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If there is sufficient time available that there is actually a
question, I believe that moving up to InDesign carries with it
substantial advantages. Since the upgrade path for legacy Pagemaker
docs is a relatively simple one, and since obstacles such as PM's
obviously weak tables capability are largely a thing of the past with
InDesign, I would make the switch sooner rather than later.
If you produce printed docs, *many* printers today accept InDesign
files; few still work with Pagemaker files, if they ever did.
I agree fully that the Creative Suite makes excellent sense--and that
the integration with Photoshop and Illustrator are a tremendous
advantage--but even if the budget can only stretch to InDesign itself,
the result will be a big win.
As to whether another tool may arise to knock off InDesign as the tool
of choice, I seriously doubt that will happen in the near-term future.
Of course, there are now some interesting publications being done with
Scribus, the open source publishing tool--but it has some ways to go
to become as capable as InDesign.
Personally, I worked with Pagemaker from version 2.0 to 7.5, but have
not used InDesign CS or CS2 (my personal copy is 2.02, IIRC). Even at
the 2.0 level, InDesign was a huge step up from the "latest and
greatest" Pagemaker. The learning curve involved seems to make such a
project only a little more time-consuming than doing major changes in
Pagemaker itself. Subsequent work will simply become more efficient
yet.
Of course, if you are a "type-aholic" (as on occasion I am), you can
expend an enormous amount of time learning the incredible typographic
prowess of InDesign. For the typical project, though, that is not
necessary--but for highly styled projects like display advertisements,
it is very nice to have. I do all my business cards and letterheads
with InDesign, for example, for this reason.
David
> > Stick with Pagemaker! Use what you know to get the job done, because
> you
> > will be efficient. (If you're like me, deadlines come up all too
> quickly
> > and there's no time to relearn everything and get a project done at
> the
> > same time.) Pagemaker won't fail to work
> > tomorrow just because something newer and better has come along. It
> > won't stop working because it's "old tech". Sure, you can get a new
> tool
> > when the budget allows, but I'd wait on it. After all, maybe something
> > else will be the tool to learn when the project is done. :)
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