Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Sat Oct 22 14:05:12 CDT 2011
The last time I used the product was in the 90s and it was called PageMaker. It was not until a couple of months ago that InDesign was brought to my attention. I saw a friend build a book in about week (He is a professional) with graphics, writing and had it published later that week...a project like this would normally take a team a month. My daughters convinced me to look into the product for completing a book project I am currently working on and to say I am impressed is an under-statement. I am using InDesign CS5.5. (I also bought PhotoShop CS5.5) I must admit I downloaded torrents of the products, first, while I was considering whether to invest a fair chunk of cash and time. It did not take long until I realized it would be worth every penny and could, eventually expand into another revenue stream. It can now assemble virtually any graphic, text, animation and sound oject and export it all as a unified application. Much of it technology comes from Adobe's stable of products, like Illustartor, flash, Photshop and Dreamweaaver. Here is a few tidbit tutorials that will give you a feel for its new capabilities: http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-indesign-cs5 If this does not impress you I will send along some XML data acquisition and display tutorials which can demonstart how the product can be extended all the way to a report writer and webbased data presentation manager. Interesting aside: Adobe and Autodesk have an almost complete strangle hold on every significant graphic and animation product. Without buying their products there would be no books, newspapers, advertisements or special effects or even animated movies... (Pixar, Disney and George Lucus and so on...)...they own it all. Jim -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Bartow Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2011 10:15 AM To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues' Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] inDesign Are you sure you mean InDesign? I've been using it for a decade. I haven't upgraded for a while. It was originally designed to replace PageMaker (which was technically pretty ugly) and was supposed to be the "Quark killer". I think it's done both pretty well. Most of the print shops I'm familiar with have relegated Quark to a secondary position now. Which version are you using? I love do page layout in InDesign compared to other desktop publishing programs but other than that, my CS2 version won't do any of the things you mention very well. -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Lawrence Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2011 11:51 AM To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues' Subject: [dba-Tech] inDesign I have started to learn a new product called inDesign from Adobe. To start with, the package is not cheap ($1,200) but it is a very interesting product. Its origins were from PageMaker but after that, all similarities end. What it allows you to do is to build documents in the form of reports, books and eBooks, website from a single product. It can use data from any standard database (i.e. Access, MS SQL, Word, Excel etc), XML file, virtually every graphics standard (i.e. PSD, png, jpg, tiff, ai, PDF, gif etc), animation (i.e. mov, avi, fla, swf etc), Sound file (MP3, WMV etc) and of course text from virtually any source. When a document is completed it can be exported in many formats, custom database reports, content ready for print books, magazines, leaflets etc, fully animated eBooks that ready for sale on any platform, iPad, Kendal, Smartphone (like iPhone and Android) and websites. It can build all the navigation tools, generates web sites that will actually reformate them-selves to any realistate size and it generates that code in HTML5 and CSS3, to handle the extensive graphics and imbedded object (no imbedded flash unless desired or sound etc) so it is full-compatible with any modern browser. The animation that it can apply to the site is similar to everything you could do with JQuery and I believe it is actually using the same. A document does not have to be initialized for any purpose...it is when you export it you can decide on its size or whether it will be for a brochure, a book, or eBook or website etc. and you can just export and select as many times as you like changing what ever formats and parameters all the while the original document remains unchanged. The product does not replace an application like Visual Studio or a database product or replace hand coding for a web site but it can create an extremely complex graphical presentation that would take a long time by hand, look very professional with (I wouldn't say little effort but...) less effort. Like any major products it is not a simple process to master, (a lifetime comes to mind) but it can be a complimentary income source as graphics sells more products that excellent coding. Jim _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com