I downloaded the trial version and I thought it had a bug that won’t let it start up. Then I find it only works on Vista and Leopard (Intel Macs only) and not XP or Tiger. More glaring than no InCopy support! Many reports of hogging cpu cycles when idle and slowing down the system even when not “running”.

Also, you must purchase one license for each computer and you can’t put it on two computers (namely a desktop and laptop) you own.

Pretty big deal breakers to the vast majority of us who would love to use such a program.

There were several features that made it into the GA version that I was convinced (given the daunting engineering challenges) would be on hold until 2.0 at least. Several were of particular use to InDesign users, such as the ability to remove obsolete files (low-res comps, for example) from a map, or the brilliant packaging feature that Mike describes.

Since I was one of what seemed like a fairly small number of ID users on the private beta, and certainly the most vocal, you can put any missing stuff (such as the lack of InCopy support — mea culpa, Anne-Marie) down to my not having brought it up, not to any lack of willingness on Gridiron’s part.

We’re all moving toward a combined print/web/interactive mode, if only because that’s what clients need these days. The fact that Flow can track the whole ID/Dreamweaver/Flash workflow is huge.

I am compiling a “best practices” document for working with Flow, somewhat in collaboration with Flow tech support. If anyone would care to send me ideas and experiences (especially hindsights! — “It would have been better if I had turned on/off this setting…”) I would welcome them.

Flow is one of those once-in-a-blue-moon game changers. Design workflow will never be the same again, no question, but I am convinced the community as a whole will keep coming up with new wrinkles that are worth passing on to each other and to Gridiron’s development team.

To be a real ‘workflow’ package, of course, it needs to provide progressive statuses, preferably triggering actions. Newspaper publishers won’t touch it without InCopy support, nor will any medium to large publishing house unless it can hook into their CMS. It looks great for small studios and lone designers, though.

- If I select a file in Bridge, it should show me what is the relation of that file with InDesign files for instance.
- If I select an InDesign file, in Bridge, it will tell me which files are imported in it.
- If I rename a file that is imported in many ID files, automatically the Project Manager updates the links without really opening each InDesign files.
and so on.

When I resend the message for the x time to developpers, some were so upset or laugh at me by replying : “Bridge has a lot of features and Version Cue too has similar features”. In fact none of these software provides this kind of feature, they were just lacking the same vision I had. I knew that this was the biggest issue and as Sandee says in the user videos, the Flow method should have been how computers work since day 1.

That’s what comes from blogging late night. It should say July 3. Sorry for the confusion.

Currently working on a magazine and Flow is saving me so much time. I need to pull photos out of folders on the server, I need to get word files, text files, etc. from different locations. I need to send reviews to different people, I need to track my time on each file and section.

It’s already speeding up my “flow”. I can track files and versions much easier. Especially because there are 2 of us working on the files.

It’s just nice. I’ve already stated elsewhere that “flow” could be a replacement for Bridge or at least be part of Bridge, or Bridge be a part of Flow or something.

It gives previews of your files, including InDesign files, it will give font and colour information. This is handy because if someone else edits the file and doesn’t apply the right style, say they take in some text from Word and it comes in as Arial or Times. I don’t need to open the file to see what fonts are there. I know what fonts should be there, and shouldn’t. So it’s making my “flow” easier.

It’s just speeding up my “flow”. And that’s what it’s supposed to do.

I’m enjoying it.

I’m holding out on buying Flow, as I recently posted in response to David’s post, as I don’t yet see the need, making it far too expensive a program to buy with hopes it’ll come in handy.

“Gridiron has a promotion with Deke McClelland to get you $100 off if you act before midnight Pacific June 3rd.”

June 3rd is long gone.