Adobe Certified Expert - InDesign CS2
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Feature-by-Feature Review of InDesign CS5

My exhaustive review of InDesign CS5 went live on CreativePro.com today. It’s a detailed, feature-by-feature exploration of the new version. complete with a sample SWF animation and SWF slideshow created in in IDCS5, three short videos demonstrating cool new transformation features and, of course, the usual less-than-subtle use of baby photos.

The article’s broken up into multiple pages covering the following:

If you want to know what’s new and whether or not it’s time to upgrade, this review tells you everything you need to know.


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8 Responses to “Feature-by-Feature Review of InDesign CS5”

  1. jameswamser says:

    Michael,

    Great, detailed review of the new features!

    Best,

    James Wamser

  2. @harfad —

    If you’re just concerned with typography, I can’t recommend more highly Nigel French’s “InDesign Type” book. It was written for CS2, but all of it is still relevant in later versions, and it show an enormous respect and love for typography, and balances that out with well-written, useful, step-by-step instructions on how to work well with type. He also has an updated (CS4, I believe) video version of that course on Lynda.com. Just search for Nigel French on that site.

    Another good book about constructing documents efficiently is Gabriel Powell’s “Instant InDesign.” And if you’re looking to work with InDesign’s Long Document features (i.e., the Book panel, Tables of Contents, etc.), I have five podcasts on that topic here (just click the Long Documents category in the left-hand navigation), and Nigel French also has a Lynda.com title on Long Documents (in CS3).

    Good luck!

  3. Thank you. “Long document” is the word I think I was looing for! Basically I have written a book that is pure text, and I want to set it up myself in InDesign and publish it myself, and I am looking for a good book that will teach me how to do that and make it look progessional. I am not interested in graphics; but I am interested in typography and in smart, pure text book design. It does have complex paragraph structures. I have written it in Microsoft Word, and I would like good instructions of how to import the Word file into InDesign, retain all the styles and footnotes that I have created in Word, and then set it up professionally with running headers and page numbers, paragraph styles etc., and do a good job of it. That is the kind of thing I am looking for. I think somebody ought to write a good book on just how to do a plain text book design, and take advantage of all the features that InDesign offers for that purpose, without worrying about fancy graphics.

  4. Harfad –

    There’s no one book/resource I know of that answers all of these questions specifically about just text-based books. I still stand by my recommendations in the previous response to your post. I’d also throw in my own book, Adobe InDesign CS4 Styles, which has a chapter on Word importing options, effective use of styles, and a lot about efficient workflow techniques.

  5. Thank you, I will take a look at those. I also had a look at your long-document podcasts. They are interesting and useful of course; but there is also a lot more that they don’t tell you. How do you create a template? How do you resolve widows and orphans in InDesign? And many more small and big issues that one can encounter in simple text book design that only an experienced book designer would know about and be able to write a comprehensive book to explain. I am sure all of that information exists in print somewhere; but you would have to read 50 books to learn it all, which is not the ideal solution from my point of view. Anyway, thank you for your useful advice. I will follow that and see where it takes me.

  6. Michael,
    Do you take questions on Indesign? I’ve got two questions that require expert advice.
    Thanks,
    Steve

  7. Feel free to ask your question in this post (or a post on a topic related to your particular question, if there is one) and I’ll reply as quickly as I can. You can also e-mail me via the address I mention at the end of each podcast episode. I don’t publish it on the site to avoid spam, but just download an episode and zip to the end to find out how to contact me. I’m always happy to help.

  8. Thanks 🙂