InDesign or PageMaker

Looking for a software/program for informational publication layouts. Currently we use powerpoint/excel and it seems ineffiecient with limited capablility. The charts are formed in excel and usually brought into powerpoint. Would InDesign or PageMaker be a better choice for a company (30 people) with text/chart heavy layout?

PageMaker is effectively a discontinued product. (Adobe still sells licenses, but primarily for existing users who need such licenses for expanded use on legacy computers and operating system environments!) It is not supported on any current operating system either from Apple or Microsoft. Thus, between PageMaker and InDesign, your only choice is InDesign.
Note that InDesign has no built-in charting capabilities or ability to have direct links into Excel. You can save off charts in Excel as PDF files and place them via links into an InDesign document, but this is not automated in any manner.
Also be aware that InDesign is a graphic arts layout program, not a word processor. It does have a fairly steep learning curve. One you have mastered that curve, though, you have the tools for creating a wide variety of documents and products for both print and display.
- Dov

Similar Messages

Indesign and Pagemaker

I am trying to open a document in Indesign that was created with Pagemaker. The document has embedded graphics. Is ther anyway to do this?

Additionally to what Gert said:
If I remember it right (and this goes back some 10 years ago), in PageMaker there is a limit in file size (10KByte, 20KByte ??? I'm not sure here…). If your placed files fall under that specific limit they will be embedded automatically by PageMaker, not linked to the originals.
Converting these files to InDesign will mean you have to place these files anew.
In case you have no access to the old files, you could export the embedded ones to PDF, EPS, JPEG or PNG and place them again. Don't expect the geometrical bounds are the same compared with the original embedded ones.
Uwe

Diferencias entre InDesign y PageMaker

Hola, soy un usuario de Quark XPress, pero quisiera ampliar mi radio de manejo a la hora de maquetar y aprender alguno de los programas de Adobe. Entonces, qué programa me recomendaríais de entre esos dos? Y cuáles son las principales diferencias? Por lo que he visto en la web, InDesign parece más potente que PageMaker pra hacer toda clase de maquetaciones, no?
Un saludo!

Hola, Luis.
La diferencia más importante es que PageMaker es un programa ya muerto, y oficialmente descontinuado, aunque curiosamente Adobe lo sigue vendiendo. Su código era demasiado antiguo, por lo que se hizo necesario rediseñar por completo el programa. El resultado fue InDesign, que Adobe no llamó PageMaker 8 por motivos comerciales, entiendo que relacionados con la mala reputación que adquirió PageMaker cuando, hace ya años, dejó de ser actualizado.
Después de lo anterior, parece casi innecesario agregar que InDesign es muchísimo más potente que PageMaker, especialmente por el desarrollo constante y notable que ha experimentado desde su aparición. Por lo que he leíso, es también mucho más potente que Quark, aunque aquí hablo por terceros, ya que nunca he usado este último.

Can't open Pagemaker files in InDesign Cs2

In the past i could usually open any Pagemaker 6 or 6.5 file in InDesign CS2. However this doesn't work anymore. I get a message o the screen telling me the file is corrupt and can't be opened. ( i can't really post the original message i get as it is in german).
This happens for any Pagemaker 6 or 6.5 file i have in my repository (and there are still many left so i had tried several ones from different dates and PM Versions)
As a first aid I tried to reinstall InDesign CS2 from the original discs. I uninstalledit before and did a restart of the Machine before i reinstalled it.
I use a Windows XP baesed system.
Does anyone have any idea on what i could try to get that back to work?

http://indesignsecrets.com/windows-xp-service-pack-3-breaks-indesign-cs2-pagemaker-convers ion-capability.php
Bob

