Comments on: Why Use InDesign Instead of MS Word?

By: Captain Blackheart

Captain Blackheart — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:26:42 +0000

I just got a job that wants to just use word. (cause that what their clients what?!) I almost pulled my hair at another job when the owner proudly shown of his 36 page magazine he designed exclusivly in PHOTOSHOP!

By: Tim Wells

Tim Wells — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:42:30 +0000

I just read this. Thank you for these comments. I have a guide at work that we send out to customers. Traditionally, it has been done in Word, and I understand why: the abilities of the “designers” and the ability for anyone to work on it in the office.

Well, being a designer that uses ID, I was extremely frustrated, and I did my best to make this document look good. But it always looks like a door mat to me.

So, I decided a change needed to happen–both for clarity and marketing to the customer. I completely redesigned the document in ID. I don’t care if nobody else can work on it besides me. Of course, my co-workers and customers love it because it “looks professional.” What did they expect? It is professional, and Word simply is not.

I tell people, Word (and Publisher) have their place, but it’s not for making professionally designed material.

Thank you again.

By: Philip Ulanowsky

Philip Ulanowsky — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:20:11 +0000

Thanks to all for both eloquence and humor, from one obliged to work in Word most of the time. More than a few of DTPs working in corporate proposals for the federal gov’t can hardly wait for ID/IC to get more of a foothold in this domain, and are creatively working to persuade our HDPs (holders of department pursestrings) that ID will improve their lifestyles. Meanwhile, we may as well laugh at our battles against Word’s misbehaviors; good therapy.

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:17:24 +0000

InDesign can’t import from a database by itself. However, there are plug-ins that let you do this, including Teacup Software’s DataLinker. More plug-ins can be found here.

By: C Wendt

C Wendt — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:02:36 +0000

I’m currently using MS Access Report for a multi-level categorized catalog. Can Indesign handle multiple levels of grouping and formatting from a MS Access or any other database?
My current obstacle right now is I need CMYK output not RGB.
Thanks!

By: Todd Lingren

Todd Lingren — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:41:51 +0000

The word layout flow problem is related to the printer that’s installed on the machine. I formatted a 2500 page publication in word thrice (three different editions) and learned that to get to pdf, you had to make sure that the default printer installed was a post script printer. Not only that, but the *.dot you used has to be created when the PS printer is default. And you can’t ever use word for anything else on that machine while you’re doing. UGGH!

But Word IS better
> at search/replace functions. So I require submissions to be in word and when I want to publish them, I’ll “clean it up” in Word and then import to ID, redefining styles that I’ve already assigned in Word.
> Macros are easier too, but I’ll admit that it may be my limitations with ID that perpetuates the bias.

By: David Glover

David Glover — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 05:53:29 +0000

The worst thing about Word is its undocumented limits and tendency to corrupt. I have a client that does large contract bids, merging content from many different sources. Once those Word files get too big, they just start crashing or doing weird things like not printing pages 11 to 23. Not to mention what happens when different originators’ styles and page number settings collide! Basically Word is not suitable for “mission critical” work beyond fairly brief documents with few or no graphics.

Incidentally, with its new GREP search features, InDesign has become my new best friend for search-and-replace.

If I need to persuade someone to use InDesign instead of Word, I just say “Almost every magazine, book, brochure and newspaper in the world is put together with QuarkXPress or InDesign. What does that suggest to you?”

By: Dave Courtemanche

Dave Courtemanche — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:42:41 +0000

I use Word to open files, strip out hyperlinks & colors for a cleaner import into ID. Surrface-good luck. I’ve found Publisher butchers, er, users are a tough lot to convince of anything because they are not designers. If they were, they wouldn’t use Publisher.

By: surrface

surrface — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:32:28 +0000

URGENT
How do i persuade my client to not use Publisher for newsletters and more?

Thanks

By: David Blatner

David Blatner — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:49:44 +0000

Sander, you make a very good point: Word does have some features that would be wonderful to have in InDesign. But it’s sort of like the argument between ID and QuarkXPress: QX has some features I want in ID, too, but when you look at the whole of the package, ID is the clear winner. Oh well.