Customer Reviews

InDesign CS for Macintosh and Windows

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some of the visual quickstart books are better than the others. This one is one of the best in the whole bunch!

The author really knows her stuff. She covers every important aspect of the program in a fun, easy to read style. The step-by-step lessons are incredibly easy to follow. You don't need any special files to learn the program. Just open the book to any page and learn the specific task you need to know.

The book is organized not just by the program's features, but by the type of projects you'd be working on. For instance, the chapter on Long Documents has all the exercises you'd want for those type of files.

The author also has some very good background stories about working in advertising and design. So you learn not just InDesign, but about things like spot color, preparing files for printing, and working with PDFs.

There are plenty of books that cost twice the price of this one. But you can't find anything as good for this price.

I've only bought a few computer manuals in my life [and never ended doing much with them but setting them on a shelf] before this, so perhaps I am not the best person to review one. Furthermore, I have never used a desktop publisher program of any kind (beyond WORD) before picking this book up - so I am about as clueless going into this as I can be. But, I had to learn In Design (along with Adobe Photoshop and Acrobat) fast. A design instructor recommended this book.

With just a little time, reading, and playing with direction - I feel like I can use In Design to do my publishing tasks. And that is saying a lot for a computer dummy like me.

There were personal forwards to the chapters that made the chapters easy to understand and that relate the software to technical/design concepts that even someone with no art and little design background can catch onto.

This books works well as a walk-through tortorial AND as a comprehensive reference book. But, unlike a $200 tutorial, this $20 book still has more to answer your questions and easy tables and listings to reference when you've walked yourself through the program.

I actually ENJOYED reading through this manual and playing with In Design- because it feels personal and interactive - without being condescending. And I felt like I was actaully moving along as I progressed through the book.

I have heard that this book may not be quite comprehensive enough for a professional designer who uses the full Adobe Creatve Suite to do professional ad and design work on a daily basis- and who is already comfortale and confident with the program. If that's you - go ahead and look into a $150+ set of manuals. But, if you are the average, even professional, individual who is looking to become familiar with In Design and its uses - then this book is very reasonably priced, easy to read and navigate, easy to reference, and -have to repeat - reasonably priced.

Everything in this book is done well. Ms. Cohen knows how to show things visually, and packs a lot into this volume. I also had bought "InDesign for QuarkXPress Users" and never use it because this book is all I need. Its well-organized, easy-to-use format makes looking up how to do something a breeze. The only downside is that it would do better with color, but if B&W keeps the price down, I'm all for it.

You want to divide your page into rows and columns, boom, there it is, page 30. You want to know all the ways you can wrap text, boom, there it is, pages 216-220. Copy and apply text attributes on-the-fly with the eyedropper? Copy and paste in place, change case, fake an italic (skew), and all other good stuff QuarkXPress can't do. These goodies go on and on -- lots of stuff you'd go into Illustrator or Photoshop to do, but don't have to. Want totally controllable drop shadows on text or a placed object? It's in there. Want to set a giant headline, create outlines of the text and fill the letters with a photo or illustration? It's in there! All w/recognizable Adobe interface.

Thank you, Adobe, and thank you, Sandee Cohen, for writing the missing manual.

Don't want to read long texts about how to do something? Rather want to look at pictures? Then this book is for you. It is a visual reference book, full with screenshots of the relevant dialogs and menus, in an easy to find things in and well organized book. If you quickly want to find that particular thing you suddenly do not remember how to do, find it here.

I warmly recommend this book. It is a very good reference in combination with the Real World InDesign CS book. You first look in this one. Then, if you want to dig deeper, you read on in Real World InDesign CS.

With several InDesign texts close at hand, this is the one I find myself reaching for first. Cohen has an approachable style and the material is logically organized. The linkage of virtually every section of text to one or more illustrations gives the reader "two kicks at every can." Her VQG for CS2 InDesign will be my first purchase after upgrading.

The book has helped me learn InDesign in matter of minutes. It's concise and it saved time when learning new things during crunch time. For more, in-depth, sunject matter, a more advanced book is required (especially for production). This done does a job well for beginners! I think, every beginner should have this book handy!

I'm having to learn this on the job, and there's too much crammed in here. There's nothing to tell me how to undo the side panels, and how do you draw just a round-corner box?! For people like me who aren't even familiar with Quark, there's just too much to take in. A better book would be Robert Shufflebotham's InDesign in Easy Steps, [...] Thumbing through that, I found it less crammed, more white space, less information. Less is better when you're first learning, then if you want more information, a book like Quick Start might serve you better.

This is the best InDesign book out! Sandee knows this program inside and out! She explains it clearly, quick and concise! I recommend this to every desinger I know. I have a copy at work, and keep a copy for home use too!

Thanks Sandee for sharing your wisdom!

This book is great for beginners and people who have been using InDesign for years. Very detailed from start to finish. If you are working on a project and don't know how to do something it is very easy to find answers in this book.

This book is in detail for what Indesign software is made up to do. Easy to understand and to learn. Easy reading.