InDesign CS3 - Catalog
Hey everyone!
I recently took on a job to recreate an existing catalog in InDesign. It was originally designed in QuarkXPress. I've done some simple catalog work in the past but this catalog is a little larger. It is a 200+ page (broken down into 15-20 sections/categories) / full color catalog with many little parts and small table like sections listing the parts #/description/price. Think Radio-Shack type parts. Needless to say each page is going to be jam packed with product. In any case, my question would consist of any advice/tip/tricks that you may have which would make the transition as easy as possible. Also, if you know of any plug-ins that might be useful in the process. Regardless it will be a lot of work but it doesn't hurt to tap into the community and see if I've miss anything. Thank you in advance for any help!
~e
Click here to listen - On this week's show: 
Hey Erick! There is a
Hey Erick!
There is a preferences setting in ID that'll change all your keyboard shortcuts to those of Quark. That might be of help to you, and there may even be something that changes your workspace to look a little like Quark.
There's also a few books on the transition which might be of use to you. I'd look at InDesign for QuarkXPress Users by David Blatner if I were you.
-L
thanks a bunch...
Thank you for the advice. I've actually gotten the hang of the shortcuts in ID. It took a bit of getting use to but I'm getting there. I'm actually trying to consciously not make ID work as QuarkXPress as I feel it's more of a handicap and I don't feel I'm really utilizing ID as it's meant to be. I know it sounds silly but I guess it's my own form of torture. ;-) I have to say as a hard core XPress users at one point, ID is truly amazing and I grow more attached to it everyday.
If you or any of your other members know of any must-have plug-ins for ID (CS3), I would appreciate the advice. Especially one's that deal with Catalog type work. (Non-database type catalog)
Thank you!
~e
About 3 years ago we had
About 3 years ago we had many jobs in Quark and had to switch them over to InDesign. It was so long ago, I remember we had to "jump through a few hoops" but it's all a blurr now! We went from Quark 4 to InDesign 2.
Biggest problem was the line breaks changing, due to word and letter spacing differences in the way the 2 companies deal with type. It's a pain on the big jobs, but just something you have to get through--checking the breaks, etc.
One tip, if you go to all the trouble of upgrading that catalog, make sure that if it was created with old PostScript fonts, now is the time to upgrade it to using an OpenType font. You'll have less problems in many ways, as this is the type of the future. A side plus for this trouble was we sometimes have had to send jobs to clients to use on their own, and some clients use InDesign on PCs. If they own the same font, OpenType fonts will hook up the same for them as on a Mac, your font won't go line crazy and not match line for line (PostScript messes up or doesn't work at all and substitutes).
I just had to upgrade and reformat a University phone book. I used Myriad Pro and really liked the vast choices for all the little things and changes of head levels I had to deal with. That font might have come free with CS2 or 3. Not sure...we bought the whole Adobe OT Library so it's hard for me to remember where they all came from. : )
I had our designers keep key commands InDesign oriented, because then your shortcuts will be closer to what is in the rest of the Creative Suite if you use the whole thing and not just InDesign. Our 12 designers left Quark behind and never regretted it.
________
I left my heart in SanFrancisco.....among the Macs & Margaritas.