Customer Reviews

InDesign CS4 for Macintosh and Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book offers probably the quickest way to get your head around what is basically the best DTP packages out there. It covers all of the major productivity tips that are not obvious from the interface or the help system. While some readers may not like the methodical style that essentially walks you through every single feature, I personally found this provided the most effective way of understanding functionality.

I've read other books that take the approach of employing features to achieve a task - and while this is useful, I've found it leaves you short when trying to find some arcane button or menu to get something done. In this book, you get to thoroughly understand every single menu option, keyboard shortcut and panel, so there's really no mystery at all. If you are relatively comfortable with Microsoft Word, you should find that 10-20 hours of study will make you a highly proficient user of InDesign.

This series is probably one of the most practical for users of CS4, but as a newcomer to the Adobe design series of programs, I have had a great deal of difficulty finding any text that breaks down the program in a way that I can easily understand and use. While this is clearly a reference guide rather than an instructional text, it is one of the few options that I have found helpful as a neophyte.

The chapters cover everything from document setup to text, color, placing objects, effects and graphics. Unfortunately, this well-organized information is meaningless to anyone unfamiliar with the terminology of the programs. The author assumes I already know how to use the program and all I need are design tips. I can look up tool panels and their uses, but not how and when to apply them- or where they are located. I cannot draw a line until I stumble upon the information that a line is called a "stroke" in this program- even the index didn't help me with this issue. I don't just want shortcut keys, I am looking for a definition of terms, and so far have not found this issue addressed in any book I have purchased.

I blunder through chapters trying to accomplish one thing or another, learning how to apply color or text, sometimes successful, sometimes not. And how about glyphs? I would love to use glyphs to create more interesting text, but cannot navigate my way through this feature to activate it. As well-planned as this text may be for those already familiar with Photoshop and Illustrator, things are pretty dicey for those of us with just minimal skills. Although I have found this book to be the most helpful of any I have purchased- and I have bought many- it still has many limitations for me. If anyone out there in the design community can recommend a better text for a beginner, I would be most grateful. Luan Gaines/2009.

I am a writer/photographer and fairly skilled with Photoshop CS4. Printing companies now want copy in the PDF format, and I was encouraged to get into a more up-to-date format than MS Word or Quark Express. My impression was that Adobe InDesign CS4 was a cutting edge publishing program. So, to make a long story short, I invested in the program and began to try to come to grip with its complexities. I believe the key to finding a useful "how to" book is to find one written the way you, personally, think. Most self-help books for computer programs are mediocre to poor...they just fail to communicate with your thought processes. To make a long story short, I invested in seven books from Amazon marketed to aid in learning InDesign CS4, from an InDesign for "Dummies" book to a supposed "Bible" for the program. I was disappointed in all but the Visual Quickstart Guide titled "InDesign CS4" written by Sandee Cohen and published by Peachpit Press. This book communicates with me. I'm no dummy, and have a Ph.D. degree in the sciences, but most manuals pretending to teach you a complex program don't present a logical and intuitive flow of information. I congratulate Sandee Cohen for helping me to learn InDesign CS4.

As the title implies, this is a QUICK REFERENCE Guide, not a structured instructional tool. I require it (and have for years) for all my InDesign students to supplement other learning tools and to keep at hand beyond the classroom for the lifetime of the version release. In one page or two, any task they might have forgotten how to do or not covered during class due to time constraints is explained in step-by-step simplicity and clarity.

Good projects, easy walk through skills. I am a fan of this series. Nice that it comes with a CD full of files and examples.

This is a great book to get up to speed in Indesign for a beginner.

The InDesign Visual QuickStart Guides have always been a great "go-to" reference for me. Sandee's QuickStart Guide for InDesign CS2 helped me learn to automate text styles for the first time when I got my first large book production job from a self-published author.

Now that some of the books I layout in InDesign CS4 are going to ePub, as well as the printing press, it's more important to get the heading and subheading styles correct and integrated into the automatic Table of Contents creation feature. I recently purchased Sandee's Quickstart Guide for InDesign CS4 and it really helped me start automating my table of contents creation for the first time.

When I need to stop "winging it" with InDesign and start learning to use this app the way it was intended, the InDesign CS4 for Macintosh and Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide is the "go-to" source for me, as I do production on the Mac.

Needed it for my Desktop Pub class and guess what? Professor said we needed it but we never used it. I would go through it sometimes, its helpful if InDesign is really new to you. It breaks down the panels, the menus, etc...

This book is just okay. It's been very difficult to find what I need in the index. For example, I wanted to make rules above and below text. So I went to the index and looked up "rules." Nothing. Then I had to do a search online and finally determined that it was called "paragraph rules" which is an InDesign term. How was I supposed to know that?! This has been a continuous thing with this book. I look something up and cannot find it, most of the time and then I have to go online to find it that way. So I have ordered the InDesign CS4 Bible. I saw the index on the "Look Inside" section and it shows "rules." As I said this book is okay but not the greatest when looking for a specific thing.

This book is full of information! I am a first time user of this progam and needed something to point me in the right direction with design, text and publishing. I found the book helpful and very detailed. There are pictures showing examples in there as well. I have been able to complete an 18pg booklet for a conference including photos, text, shapes, colors and other graphics. Not to mention the program book itself was way less inexpensive on Amazon.com than Barnes and Noble. I would definitely recommend it, especally for new users of InDesign.