Switching from
Adobe PageMaker
to Adobe InDesign CS2
Introduction
Congratulations! If you’re reading this document, it’s because you’ve made the switch—
or are thinking about making the switch—from Adobe® PageMaker® software to Adobe
InDesign® CS2 software.
As a PageMaker user, you’ve probably invested many hours developing your expertise,
and the thought of learning a new page layout program may at first seem daunting.
However, InDesign CS2 makes it easy to make a quick and smooth transition by
including several familiar PageMaker features among the many powerful features
available in InDesign CS2.
This document helps ease the transition to get you quickly up to speed. The main focus is
on key differences between the two programs. The 12 sections that follow are arranged in
the way you would learn and use any page layout program—setting program preferences,
opening documents, creating and modifying text and graphic objects, building pages and
documents, and finally printing and exporting documents. If you need more detailed
information about InDesign CS2, refer to the online help file (Help > InDesign Help).
Benefits of InDesign CS2
If you haven’t had a chance to check out InDesign CS2, you’re in for a pleasant surprise.
InDesign CS2 offers several compelling advantages, not only over PageMaker, but also
over all other page layout programs. Benefits of switching to InDesign CS2 include:
• InDesign CS2 is tightly integrated with Adobe Photoshop® CS2, Adobe Illustrator® CS2,
Adobe Acrobat® 7, Adobe GoLive® CS2, and Adobe InCopy® CS2 software, so you can
quickly get up to speed with InDesign CS2 and then can work more efficiently with the
other creative applications you use every day. It also includes Adobe Bridge, the new
file management hub for all Adobe Creative Suite 2 components.
• InDesign CS2 offers sophisticated typographic features, including optical kerning,
optical margin alignment, nested paragraph styles, paragraph-based text composition
for improved hyphenation and justification, and full support for OpenType® fonts.
• InDesign CS2 offers several creative features that aren’t available in PageMaker. These
features include transparency effects, such as drop shadows and blending modes;
type on a path; object styles; character styles; nested frames; multicolor gradients;
custom line styles; and built-in corner styles and arrowheads.
• InDesign CS2 lets you directly export Adobe PDF files without having to go through
Acrobat Distiller®—in fact, you don’t need Distiller or an installed PostScript® driver.
In addition, PDF files exported from InDesign CS2 can contain prepress or interactivity
information that can’t be included in PDF files created from PageMaker.
• The multiple undo feature in InDesign CS2 lets you undo a virtually unlimited
number of steps (depending on available RAM), which means you can design with
complete freedom.
• InDesign CS2 was developed from the “ground up” using modern modular software
design and development techniques.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
4 Section 1: Getting Started with InDesign CS2
13 Section 2: Converting PageMaker
Publications
14 Section 3: Setting Up Documents
21 Section 4: Working with Frames
25 Section 5: Working with Text
33 Section 6: Working with Graphics
37 Section 7: Working with Styles
41 Section 8: Using Adobe Bridge
45 Section 9: Applying Transparency, Colors,
and Strokes
52 Section 10: Creating and Editing Tables
56 Section 11: Working with Long Documents
59 Section 12: Printing and Exporting to
Adobe PDF
