Adobe InDesign CS4 review

Adobe InDesign has been the best professional desktop publishing software for some time. However, the recently released QuarkXPress 8 left it looking exposed in two key areas: productivity and online delivery.

Working with InDesign is now more efficient, thanks to the new CS4-styled interface. Its additions include the workspace switcher, self-adjusting panels, tabbed documents and tiled window arrangements. Onscreen performance is more responsive thanks to the new power zoom capability, and Smart Guides help you position, size, align, rotate and distribute objects interactively.

The new live Preflighting capability flags up problems as you work. This is particularly useful when working with imported files, as you can customise the profile to highlight potential problems, such as images with too low a resolution. The reworked Links panel is a great improvement and now shows thumbnails of all imported images along with a page number hyperlink.

InDesign CS4 breaks new ground with its long document handling. Using the new Cross References panel, you can quickly add dynamic links to any text anchor or existing paragraph text based on its style tag. If the original text is edited, or moves page, the cross reference link can update automatically.

Even more powerful is the support for conditional text. You can create named conditions and apply them to text. You can then quickly toggle these conditions, while the layout updates accordingly. Often designers need to produce different versions of a single publication with, say, regional content or pricing, and this feature makes it simpler. InDesign CS4 certainly has more powerful features than QuarkXPress 8, but it sometimes feels bloated with more than 40 separate control panels.

InDesign CS4 makes a major push towards electronic publishing. This latest release makes it easier to add text-based hyperlinks, graphical rollover buttons and page transitions. Once it's set up, you can save your publication for onscreen viewing offline as an Acrobat PDF, or export your layout directly to Shockwave files for online delivery. Such instant repurposing between print and screen is exciting and opens up whole new audiences for the professional designer.

However, QuarkXPress 8 offers even greater repurposing power with support for advanced features such as linked print and screen layouts, as well as Flash-based animation and video. This could be embarrassing for InDesign, but Adobe cleverly enables InDesign CS4 to output to an entirely new format: XFL. These files can then be opened by Flash CS4 Professional for advanced editing, embellishment and output.

Ultimately it's this deep integration with Adobe's other Creative Suite applications that proves InDesign CS4's strength. This is especially evident in the CS4 Design Standard suite, as it includes InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat Pro for only £171 more than the price of QuarkXPress 8 alone.