Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review Vellum is perfect for novels, novellas, short fiction anthologies, and any lightly illustrated fiction. It’s excellent for most non-fiction. It’s great for e-Books and Paperbacks. I haven’t tried using the file for hardcover but it is likely good for that as well. Vellum wouldn’t be the right tool for coffee-table art books, picture books or children’s illustrated books.
Read full review Pros 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. Read full review Professional, Tasteful Formatting Table of Contents management File Management Ease of switching elements (i.e. Chapter, Acknowledgement, About the Author etc.) Beautiful Style Sheets Generating uploadable files quickly and painlessly Previewing for a variety of formats and devices Read full review Cons Ordering the pages with dragging is a bit counter-intuitive The "Links" section needs improvement - it might be very beneficial to have the links displayed (and saved) in the "links" sections for dragging and reusing without having to re-insert I think the relinking option works well - Would it be possible to the automatic relink to work even if file was renamed? A prompt will be [shown] to the user to help them approve or disapprove of this action. Read full review Could improve ability to change the look of a design element like Ornamental Break. Doesn’t currently output in Smashwords .doc format (but does EPUB). Spell Check is rudimentary but accurate - still, it’s much better to use Word or Grammarly. If style uses initial drop cap, it doesn’t handle one-letter words well (I, A, O) - repeats letter in sentence. This may be standard practice, not sure. There are a couple dozen styles. I would gladly pay for a “Style Pack” to add on additional styles. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review Reliability and Availability I've needed Adobe InDesign team very little which is a bonus in and of itself.
Read full review Performance One of the advantages of Adobe InDesign is it is faster and less glitchy than Microsoft Word.
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review In-Person Training Attending Adobe MAX each year is extremely valuable.
Read full review Online Training The online training works well and is not wholly necessary as it is user-friendly and you can learn by doing.
Read full review Implementation Rating Implementation was smooth and easy.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Microsoft products do not match the aesthetic tools that [Adobe] InDesign offers, cannot support the customizable options available for export, and do not produce documents with as high a degree of accessibility. That said, they do have their place in collaboration in a team- I'd consider Office to be the first step and [Adobe] InDesign to be the final product.
Read full review Up until purchasing Vellum, I’ve used Smashwords Meat Grinder template and Kindle’s PC-Only software. I had to buy a PC just to publish to Kindle - very expensive investment with modest return. Vellum is only for Mac. In fact, it would have been cool if it worked with a PC. But Mac is my ecosystem for writing, and the PC is a pain. I ultimately chose Vellum because it works with my MacBook.
Read full review Scalability Working in a cloud environment makes it easy to scale and share resources.
Read full review Return on Investment Adobe InDesign has allowed us to tackle more projects in the same amount of time because of how well it integrates into our group's workflow. For awhile, we struggled only with a slowdown in digital guides. Because, as I mentioned earlier, there is not a clear way to combine individual documents into one document quickly, some editors were forced to spend a long time transferring each page into the final document that would be used with Publish Online. We have since found a workaround that does not include using Publish Online. Read full review Less time publishing means more time writing Beautiful books sell better than Times New Roman dreck I’ve stayed away from Google Books but will move into that market now Read full review ScreenShots