Converting from Pagemaker 7.0 to Indesign CS3

Lots of questions here I'm afraid, but it would be a massive help if I could get this sorted, and I only have a week or two to do it.
My colleague and I are writing an English language textbook, with separate teacher's guide and student's book. It is currently in Pagemaker but we have had a number of problems with it, including:
1. Some pages will not PDF. Various error messages are given, none of which I understand.
2. On the pages that will PDF, most of the Excel tables become black or grey boxes. They were inserted into the document via Edit>Insert Object but it does not seem possible to link them (doesn't accept OLEs or something). Nor can I Place them due to some unknown error.
3. Some of the objects, esp those pasted in from Word, jump around when PDFfing.
4. Some text and objects move when transferring between computers, messing up the formatting. This may be because my colleague and I have different printers installed, so we can't set it to the same one.
Due to these and other problems, we're thinking of transferring the book to Indesign CS3. However, I have the following problems:
1. When I try to open the Student's Book (SB), it tries to convert it to ID format, but before it opens the whole programme shuts down. There is no message or other indication of what the problem might be. It will open sections of the book when saved as different files, but not the whole thing at once. (The Teacher's Book [TB]) opens fine.)
2. The Excel tables once again become black boxes, like when PDFfing from PM. I know I can redo them either by pasting in and creating table from text (which loses formatting), or by saving the files and Placing them (saves formatting but takes a while to save each file), but there are about 230 such tables and it would take forever.
3. Other objects, such as speech bubbles pasted from Word, some Excel tables and some photos, become very low quality. They stay like this when pdffed.
4. When I open sections of the SB, the text that was in other colours all changes to black. Eventually it will all be in black anyway, but I have highlighted some text in red and blue that I want to come back to later.
In addition to solving those problems, I'd appreciate it if you could tell me:
1. if it's possible to insert multiple pages of another ID file, so that separate documents become one, as in Acrobat. (This would allow my colleague and I to work on different sections of the book at the same time but still end up with one document.) The Place function creates one solid object (if that's the right word), with all separate objects merged, and is low quality like the images/tables mentioned earlier.
2. if it's possible to save the formatting when pasting tables from Excel (and I mean pasting, not importing).
3. if it's possible to create speech bubbles (callouts) in ID. I need loads of them. They don't seem to be in the Shapes section.
4. if it creates problems if you paste stuff in without linking, e.g. speech bubbles and arrows from Word, images from PM, etc. I know it makes the file bigger, but apart from that? Someone said that may be behind the problems we had with PM.
Thanks heaps for any help.
Derek

#1. This is the hardest one.
First, just because it shows in Pagemaker, doesn't mean it should show in Indesign. Pagemaker lists all kinds of crap, PPD fonts, system fonts.
Courier (VGA res) is a screen font. ID won't (and shouldn't) list it and you shouldn't want to use it. Courier New is just about impossible to get rid of in Windows XP. You should substitute Courier New for Courier (VGA res).
I can't help much with Lucida Handwriting and Tekton Pro, except to
repeat my usual font advice:
1) Make sure the font is actually installed. Make sure it shows in
Control Panel > Fonts. If it's really there, delete it (make sure you
have a copy of it somewhere other than Fonts), reboot, and reinstall it. Install fonts with File > Install new font. Don't just dump it in the Fonts folder.
2) Make sure ID doesn't already list it. ID doesn't list all fonts
strictly alphabetically. For instance, note that Adobe Caslon shows up in the C section, not the A section. And Lucida Grande shows up at the bottom of the list with the Hebrew fonts. You can have a situation where you have Courier loaded, it shows in ID's font list, but on opening, ID tells you Courier is missing. The lesson here: there's more than one Courier and ID is smart enough to know the difference.
3) Search your hard drive(s) for adobefnt*.lst and delete all of the
found files. Make sure you search hidden and system folders.
4) Delete the stubborn font files and copy them from somewhere good (I think Lucida and Tekton come free with something Microsoft, probably Office). It's rare, but font files can be corrupted, and ID is more picky than most other apps.
5) Check Type > Find Font to see where your missing fonts are used. If they don't show up there, they may be used in a style but the style is not used. Maybe you don't need them at all. Maybe you just have a space or a return formatted in the missing font.
Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

Pagemaker 7.0.1a to InDesign

What steps do I need to take to convert a highly formatted book of 412 pages to InDesign from Pagemaker 7.0.1a?
I have Windows 7 Ultimate. I also have Creative Suite Premium CS3. Do I need to update to CS1 or CS2 before going to CS6? I plan to sign up for CS6 Cloud annual membership.

Thank you much! I have been sitting here terrified of the results even though my files are backed up! However, you just enlightened me about the embedding. It is a sports book with 450 photos and 125 illustrations from Corel Draw. My hard drive was "accidently F-disked" by a shop and I lost half the book. I got recovery files for HALF the book about 15 years ago from a recovery lab, and some files I can't open but have about 200mb of data. Now everyone is asking for the book in Europe. Time to get moving and push the button! Do you know if there are any advances in data recovery from such loses?
Steve

Will InDesign CS 5.5 open my PageMaker 7.0 Files?

