Review: Adobe InDesign CS6

Mike Rankin

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Auto-Sizing Text Frames

This is one new feature that is sure to be a hit. You can now create text frames that will resize in any direction to fit the content within them. When text is added or deleted, the frame grows or shrinks accordingly. It works with threaded frames, non-rectangular frames, spans and splits, and yes, even frames containing footnotes. You may never have to deal with overset text again.

EPUB Export

With the ebook market continuing to grow rapidly, EPUB export is becoming an increasingly important feature. In addition to a handful of key bug fixes, several new features have been added to reduce the amount of post-InDesign work to clean up your EPUBs and make them ready for publication. It’s much easier to break content into multiple HTML files, by selecting any paragraph style as a break point. There are also improvements in the handling of margins, and anchored items, and support has also been added for floats and multiple linked CSS files.

HTML Import

You can now place HTML content into InDesign with a simple copy and paste. For example, you can add a working Google map to a document by copying the iframe code and pasting it directly into InDesign. When you do so, a frame is automatically created to house the map. You can also tweak the code inside InDesign with a new Edit HTML command.

PDF Forms

Prior to CS6, if you were producing PDFs that included forms, you needed to do a lot of post-InDesign work in Adobe Acrobat. Now, you can you can greatly reduce the amount of Acrobat work by converting InDesign objects into text fields, signature fields, radio buttons, check boxes, and combo boxes.

Unfortunately, there are some frustrating limitations that will force you to finish the job in Acrobat. For example, you can’t produce a PDF form that Adobe Readers users can fill out. You still have to use Acrobat to enable Reader users to save form data. Even so, the inclusion of PDF form tools is a great new feature.

Misc.

There are also several smaller fixes and feature enhancements that are sure to make InDesign users smile.

• Recent Fonts: There is now the option to have a running list of your most recently used fonts appear separate from the rest of your active fonts in the Control panel, Character panel, and Glyphs panel. The longer your font list, the more you’ll appreciate this feature.
• Grayscale support: You can now export full color documents as true grayscale PDFs and even proof the color conversion onscreen beforehand.
• Align to Key object: As in Adobe Illustrator, you can now designate any InDesign object as the key object and use it to align others on the page.
• Link Badges: Icons now appear directly on the frames of linked items showing their status (linked, missing, modified). You can click link badges to update modified links and fix missing ones, saving you a trip to the Links panel.
  
• No more ALLCAPS user interface: Yes, InDesign has stopped SHOUTING at you by default.
• Export to interactive PDF as pages: Previously, interactive PDFs exported from facing pages documents would be exported as spreads. Now you have the option in the export dialog box to choose spreads or single pages.
• Export to PNG: You can export a selection, a page, or multiple pages as PNG with transparency.
• Placeholder text language: You can choose from a list of nine different languages when creating placeholder text.
• Extension Manager Sets: If you use multiple 3rd party extensions, you have the ability to arrange them in sets that you can enable or disable with a single click.
• Improved screen sizing: InDesign CS6 correctly accounts for your screen resolution when displaying objects. The result is one inch onscreen now equals one inch in real life.

Conclusion

With InDesign CS6, Adobe made a strategic decision to address the steep challenges of designing for multiple screens. While several of the new features for reusing content need further refinement, InDesign CS6 is a clear step in the right direction. Some users will no doubt be disappointed by what was not done. There are no enhancements of footnotes or other long document features that people have been wanting for several years. On the other hand, steady progress is being made on the quality of EPUB export, and the inclusion of PDF form tools is huge for those people who need them. Plus several of the smaller features (link badges, screen sizing, align to key object) are pure wins that most users will quickly incorporate into their daily routines and will certainly miss if they have to use an older version of InDesign at some point.

Is it worth the upgrade? If you produce ebooks, interactive PDFs, or documents that have to be delivered in multiple sizes and formats, the answer is an unequivocal yes. If you produce print-only output in a single size and format, then the benefits of upgrading are far fewer and you’ll have to weigh out the value of what’s new for your workflow. All in all, InDesign CS6 is an ambitious release, packed with high-end, forward thinking features, as well as many small refinements. Almost every InDesign user will find something in CS6 to love.

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