Customer Reviews

Adobe PageMaker 7.0 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

My experience with the PageMaker program goes back to the original Apple LISA computer. I have used the Windows version for a number of years now with no complaints. However not so with PM7. The new version loaded and booted ok, however on exiting the program I would always get a fatal error that would necessitate the restart of my computer (Win98). To their credit Adobe has published a document at its site to troubleshoot PM7 but my contention is why should we have to? If there are potentially this many conflicts with the various devices you have connected to your PC maybe the problem lies in this version of PageMaker.

As a result of the PM7 install problems, I got trapped in Windows Safe Mode and for my first time ever I had to take my PC in to be serviced.

I returned PM7 and have reverted back to PM6.5. I do not know how the Macintosh version of the program will behave, but on the basis of my experience I cannot recommend PageMaker 7. I would encourage users to wait for the inevitable and probably more stable PM7.5.

I love Adobe products, and I use them for the vast majority of my work. This was the first time I've ever been dissapointed with a product from them.

As other reviewers have mentioned, PM7 is very buggy and crashes often. One of the major reasons I purchased it was for its conversion abilities from QuarkXpress and Publisher. When it didn't crash (which was almost always) the results were not spectacular, and it was almost better to redo the projects by hand in PM7. What a waste of time.

If you're a pro publisher, stick to Quark (especially since a new version will be out soon with merging and conversion capability). If you're a novice, go and buy the latest version of MS Publisher. You'll be better off!

Having worked in document production for ten years, using QuarkXpress, MSPublisher, and PageMaker on a daily basis, I have to say my preferred program has become PageMaker and the 7.0 upgrade confirms that. Most designers will say QuarkXpress is better but I have always found PageMaker to be easier to use because of its easy integration with the two other "musts" for design and illustration...Photoshop and Illustrator. The 7.0 version adds some more bells and whistles, updates some clunky code, and provides even better conversion capabilities. PageMaker is a very powerful program for the price and I have been able to use it for everything from large format posters to 2000 page technical manuals. PageMaker is by no means a beginner's program. The interface is pretty standard as far as layout programs go and you will find it familiar if you use other Adobe software... but there are many less obvious features that will be discovered only through regular use of the program or a detailed reading of the manual.

I have written this review to correct errors or omissions in some of the previous reviews.
PageMaker will accept native Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator files, Word or Publisher won't.
PageMaker will easily load and handle huge documents which would make Microsoft Word or Publisher simply crash.
PageMaker gives the user the ability to identify all of the graphics placed in a document and update them at will without dragging the computer down.
The GUIs for both Word and Publisher are ugly and impossible to learn. These programs are classic examples of very basic initial functionality with random add-ons.
Although, initially, the PageMaker GUI seems sparse, after multiple sessions and a little experimentation one soons learns that the program requires very few mouse clicks or commands to get things done.
Okay, so PM is a little long in the tooth, after all it is the original DTP killer app for the Mac. However. I think you'll find that PageMaker gives the user the freedom to design and produce beautiful looking documents, instead of shackling them to the whims and constructs of Word or Publisher.

Kill the Office Assistant and the Wizards!

OK. My book (THE MENOPAUSE SURVIVAL GUIDE) is researched, composed, and typeset. Time for the cover. Do I want to spend lots and lots of money for a graphic designer? No, I do not. I know exactly what I want my cover to look like, and I can do the layout myself. But I need professional software! The Adobe PageMaker 7.0 was the answer. The manual was big, complete, and user-friendly for people like me who like REAL BOOKS, not just clicking the HELP button. Any new software takes a bit of getting used to, but this was fairly simple to figure out. I was able to get the cover EXACTLY how I wanted. Plus, PageMaker 7.0 includes the ability to save pages in version 6.5. Previously, I thought CMYK, four-color separations, and other processes were only for the professionals. HA! I even figured out "trapping." I took the disk to my printer who easily did a conversion. The result?? A perfect cover!! The best part?? Amazon.com had the lowest price and fastest shipping.

What a disappointment!! I was so hoping Adobe would get present enough to upgrade their Aldus acquisition to better integrate with their other outstanding tools (Illustrator & Photoshop), creating a viable alternative to QuarkXPress ..... Instead we got the same old over-complicated, clunky, RAM-devouring, tool-challenged reason we kept going back to Quark to begin with. I won't go into depth about the problems with the program, because it never had that much going for it to begin with, and you can see plenty of coverage of its shortcomings in the other reviews. All I can say is, don't do what I did: I talked my boss into buying it for our art department because I felt we needed an Adobe alternative to Quark, and it was a BIG mistake - we will never use it, and it will no doubt come out of my pay check. Grrr ........

On the upside, Adobe may have made up for this long-overdue-for-retirement publishing debacle with its new InDesign; now THAT program ROCKS. Now don't just take my word for it ..... go to Adobe's site, download the free 30-day tryout, and just watch the future unfold before your eyes. But if you've ever considered getting PageMaker, please just save your money and watch it go extinct like it should have about ten years ago.

PageMaker is simply a smarter, more logical and better program than Quark... by a wide margin. We are dumping Quark across the board, and nearly all print shops in our region accept files in PM7.0 for Windows (a big change from a few years ago). They are telling us that many of their customers are switching from Quark to PageMaker. And why not? Going pure Adobe for a fully integrated DTP operation makes perfect sense. Adobe is also far more responsive (and receptive) to customers than the Quark people.

I learned graphic design and layout on PageMaker, and wished Adobe would take the product seriously. Instead, PageMaker seems to be falling into the ranks of Microsoft Publisher as a program people use believing it'll do the job right.

While many service bureaus still offer PageMaker services, it is by far better to go with Quark. It can do more, has more flexibility with printers and publishing houses, and will cause fewer problems regarding bugs and crashes.

If you have PageMaker, don't upgrade. Do a little homework on Quark, and figure out how to convert your files with the newest version. It the short run, you'll spend a few more bucks, but in the long-run, you'll save time and frustration.

I cautiously recommend PageMaker 7.0, but only as a tool for users intending to publish newsletters from their desktops.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

Add-ins won't load, too many typefaces on the computer. I have been trying to use this program for two months. Customer support is clueless, forums are like taking a problem to a committee. I am going back to version 6.5, and if I can prevent anyone else from wasting their money, all is good.

Adobe Pagemaker is a decent desktop publishing software program if you want to create a simple desktop publishing publication like a newsletter or a catalog or something. First thing first, this program is GROSSLY overpriced. Adobe shouldn't charge more than $200 for this program considering they have abandoned the Pagemaker series and now In Design is their flagship publication program. The sad thing about Pagemaker is that I used to teach Pagemaker back in the mid 90s. Considering that this is version 7, I don't see that many differences. Its the same old reliable Pagemaker I can count on when I want to do something quick and don't want to take the time to learn a new program. But yeah I use Pagemaker and it's pretty decent but their are so many annoying things about it that I can't get into in this brief review but it's a pretty basic desktop publishing software if their is something simple that you want to create.