I currenly own Pagemaker 6.5 with an upgrade to 7.0, as well as InDesign CS PageMaker Edition. I am unable to open my PageMaker files (either version) in the InDesign, running on either an XP SP3 computer (which I understand is not surprising) or on a Win7 64 computer. I get a message (for every file): "The PageMaker document is damaged and cannot be recovered." This is true of any of dozens of files I have tried to access.
If I update to the latest InDesign CS 5.5, will I then be able to open my PM files to save them as ID files? Should I upgrade from the ID license or the PM7 license?
Any other thoughts?
Thanks!

On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated, what was told to you by “salesperson Vincent” is absolutely untrue!!
As long as you purchase your Adobe software from an authorized dealer and Amazon itself (not necessary its “associates” who often also sell via Amazon) is an authorized Adobe dealer, you have the same support from Adobe as if you bought if from either Adobe's website or via Adobe's customer support / inside sales organizations.
If you were to have any further identification of who “Vincent” is, we'd appreciate having that information (send to me via e-mail - hover your cursor over my photo to get that address) so that he may be appropriately retrained.
- Dov

Converting Pagemaker 7.0 to InDesignCS2

When we first purchased InDesign, it converted PMD files easily and with little trouble. Now that we're on CS2, I get the same error message every time I try and open an older PMD file. It says the document is damaged and cannot be recovered. That's not really true, as I can still open it in Pagemaker.
Any ideas what I can do to retrieve the information in the PMD files? We have numerous files that we need to draw from and not having the ability to convert anymore is a real problem. Do we need to upgrade to CS3 in order to fix this?
Please advise as soon as possible! :)
Thanks!
Tanya

Sounds like this problem:
http://indesignsecrets.com/windows-xp-service-pack-3-breaks-indesign-cs2-pagemaker-convers ion-capability.php
Dave

Opening p65 files in Indesign CS 3.0.1

I am having trouble converting or opening an old pagemaker 6.5 file into an Indesign file. Error message says I maybe missing an add on. Thanks
Dan

http://indesignsecrets.com/windows-xp-service-pack-3-breaks-indesign-cs2-pagemaker-convers ion-capability.php
Additionally, you should note that you are now out of the upgrade loop with CS2 being the earliest eligible version for upgrade to CS5.
Bob

Windows service pack three conflict with indesign

I have hundreds, if not thousands, of Pagemaker 7 client files. My Windows machine was recently upgraded to Service Pack 3 and it will not let me open Pagemaker files into Indesign CS3 and convert. jApparently, there was no problem with Service Pack 2.
Help! There must be a patch. I also got new laptop today with Windows 7 hoping I might be able to open them but now discovered that I can't use a single pne of my Adobe products on it because they are not CS4 Versions.
Anybody know a fix so I can get all PM7 files converted?

You do not have CS3. You have version 3 which is CS.
This may well be your last chance to upgrade and I suggest you take it. If the current policy remains in effect when CS5 is released you will not be eligible for upgrade pricing.
You can read more about the PM problem here:
http://indesignsecrets.com/windows-xp-service-pack-3-breaks-indesign-cs2-pagemaker-convers ion-capability.php
Bob

Why should I stop using Pagemaker

I have been using Pagemaket 7 for many years, what benefits would justify an upgrade to Indesign considering costs & learning process!

The capabilities of Indesign make pagemaker seem like a toy.
I'm not sure how fancy your forms are, so the graphics handling may not be important.
Graphics handling is much better with support for transparencies, built in gradients, drop shadows, bevels etc. Much improved support for placed pdfs. Real color mangement, Separation panels, great for spot colors, etc.
For text I would think you could use things like character styles, better paragraph rules, page based baseline grids, nested styles and most importantly Native support of tables.
Although I haven't used it there is in CS6 added support for interactive forms.
I'm sure there are many other things that would help in forms that I have missed.
There will be a bit of adjustment, some people have a harder time than others. After a short time you wouldn't even think of going back to pagemaker.
Jay

Pagemakerからのアップグレードについて.

現在PageMaker6.5日本語版を持っています。これをInDesignＣＳ2英語版のほうにアップグレードしたいのですが、アドビストアで見たところ日本語版のPageMakerからは日本語版のInDesignにしかアップグレードの対象になっていないようなのですが、日本語版からでも英語版にアップグレードできたりまたは、何かできるようにする方法などはないでしょうか？　プラットホームはMacintoshです。
よろしくお願いします。

アドビさんにTELして聞くのが、手っ取り早いと思いますが・・・
PageMaker6.5からInDesignＣＳ2にデーターコンバートできました?
6.5--->7.0--->CSにしないといけなかったような??

