Adobe InDesign CS4 for Mac Review

InDesign versions for Windows and Macs have always been slightly different. If Windows version always gave you more productivity and users could enjoy some of extra features, Mac users had to cope with unpolished product that wasn’t always good enough. Creative Suit 4 added some updates to InDesign for Windows, but with Mac version the situation is totally different. It’s clear that so much work has been done in Adobe to make this release possible. Cross References, Conditional Text, Smart Guides, nested GREP styles within paragraph styles – these are all features we’ve been waiting for so long. No need to say these are not all updates in InDesign CS4 for Mac. There are numerous smaller updates, so let’s try to cover the most important.

The first thing you see when you open a program is interface. The same is here – InDesign CS4 shows updates interface. OWL2 look is now can be seen in all programs in Creative Suite 4 except Acrobat. I think such tabbed structure is good for powerful programs like InDesign. It allows convenient work with complicated projects with multiple pages, f. ex. with pages of a book, multiple articles, etc.

Smart Guides is a tiny but yet useful update. You will see them when you create new document and start placing items on it. When you make any kind of frame, Smart Guides appear showing you alignment with other objects. For example, try to increase vertical height of text frame and you will see a note with object’s width and height.

This function is totally useful when you create sequences of photos, collages or just need to align objects on page. For example, when you place several images one after another, Smart Guides will automatically align your next image to previous one and show its hints. Usually it’s not easy to create several images of same size in a row. With InDesign CS4 it’s a snap.

Smart Text Reflow is another update that needs to be mentioned. It enables automatic page generation. This tiny update saves a lot of time wasting as previously you had to pre-make a page for writing. Now you can continue typing and, if text reached the end of last page, program will automatically generate new one and put text there, just like in ordinary text editor.

Conditional Text option allows setting up different settings for various parts of text. For example, your document has several languages and you need to turn on proper language for each printing.

Certainly, you can split your document into several smaller ones and set up preferences for each one separately, but that is not convenient and simply messy. Also, when you need to update content, you will have to do it in all documents one by one. For example, changing a date in your business papers may cause potentially unwanted situation.

Conditional Text is created with the help of Type & Tables dropdown menu – Conditional Text. Then you just need to select the text you want to turn to conditional and hit needed condition box. When you see a wavy colored lined underlining your text, this means the condition you chose has been applied to it.

As you see, there is an ‘eye’ symbol on the picture that resembles the one from Photoshop. The mechanism of work is the same as with Photoshop layers. If you uncheck the eye, condition won’t be seen.

Cross-referencing is another brand new feature in InDesign CS4. It’s very useful in case you make multi-page projects that require making references. For example, you describe a graph that is shown in previous chapter. You need to make a reference like “See a Graph on Page 122″. In this case you will need to review your work prior to publication to make sure all references are correct and you have indicated right pages. Cross-referencing feature will track all changes and change information if needed.

Cross-reference can be found in Type menu, submenu Hyperlinks & Cross-references). On picture you can see paragraph style on the left side and the specific paragraph you want to be cross-referenced. As you can see, the variety of choices is so multiple that you will always find what you need.

Now it’s time to speak about little things that are, however, ultimately helpful and timesaving. Updated New Character Style window allows wider functionality for both Paragraph Styles and Nested Styles.

GREP Styles are another addition in InDesign CS4 that allows setting your own styles within Paragraph Styles, thus creating so called uber-nested styles.

If you have used InDesign for big projects, you certainly have faced poor Preflight option. Even though it was present in previous versions of the program, often users faced the situation when they needed to re-print stuff because of Preflight fails. Now program checks possible mistakes even during your work and if something is wrong you will see a red light on the document’s window. That is Preflight’s warning. Open up Preflight Panel to find out, what the problem is.

You can customize these warnings by selecting Define Profiles menu from which you can select a number of issues that should cause program’s notification.

Links Panel is no comparison to the one in InDesign CS3. It has better interface and more items can be now displayed in columns, Link Info region, etc.

Speaking of InDesign CS4 in general, there are still many things to mention. These smaller updates may come out as you start working with this program and make your life a little bit easier. When it comes to giving a final word about InDesign CS4, I should say the program is still not perfect and lacks some functions like endnotes (footnotes) or better aligning. However, Adobe’s really working hard improving its products, so I think we will see all these updates and even more in next releases of the program. Right now InDesign CS4 is definitely a huge step forward and thus updating is highly recommended.

 

Also check out: Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended