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But be careful. Although InDesign contains many familiar Photoshop and Illustrator features, don't be fooled into thinking it can actually replace those programs. If you are working with simple page layout projects, you may find you're able to do much of the design in InDesign alone, including adding some visual effects to type, graphics, and images. But most digital image manipulation will still have to be done in Photoshop, many complicated graphic elements will still have to be created in Illustrator, and you'll still need GoLive to make your project web-ready.

With that in mind, this section of the chapter takes an overall look at InDesign and how it can fit into your creative workflow.

The first thing you notice when you open InDesign, especially if you've previously worked in other programs of the Creative Suite, are the similarities in the tools and palettes. This should make moving to InDesign from many of those programs much easier. If you started out in InDesign and are interested in moving to Illustrator or Photoshop, for example, the same is true; tools, menus, palettes and even keyboard shortcuts are the same.

Information for QuarkXPress Users

If you are just starting in InDesign after having used QuarkXPress, you'll be impressed with how Adobe has taken some of the best features of that program and integrated them into its own page layout process. In fact, InDesign contains a set of keyboard shortcuts that correspond to those you used in QuarkXPress (see Figure 23.1). You can also open your QuarkXPress documents and save them as InDesign files. Most features of your original QuarkXPress documents are retained, such as links, type styles, master pages, and layers. Other features may be changed to reflect the InDesign option most closely related to your original effect. To get an overview of exactly how QuarkXPress files are converted, check out the Opening QuarkXPress Files in the InDesign section of the Adobe Help Center.

Figure 23.1. The Pages palette is a good example of how Adobe has made InDesign accessible to QuarkXPress users.


InDesign can convert only files from QuarkXPress 3.3 or 4.1x; if you have later files, you should go back to QuarkXPress and save them as a previous version.


Information for PageMaker Users

If you're upgrading to InDesign after being a PageMaker user, fear not. Along with a set of PageMaker keyboard shortcuts, Adobe has also ported over familiar PageMaker features, such as the toolbar. And like QuarkXPress, you can open your PageMaker files from version 6.0 and later and convert them to InDesign documents. Most items convert correctly, but text flow and other elements are often affected in the conversion. For full details on PageMaker-to-InDesign conversion issues, see the Common PageMaker Conversion Issues entry in the Adobe Help Center. The Help Center also contains a convenient set of entries comparing PageMaker's menu commands with its InDesign counterparts.




Special Edition Using Adobe Creative Suite 2
Special Edition Using Adobe Creative Suite 2
ISBN: 0789733676
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 426
Authors: Michael Smick

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