Saving PS files on PC and the using them on Mac

I have at home pc, but in college I am using Mac,s. I have one concern if im going to work on some kind of project at home on my pc and then I will wanna carry on on it at the college were I'm gonna use Mac, will I be able to load that project? If not what should I do? Because today when I Mac didn't load me a InDesign file which I saved on my PC. I don't want this happen to PS files.
Thanks for help

Page layout programs like InDesign, QuarkXpress, Pagemaker have always has limitations dealing with different versions;
This has not changed in over 20 years.
While you can always easily open older version files in newer version .i.e InDesign CS5 will open in CS6.
Going backwards is an issue as you have already found out. You can't "directly" open an InDesign CS6 document in CS5.
You can export your ID CS6 doc to InDesign Markup IDMl.
This IDML can be opened in CS5.
However, text may reflow, and any new features that were introduced in CS6 may either be missing or uneditable.
It is not a good workflow to constantly move a document between versions.
You have been warned!

Include Security Settings in PDF Presets

Boy does Illustrator go out of its way to make saving a PDF painful. No export, so we have to Save a Copy. Then we have to change the filename, directory, and pick a preset because it always defaults to Illustrator Default. And if we want to add security features we need to set all of them each time we export.
There needs to be a PDF export, and the presets need to be more robust.
Actually, there needs to be a replacement for Illustrator, jsut as inDesign replaced PageMaker.

Ok I understand your point.
you have tons of Illustrator files that need to be saved as pdf format with a specific pdf preset and encrypt it as well.
What i do is to create/record an action saving my Illustrator file to the pdf format with the preset i need(Do not encrypt yet, that's another step ahead), then use the batch dialog box, located in the action flyout menu, this dialog box lets you select the action you just recorded, select a Source folder where all your Illustrator files to be converted need to be and a Destination folder where your new pdf will be created,be aware that the check fields "override actions open" as well as "save" need to be selected in order to avoid a dialog box asking you what file to open and where to save it, after all this click Ok to play the action over the files in the source folder, wait some seconds and voilá.
Check your pdf files in your destionation folder.
Now we'll use Acrobat Pro to encrypt the files in the destination folder.
You need to create your own sequence to automate this process by going to the Advanced>Document Processing>Batch Processing... menu.
A new dialog box appear, click on new sequence, type a name for this new sequence(ie. encryption test), click on select commands... button, Select the Security action from the Document Set then click add>>, then select the new added action in the right click edit and set up the encryption you want in all your documents then click ok.
leave run commands on to ask... and select output location to same folder as originals.
click Ok and test it, i know the setup time is long but this technique will save you time.

Can I Open an ind. created in CS4 in ID5

Will I be able to open an ind.
created in CS4 by my graphic formatter
in ID5?
Judy

Adobe really did a number (no pun intended) when their marketing department came up with the Creative Suite numbering scheme. It has confused a lot of folks with all of the old Macromedia and Adobe applications when they started this. And to make things worse, some apps actually skipped version numbers so they could remain somewhat consistent with the suite number!
As a general rule, I always tell people not to use the splash screen to confirm version numbers, but rather the Help > About screen. This will of course show the exact version number including any updates that have been applied:
Wikipedia has a good historical listing of the version numbers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_InDesign
InDesign 1.0 (codenamed K2): August 31, 1999.
InDesign 1.5 (codenamed Sherpa): April 2001.
InDesign 2.0 (codenamed Annapurna): January 2002 (just days before QuarkXPress 5). First version to support Mac OS X and native transparencies & drop shadows.
InDesign CS (codenamed Dragontail) and InDesign CS PageMaker Edition (3.0): October 2003.
InDesign CS2 (4.0) (codenamed Firedrake): shipped in May 2005.
InDesign Server (codenamed Bishop): released October 2005
InDesign CS3 (5.0) (codenamed Cobalt): April 2007.
InDesign CS3 Server (codenamed Xenon): released May 2007
InDesign CS4 (6.0) (codenamed Basil): Introduced September 23, shipped in October 2008.
InDesign CS4 Server (codenamed Thyme)
InDesign CS5 (7.0) released April 2010

InDesign or PageMaker

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