This Week in InDesign Articles, Number 7

I used to know pretty much everything about publishing software. I’m not trying to show off; I really did. Back in the late 80s, there just wasn’t that much to know! But then a funny thing happened: It all got more complex. I don’t know if it was entropy or just youngsters getting uppity and trying to make it hard for old folks to keep up. But the only thing I know anymore is that there’s a whole lot more to learn.

So, with that in mind, here are a few links to articles that I’ve seen recently that help us learn more about our favorite page-layout program:

The Deke.com blog continues to explode with information. Most of it is (good stuff) about Photoshop, but this week brings a nice article by David Futato about cross-references in InDesign. You have to be a (free) member to read it.
Zevrix has a new version of LinkOptimizer Lite! Check it out!
You can buy a subscription at Inkd.com for half-off with a discount code written up at creativepro.com. I haven’t used Inkd.com’s templates, but the site looks very interesting. I will have to investigate.
Speaking of templates, here are some nice (and free!) templates for letterhead and business cards that you can see and download.
Using Smart Text Reflow in InDesign CS4? If so, you’d better take a look at Claudia’s post about a problematic (but rare) bug.
You have to check out this fun stop-motion animation. Sure, it’s a shameless plug for Markzware’s products, but it made me smile. (Except the music, which started to drive me crazy.)

And one other thing that caught my imagination: CrashPlan (cool backup software for mac, windows, and linux) is now offering unlimited storage plans on their offsite backup “CrashPlan Central” service. Alternatively, you can just use their free software to backup free to another computer (even over the web). It’s cool.

Billianna Austin says:

August 18, 2009 at 5:14 pm

I am an older user of pagemaker ( I started with aldus)After a computer crash I spent days last year reinstalling pagemaker which I still love. Plus my cs2.3 product disks were broken when I received from adobe. After 10 months of calls to india I discovered the north america help desk number and I received cs4 disks and an apology. My problem I have installed cs4 and pagemaker is not working now. In the middle of a large once a year project for a loyal customer of over 10 years. Ouch on the huge learning leap.

I only kept three customers for the past 3 years. All are menus, membership directories and handbooks. Some our 160 pages and my every year like clockwork. My October job just got moved up to now by the client.

What how to book would you recommend? I would like to convert my existing pagemaker files to indesign. Additional problem the final print version of the pagemaker file is corrupt but I have the final printer copy saved as pdf. Customer did not keep any files. Can I open the pdf which in the final print copy and use it? Or will I have to open the one from two weeks previous and make all corrections again. Thanks for your help. I liked the tutorials that are online. I have already done two but my dsl is painfully slow. So would like to purchase a book quickly. Any advise is greatly appreciated. If anyone knows how to get my pagemaker working that would be grand, too. I have the htp link from adobe for pagemaker and my 7.0 upgrade disk but I do not have older enough versions of distiller and acrobat reader for the pdf and booklet functions to work correctly. It took tons of time to get it up last year so I figure that it is time to update.

David Blatner says:

August 20, 2009 at 9:42 am

@Billianna: Wow, sounds like a major hassle! You should be able to open the PageMaker documents in InDesign (as long as it was PM 6.5 or 7). If you only have a PDF, you might be able to use the PDF2ID plug-in from recosoft to convert it. Not cheap, but it’s worth it for emergencies. I have no idea why your PM wouldn’t be working. I didn’t think the CS install would affect that at all.