Category: Techwriter
Adobe InDesign is probably Adobe's third most popular Creative Suite product, behind Photoshop and Illustrator. Like most Adobe products, InDesign has legions of genuine and pirated users who nonetheless worship the product as much as Apple fans pray to their iPads every night.
So, as an InDesign user, should you empty your wallet or beg your technical department to upgrade your version of InDesign to CS6, Adobe's latest release for the beloved publishing application?
2-point Perspective
Everyone who has worked with commercial software understands that investing on an upgrade can be a waste of money. No matter how flashy the advertisements are and how many testimonials Adobe posts, upgrades to software such as Adobe InDesign just means time-saving tools that make work easier. You lose absolutely very little in using an older version – using an older version doesn't make you any less productive especially if you're skilled and experienced enough to use InDesign (or know how to research online for great tutorials). The truth is that most of the "new features" can be achieved using earlier versions. In fact, enthusiasts from InDesign sites provide even better ways to produce a desired effect or accomplish a task than a snappy new tool. Don't bother buying an InDesign book, independent users (who probably run cracked version of the Creative Suite) are more proficient than any "professional" out there just because they have more time on their hands to play with their software.
On the flipside, Adobe InDesign CS6 does have a few compelling features for Windows and Mac users. Why Windows and Mac users? Because the handful of new features included with InDesign focus on designing for mobile devices running on popular platforms (Heck, even Blackberry OS is included). The publishing industry is clearly more interested in going digital and there's little doubt that in order to stay relevant, InDesign has to get off its print publishing Adobe PageMaker roots and go HTML5. In redesigning InDesign CS6, it's obvious Adobe considered the possibility that Adobe Flash on tablets such as the Kindle Fire will eventually go the way of the dinosaur. EPUB quietly finds itself some much-deserved attention in InDesign CS6 - another step in trying to keep InDesign relevant in today's ebooks and portable surfing world.
Another reason why I mentioned Windows and Mac is because these additions to InDesign CS6 have long been present in open source software. Coding EPUB is practically obsolete with the number of Linux applications out there that makes the process easy (Sigil and Calibre come to mind). For those who do code, Bluefish and competent text editors such as Kate can pretty much produce all the effects and publishing requirements you need for the iPad or any Android tablet.
Digital Effects
Some features that are found in InDesign CS6 would've been odd seven or eight years ago when the focus was on typography and graphics. Today, it's all about making documents look sexy on a tablet or screen.
1. The Transitions effect option was impressive when MS PowerPoint had them a decade ago but in InDesign CS6 today, its inclusion seemed a bit of a surprise. It's still a great addition though because it prevents users unfamiliar with any type of animation from having to learn Flash, Javascript, or HTML5.
2. The Article palette, a feature that allows writers to reassemble bits and pieces of a document once exported to HTML and EPUB, is a fairly interesting feature though I don't know how useful it would be in practice since Tagged PDFs aren't all that popular.
***Adobe InDesign CS6 Review: From Print to Tablet/Smartphones Part 2***
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