Likelihood to Recommend Adobe XD is particularly useful and extremely easy to learn if you are a designer or a frequent user of the Adobe Creative Suite. Like all Adobe software, the tools, shortcuts, and interface are very similar to each other and allow for easy migration. Now, if you are not a frequent user of Adobe, it will probably cost a bit more to learn how to use the software, plus it is probably not going to be worth the price just for Adobe XD.
Read full review Microsoft Publisher is well suited for almost any situation. It is something that I'm sure has far more advanced tools than I use or am aware of, but it is also very simple for entry-level users to create professional documents quickly. I have used it for very involved brochures in real estate scenarios and I have also used it for very simple "Construction Zone" signs at a job site under construction. There are so many uses for this program!
Read full review Pros Easy and simple animations. Good tool for website mock-ups. Easy user interface and tools that are like most Adobe products. You can share a dev link and it displays all assets for developers to download or user like it's very own style guide. Read full review Business cards Internal memos that use a logo or a little bit of design. Quick and simple flyers for internal events. Read full review Cons Doesn’t have image editing tools, so having to go back to Photoshop or Lightroom just to make a sight edit can be a pain. Could add some text editing functionality. It feels silly that I have to draw a line under text when I should just be able to underline. Would be nice to have some real-time collaboration functionality. Read full review The greatest shortcoming is large (300+ page documents) that require lots of internal hyperlinks. While it can do it, I can tell, due to the way it bogs down, that I am pushing the program to its limits. I would like to be able to work better with pdf's. I would like the ability to import a pdf of a graph, picture, or some other object directly into a Publisher document. Currently, I have to first convert the pdf to a jpeg and then import the jpeg. I have not found a way around this issue. At one point, I thought I had the option to automatically turn off hyphenation. Somewhere along the way, it seems as if the default for everything is hyphenation is turned on. I detest hyphenation and turning it off on every box I create becomes cumbersome. More options for graphics. Particularly the defaults that allow you to place "frames" and effects around photos. More options. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We utilize many of the applications in the Adobe CC suite and our usage of this application came about simply because it was the one that was already paid for. Bearing that in mind we will definitely be renewing the software upon the expiration of the licensing. I am not sure if this is the solution we would go with were it not already included, we would have to evaluate all other options
Read full review Usability Very easy to use even for novice software users. A lot of the functionality is ubiquitous among the different software applications so the learning curve is relatively small. The biggest limitation may be someone's creativity or lack of it. There are some functional limitations but my understanding is that reviews come out fast and furious
Read full review It has a great feature set but does not overwhelm me with its complexity. This is not an entry-level program, but it is also not one of the top of line graphic designer programs, like Abode In-Design. I can use Publisher to do 95% of what I need to get done. The other 5% I farm out to the graphics design person in the organization. It simply works and does so in a simple to use manner.
Read full review Support Rating I have not had a need to connect with the Adobe XD support team as of yet, but from past experience when dealing with the other products, the support has been very very good, and I would have no reason to think that this product would be any different. There are a good number of training videos on the Adobe site for this product as well as on other social media sites so a quick search should let you find the answers in several different ways.
Read full review While I have not directly used support for Microsoft Publisher, I have used their help files and found them to be useful. I have also found that most answers that I need can be found through simple web searches and chat platforms. In all though, there are very few times when the preloaded help files have not given me the answers that I need.
Read full review Implementation Rating Implementation was a snap
Read full review Alternatives Considered While I have used
Zeplin ,
InVision , and Adobe XD on various projects, partly dependent on in-house client teams preferences, Adobe XD is the most familiar to me based on 20+ years [of] working within Adobe applications. They all can do most of what I am looking to do within their toolset, from what I can tell, but jumping from Photoshop to create raster images and to Illustrator for my vectors, it is very second nature then to bring those right into XD to layout, basically as a digital experience analogy to InDesign. The fact that Adobe XD is already there in Creative Suite makes it very hard to consider any other product since it works well with what I do.
Read full review Microsoft Publisher is more for beginners, or for basic needs, anyone with some familiarity with the Microsoft suite should be able to use it easily. If you’re looking to create something more graphic and advanced, you’d probably want to look into something like InDesign, which is not as user friendly if you’re not familiar with it at all. For basic needs the average employee should be able to use Microsoft Publisher with ease.
Read full review Return on Investment Ease of use means we are up and running in no time. Integrates and is a part of the Adobe CC platform (which we already subscribe to) so there was no additional cost. Online proofing and developer handoff links are the icing on the cake. Keeps everything in one place. Handles all our assets (mostly created in Illustrator) like a dream. Even imports native Photoshop docs, too, so that saves us so much time round tripping. Read full review Allowed us to created our own documents/educational material for patients. In previous practices I have worked we had to buy "pamplets and brochures" which were very costly. Read full review ScreenShots