InDesign CS3

Reviewed by Mike Hubbartt, © 2007

Getting Started

I installed the entire Design Premium package, so it took a while to get everything installed. The Design Premium package includes the Application and Content disks, plus a video tutorial disk from Adobe and Lynda.com. Quark took this same approach with QuarkXPress 7.1, which also includes a Lynda.com tutorial – an excellent idea and kudos to both companies for including Lynda.com materials at no extra charge.

I did take time during the software installation to look through the CS3 Workflow Guide – it is nice for the product line, but too spare for individual product support. The layout in the guide was superb. After the software completed installation I took time to go through the tutorial, then dove into InDesign CS3, and I was not disappointed.

Using the Software

Last month I reviewed QuarkXPress 7.1/7.2 and noticed that Adobe needed to do some catching up with Quark if they wanted to keep happy customers. Looks like they did with CS3. One of the nice things about QuarkXPress 7.1/7.2 is the ability to do some Photoshop style effects without using Photoshop. Looks like Adobe agreed with the concept, because they too provide the same support in CS3. While I agree that good software doesn’t need to do everything, there are times I don’t want to switch to Photoshop or a graphics package to add shadows and inner or outer glow effects and now that is possible.

The second thing I liked about InDesign CS3 was the improved UI. Now don’t get me wrong. I like the layout in CS2. The CS3 layout lets you create custom workspaces, so you can have different organization for different products or for other people that share your computer. And the control panel is improved as well. Customize the panel and menus to show fewer or preferred options, which helps when working on that tiny laptop or a crowded 20” iMac screen.

Adobe also enhanced table support. It is now easy to apply styles to tables and cells, so any global changes affect all the tables. So much for spending a lot of time manually reformatting every table when some creative genius on your project decides to change a font or spacing right before sending the file to the printer (I don’t believe I’m the only that had that happen…). And for those people that compose in Word and bring it into InDesign, but forget to add those pesky symbols like ®, ©, ™, and € in Word, Adobe has a Glyphs panel to make that task simple within InDesign.

Something else I liked; the page panel shows document previews, not just page numbers, so it is much easier to locate content and switch to that specific page. It is another very nice feature, but most useful for people working on larger projects (manuals) instead of short pieces (brochures or ads).

One last important new feature worth mentioning; export to XHTML. This is nice when you produce a monthly magazine (like macCompanion) and use DreamWeaver (like macCompanion) to create the online version of the issue. This support in QuarkXPress was a big advantage over InDesign CS2 and I really appreciate how much easier it will make my like as a desktop publisher and web designer.

Conclusion

This update is what Adobe needed to catch back up to Quark. The improved UI and new features will please the Adobe faithful, at least until Quark enhances their product again. I know some people fail to appreciate the benefits of competition, but I believe Adobe’s and Quark’s drive to please (and keep) their customers will only make things better and easier for everyone involved in with publishing on a small or large scale.

Recommendation

The user interface improvements alone merit an upgrade from CS2 to CS3, although the new features will convince many people to switch from another product to InDesign. I’ve enjoyed using InDesign CS2 and really like the improvements in CS3 and heartily recommend people upgrade to this version. Absolutely worth the minor expense when upgrading from an earlier version, and highly recommended.