Adobe InDesign vs. PDF Xchange Viewer and Editor

Adobe InDesign is very well suited to image-heavy publications, such as children's books, cookbooks and coffee table books. It gives you almost complete control how to arrange these elements, and to be able to tweak them with precision. The software is an absolute necessity if one is developing interactive eBooks, especially for the Apple iTunes store. Unless coded by hand, I am not aware of any other tools to handle this. It is a powerful toolset, and can take on most anything publishing related that you throw at it. I personally have found that it doesn't do too well with reflowable eBooks (like for Kindle Amazon), but it retains that capability.

If you'd like to switch from Adobe to a less expensive and more robust solution, you can choose PDF X Change. It does everything other expensive solutions do. We are using it to add some additional information on scanned PDF files and Sign them and it does it in a simple and easy way. You can use to combine multiple files into one, creating PDF from different resources.

Incentivized

• Customization - With Adobe InDesign, as well as many other applications in the Adobe Creative Suite, I can fully customize my workspaces and save different workspaces. This makes it easy to navigate through my project and have the panels and tools I need easily accessible and configured based on my project needs.
• Styles - Adobe InDesign has character styles, object styles, and tables styles. This speeds up my workflows and allows me to easily apply the same format across multiple elements. This is super helpful, especially when working with length documents.
• File compatibility - I can easily export my files into so many different file types.
• The Book feature - This feature is really helpful when creating books or very long documents with multiple sections.

Incentivized

• Seamless integration with Office Tools, AutoCAD, and BricsCAD
• Powerful editing suite of tools to markup and share PDFs
• Power API for extended capabilities

• It would be wonderful if InDesign would do automatic spell- and grammar-checking like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. While it is possible to spell-check your documents, the technology could be improved by being automatic and grammar-checking.
• It can be really frustrating that keyboard shortcuts are different for the same tool between different Adobe products. I wish they would make shared tools the same shortcut. For someone who uses multiple Adobe products, usually in conjunction, it can be hard to remember which program is which keyboard shortcut and not accidentally select the wrong tool.
• While I listed the linked images as being a pro, it can be a con if users don't package their files (especially when working with others on the same file). It would be really helpful if Adobe automatically populated a package file with images assets and typefaces. I can't tell you how many times I have been unable to locate a linked file or had to request them from a colleague.

Incentivized

• It is not as intuitive as some PDF editors.
• I often use the search function to find the feature I am looking for.

Incentivized

I've had great experiences with the product and plan to continue to use it. It has been my go-to product for designing and creating materials. I have had great luck with it and have been able to create all of the needed marketing materials that have been requested for our company.

Incentivized

If you know what you are doing it is an amazingly granular and powerful application. You can control pretty much any aspect of the design and layout of your documents and make changes globally and rapidly. But, if you don't know what you are doing...you will be staring at your screen in bewilderment for a long time. You can learn it, but be ready for a hefty time investment.

Incentivized

It does everything I need, such as OCR, redaction, Bates stamping, bookmarking, and handling large PDF files without crashing. It also does well with the extraction and addition of documents.

Incentivized

I've needed Adobe InDesign team very little which is a bonus in and of itself.

One of the advantages of Adobe InDesign is it is faster and less glitchy than Microsoft Word.

Performance wise, PDF Xchange Viewer and Editor is flawless. It runs fast, and I haven't experienced any immediately crashing. The reports save quickly, and the document size is never an issue. It saves into a regular PDF, and we're able to open it on any other program or computer. All text boxes, features, and headers show up flawlessly on other programs.

Incentivized

Adobe support is ok but not great. Chat support often doesn't initially understand the question at-hand and it takes awhile to get to the right agent. Phone support has long wait times, and though I've had more luck there, it does take quite a time investment if you are looking for help. However, Adobe does have some online learning solutions available as well as a knowledgebase for frequently asked questions. If you're looking to learn how to use the platform, there are lots of resources which can typically be found in a few Google searches. If you have a technical issue with the system, that's going to be a bit more of a time investment as far as getting a tech's assistance to resolve the problem.

Incentivized

The application had no issues (we did not contact support) and that's why I give a 10.

Incentivized

Attending Adobe MAX each year is extremely valuable.

Incentivized

The online training works well and is not wholly necessary as it is user-friendly and you can learn by doing.

Implementation was smooth and easy.

Canva is a valuable design tool for simple applications, such as creating a social media banner, flyer, or leaflet, particularly for those with no prior design experience. Its use of templates and straightforward tools to add pictures and text makes it a good choice for straightforward tasks. However, if you want to create a publication or designs that are more intricate, then InDesign is the tool for you.

Incentivized

I have had problems with other software crashing with large PDF files, except for Adobe. However, Adobe Acrobat is very expensive, and this has done as well for me as Adobe Acrobat. I also dislike monthly fees since income for our business can rise and fall. I prefer to spend the money when I have the income and then not have expenses during the low times.

Incentivized

Working in a cloud environment makes it easy to scale and share resources.

• A great ROI for time in my small architectural practice, [especially] when a design has been updated and a report needs to be submitted. We can be submitting many reports that all look similar, clean and beautiful. We just save as the file and replace the images with more updated images. This way the client finds it easy to navigate updated reports, as many as they can be.

• Positive: Efficient because it's easy to learn, saving training time.
• Positive: Adding comments and editing is a breeze, saving peer review hours.
• Negative: We still have to rely on Acrobat DC to export individual pages into separate PDFs.

Incentivized