Description:
InDesign hasn't established itself yet in many design studios, but not because it's too complicated. In fact, for most designers and visual artists, familiarity with Adobe's arsenal of applications means an almost instant comfort factor with InDesign--tools, palettes, and actions are intuitively designed and resemble or even match equivalent tools in other applications. Olav Martin Kvern makes the transition from QuarkXPress or PageMaker to InDesign even easier with his expert guidance and confident tone. This book requires no previous knowledge and yet goes far beyond basic instruction. The text is written in a no-nonsense style--friendly but to the point, like an easygoing teacher. When trying to convince readers to try their hands at automating InDesign using AppleScript, Kvern confides, "Look. I'm practically a high school dropout... I got over it. These days, I write scripts. You can too." His modesty aside, this chapter may not make experts out of novices, but for those already inclined, it can provide a lot of insight as well as useful scripts. It's important to note that humorous asides are kept to a minimum and confined to introductory paragraphs; they don't clutter up the important text that shows how to get things done. The best part of this book is the careful and clear illustrations that show, with a minimal amount of lines and arrows, how a task is carried out. Captions walk readers through each step, sometimes showing more than one way to accomplish the same thing. Some of the clarity is due to the versatility of InDesign itself. But a lot of credit goes to the author, whose years of experience advising on Adobe products in magazine columns are evident. This is the cleanest and clearest manual for InDesign this reviewer has seen yet. --Angelynn Grant
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