The elderly gentleman I help out has always used pageMaker and has a vast number of old Pagemaker files from his previous computer that was running a System 9. On his new iMac Pagemaker was not an option so it was suggested that InDesign would be able to open and use these old files and he has managed to find to buy an older version (cheaper) and it does indeed have no major problems with his Pagemaker files, the odd missing font etc. can be worked round. He is however having a little difficulty coming to grips with InDesign as it works in a completely different way to what he is used to. I cannot help at all as I have never used either program. He was about to buy InDesign for Dummies to help him but I managed to stop that and said I would ask here. the reason I stopped him was that he was about to buy the book for InDesign CS3 whereas the version he has is InDesign CS version 3.0 which appears to be about 5 years old. I assumed that the latest book might be confusing as the program might have changed in that time. I suggested he could find help online but he would much prefer a real book so here's the question.

Is 'InDesign for Dummies' a good book for someone to learn the program or is there a better one? As a subsidiary query I take it that he should make sure he gets the book that is specific to his version of InDesign.

He might try lynda.com online tutorials, they do have an Indesign CS essential training. You can preview several of the tutorials before you decide to commit.

I personally prefer the Visual Quickstart books. They are short. They are cheap. They are extremely easy to read and understand. And here's one for CS...

[www.amazon.com]

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He is however having a little difficulty coming to grips with InDesign as it works in a completely different way to what he is used to.

I don't think it's so different. that he should be having major difficulty with it; has he really never used any other publishing graphics apps? It might help to explain the difficulty he's having.

That said, if money is an issue, I'd suggest scouring eBay for a copy of Adobe Classroom in a Book for InDesign CS. Be sure to check that the CD is included. The ones for sale right now do NOT appear to include the CD. One seller has 11 of them, probably all beat up; but it might not hurt to ask about the CDs.

[cgi.ebay.com]

Otherwise try these:
[www.amazon.com]
[www.amazon.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2008 10:29AM by ka jowct.

Many thanks for the help. I have passed on the suggestions and will see what happens.