreadminder.cfm/lev2/4/lev3/31/pid/260>
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"Wizaerd's Realm offers a place where Canvas users from around the world can come together to share their artwork, share their Canvas tips & techniques, interact with other Canvas users, and learn from some of the best Canvas users on how to better use their Canvas application." We'be referred to this source before, but it has moved and we lost track of it for a while. It is now at <http://www.wizaerd.com/>. You will also find a link there to The Canvangelist: <http://www.canvangelist.com/>
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Dave Saunders has a useful web site with lots of InDesign information and especially some useful advice for those who are PageMaker users making the change. See: <http://www.pdsassoc.com/index.php?Nav=tips&Ban=TipsAndTricks&Info=newtips.html>. I specially like the clear explanation of what Dave sees as the major differences.
9. LAST WORD
============
A copy of George Orwell's 1984 that watches you? That's at <http://minsky.com/1984.htm>. The man responsible for this different concept in book binding is Richard Minsky. Expensive but intriguing.
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.