Replacement for InDesign?

[RB]

Hi gang,
I have used InDesign for a couple years, to make my order forms for my offline business. I know only enough InDesign to do this and nothing else. Sometimes these forms can include photographs. For the most part they are just text.

Does anyone know of an affordable, yet simple to use for Dummies like me, replacement for InDesign? I hope so, I can't take it anymore!

Thanks in advance.

RB

[jtunkelo]

Try Apple's Pages?

[RB]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out.
RB

[Bruce Wedding]

Are you on an Apple? If not, there's nothing wrong with MS Publisher 2007. Its very easy to use for forms, flyers, etc.

[Headfirst]

Publisher != InDesign

If you're looking for something that will give you most of the functionality of Indesign at a lower price, look into Pagemaker, its the predecessor to Indesign and is still made and updated by Adobe. Plus it's a fraction of the price of Indesign.

I still think I would shell out a couple hundred extra for indesign. It's an indispensable piece of software for me.

If you want to go free, there is an Open Source page layout app call scribus Scribus - Scribus.net

I've tried it and it has a lot of the same features of Indesign.

If I couldn't afford indesign, I would take Scribus over Publisher any day.

All of the MS Office apps use their own proprietary PDL (page definition language) instead of Postscript. It's a "Postscript Compatible" PDL, but it's not postscript and every once in awhile it causes issues with Postscript devices. If you're having these forms commercially printed they are being processed through a postscript RIP. 99% of the time there are no problems but when there are problems I guarantee you won't notice until it's too late.

The most common problem with the MS software is dropped character during the RIP process. You might see a sentence th t loo s like th s.

Enough of a rant about publishers inadequacies. Just don't use it for commercial work.

[Bruce Wedding]

Originally Posted by Headfirst

Publisher != InDesign

No $hit. I didn't say it was. I answered the poster's question.

Originally Posted by Headfirst

If you're looking for something that will give you most of the functionality of Indesign at a lower price, look into Pagemaker,

That's not what he asked for. Read the original post. He's creating simple forms, sometimes with a photo included. Wow! Serious publishing work. He could do this in MS Word for that matter.