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InDesign is Your Powerful Step Up!
May 13, 2021

InDesign is Your Powerful Step Up!

Avery Chipman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe InDesign

We currently use Adobe InDesign to put together marketing materials, proposals to clients, presentation materials, and occasionally other one-offs. We typically use it to either make 8.5x11" booklets for print, or 6:9 digital presentations. Our marketing department uses it on a daily basis, and our interiors department uses it frequently (maybe for a task/project once every two weeks). We love to use InDesign because we can combine crucial graphics we've manipulated in other Adobe programs (Photoshop, Illustrator) with text, while being able to manipulate and edit the text easily. InDesign is so useful for putting text documents together because it allows for the creation of Paragraph Styles, Master Pages, and quick layout tools, while also being able to spell-check your text.
  • Creating Standards - when it comes to large documents and multiple documents across the company, it is really important that InDesign allows users to create and import Paragraph Styles, Master Pages, and various rules. The Paragraph Style setup allows for very specific manipulation of your style that defines every possible detail you could think of while giving the user peace of mind that all of the text/pages [are] formatted exactly the same.
  • Page Numbers, Chapters, and Sections - InDesign is awesome for large documents because it allows you to set up automatic page numbers, chapters, and sections, and create automatic table of contents that updates on its own.
  • Images - no other program that combines photos and text makes it so easy to make the two work together so easily. InDesign uses linked images instead of embedded which is nice both for file size and updating content. InDesign also allows for easy cropping and aligning of images, much easier than typical software that allows for resizing and cropping.
  • 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.
  • Standards for Page Layout and Text Styles
  • Multi-Page/Multi-Chapter Document Organization
  • Speed of Document Creation Compared to Other Programs
  • InDesign is our most important software for getting out ALL of our marketing materials (therefore high ROI)
  • InDesign allows us to set ourselves apart as highly professional in our client communication
Adobe InDesign allows for quicker, simpler, and more powerful manipulation of images and text. Photoshop, granted is not for text editing, has weak text tools. Illustrator, granted is not for pixel-based image editing, can be weak for combining text and images in one file. PowerPoint makes everything take multiple clicks and has weaker tools that make changes take too long and be annoying to make.

Do you think Adobe InDesign delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe InDesign's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe InDesign live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Adobe InDesign go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Adobe InDesign again?

Yes

InDesign is wonderful for creating any kind of editorial. Magazines, booklets, proposals, etc. Any multi-page document (spreads or single pages) is a breeze with InDesign and I would never use any of the other products I am currently aware of. InDesign is also well-suited for non-print mediums, such as digital presentations. I prefer using InDesign for my presentations over Microsoft Powerpoint or Google Slides for several reasons: the text is easier to manipulate, images are WAY easier to manipulate, the Masters are easier to manipulate and implement, and there are more powerful tools to use to make your slides look visually appealing and professional. The only drawback would be that InDesign (to my knowledge) doesn't offer transition animations if you ever utilize those.

InDesign is not well-suited to image manipulating in the sense of editing. However, it is easy to open a link from your InDesign file directly into Photoshop etc and edit there, and then bring the file back to InDesign. I also typically recommend that for copy-heavy documents that you type your copy into a text editor first (like Microsoft Word) to detect and correct spelling and grammar issues more easily, and then copy and paste it into InDesign.