This Week in InDesign Articles, Number 36

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You know what’s amazing? InDesign! I know you know that, but some folks are just now finding out! Amazing. Whether you’ve been using ID for a while or you’re a beginner, you’ll find some good resources in this week’s list o’ links.

• Everyone who is making EPUB files needs to check them to make sure they’re valid. Here’s a free tool (ad sponsored) to easily do this on your own machine: EPUBchecker.
• While we’re on EPUB, Liz Castro is busy putting out the good word on her site. Here’s a piece on how to publish to the Apple iBookstore.
• Andreas Pfeiffer has released a new set of productivity reports for CS5 which are interesting: Not only do they explain why CS5 is good, but they contain detailed analysis of why CS5 can make you far more efficient than you could be in CS4.
• I mentioned Automatication’s very cool MultiFindChange product for InDesign. What I didn’t mention is that it got 4.5 butterflies (out of 5) in the recent InDesign Magazine, and that Martinho is offering free predefined find/change query sets that are really nifty! And, while we’re on the subject: Automatication has also released the free LayoutZone for CS5!
• DTP Tools has just released a public beta of a very cool new plug-in called Active Tables, which provides spreadsheet like functionality inside of InDesign tables. If you work with tables  much, you must check this out.
• There’s always more to read about The Revolution Going On… here’s an article called A Self-Publisher’s Primer to Enhanced E-Books and Book Apps.
• If you’re a geek (and let’s face it, who of us isn’t?) you’ll enjoy my friend Stephen Herron’s examination of the difference between hard and soft data on his blog in three parts: What is Hard and Soft Data?, What is H & S data, part 2, and Is Color Hard or Soft Data?
• Claudia is concerned about the reliability of back-saving in her article on Why Time Travel is Dangerous.
• Okay this has nothing to do with InDesign, but the folks at Rorohiko don’t sleep… here’s a freeware tool they’ve released for the Mac OS that gives you the file path for any thing you drag on it.
• This sort of has to do with InDesign: It’s what I want to be able to do with InDesign… new Inkling ipad apps for textbooks. Fascinating.

Well, that’ll do for now. There’s always more to see and read, but remember to Be Amazed!

Happy InDesigning!