Customer Reviews

Adobe InDesign 1.5 Classroom in a Book

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I speak as a frequent purchaser of Adobe products and books in the AdobePress Classroom in a Book Series; also as an experienced user of PCs, prepress designer, and Desktop Publishing software user and consultant. This CIB is definitely not among AdobePress' best; in fact it is technically poor. The book's index is virtually useless since the page number references are wrong. A book of this nature is generally used as a reference once lessons are completed; but with a faulty index, this one will quickly end up in the trash bin. The lessons are moderately useful, though a number of exercises do not perform as described. Unfortunately, Adobe's website Feedback Page provides no avenue of 'feedback' relative to their AdobePress products (in fact, the site is misnamed, as it only provides resources for tech support, and no avenue for feedback to Adobe at all). Though I recommend other books in the CIB series (like the one's for Pagemaker, Acrobat, After Effects and Premiere) I do not recommend this one.

At over thirty dollars, I expected more from this book. Like a better index. Some organization. And honesty about what the problem can and can't do.

This book is little more than a sales demo of what the product can do. However, even then they haven't done a very good job.

I suppose this book would be OK if I were taking a class and had a teacher there. But on its own there's not enough explanation of why you want to do things.

The visual quickstart book is half the price, but contains much better instructions, is laid out better, and has a good index.

Got the book a few days ago and have only, so far, perused it carefully.

Looks like If you want to really teach yourself this program, step by step

If you want to really gain a feeling of solidity that you know the program

This is the book. Seems to cover everything. Chapters on typography (crucial to my design work), on Bézier curves, on color management, seem especially stimulating. And you need not go in sequence, they say, though I prefer to.

Type is big so no page feels overwhelming. Images are clear. Words are easy to grasp.

Two caveats / quibbles:

(1) The index sucks. I looked up simple words and ideas and did not find them. [Shame on you, Adobe.] (2) Do not throw out the original manual that comes when you buy the application, which provides a depth of details beyond the scope of this book. I do wish this book provided page number referrrals to that manual .

Adobe InDesign 1.5: Classroom in a Book, gives you real lessons and basically covers all you need to know about Indesign 1.5. It gets you all geared up for the next lesson in the book and really promotes the passion for Indesign and all other adobe products. One thing it does not teach is how to portray your creative self in the pages you create with this powerful tool. It is a great resource book. However, when it comes to getting ideas this book is not the best to look at. Overall, this indesign 1.5 classroom in a book is a great resource book, one where you can take it out any day refer to it and still learn something from it.

After using (and loving) Classrooms for Acrobat 4.0 and PhotoShop, I expected more from the one on InDesign. It has done the basic job of introducing the power of ID, but I don't feel as competent to use it as I did after the courses in Acrobat and PS. I will probably try the upcoming Real World ID, hoping I get what I need from it.

The best parts of the course were on the graphic effects you can achieve within ID; as a PageMaker user, I'd like to see more on manipulating text.

But it covers the basics, and my enthusiasm for the new product grows as I learn.

Each tutorial touches on something unique and different about ID - mostly stuff you won't find in Quark. Plus, it is still geared toward the real world. It's very tricky for the software companies to write tutorials. They have to showcase features that are not found in other programs yet be realistic. And they have to be short because people who have to do them have to struggle through something new.

I received the book in excellent condition, it was brand new/CD and all. You can't beat that for $2.05. The book was rushed to me in less then four days. Thank you FYI, and I will remember you next time I need a book for school, which is always! I order most of my text book at Amazon, because they are usually less then half the price of buying from the school bookstore.