Tons of Other Stuff
Brief mentions of the following features don’t mean they’re insignificant or unimportant, only that you’d probably run out of the room screaming if this review went on for more pages.
Among the many interface changes is a Smart Cursor that displays a pop-up guide to the dimensions, rotation, and XY coordinates of any item it’s placed over; a truly useful system of Smart Guides and Smart Align that figures out where you want to place something in sequence; tabbed windows; and a Rotate Spread view that temporarily changes the display to 90- or 180-degree angles.
InDesign CS4 also adds direct support for Adobe Kuler, the online color-palette management tool; a “share-my-screen” function; the ability to refine the way strokes are created; a new Contact-sheet Placement tool that allows you to easily place multiple images in a grid form; some scaling shortcuts; and Power Zoom.
It’s always hard to predict which new features will be most welcome, since we all work differently. One person’s Power Zoom is another person’s Multiple GREP Expressions. If I haven’t covered something important to you, please post a comment.
One More Thing…
I will burn up a few more words on a feature that’s one of the most important publishing developments in years, though it won’t immediately mean anything to the average user.
With Creative Suite 4, Adobe released a new XML file format, specifically for InDesign documents, called IDML. This developer specification expands on XML to the degree that it’s now possible for third-party companies to read and write InDesign files in XML, down to the absolute finest detail.
This means that developers could, for instance, create fully formatted InDesign documents on the fly using databases of information and non-Adobe applications. They could automatically replace elements in an InDesign file without having to open the file in native format, pull out and re-combine elements from existing InDesign documents, build systems for using the Internet as a front-end to complex InDesign publishing systems, and create a whole new generation of cross-media workflows.
Hats off to Adobe for opening up the InDesign format in this way.
Recommendations
Times are tough and money is tight. The days of no-questions-asked upgrades are over for a while, whether you’re a company or an individual.
If you work on the sort of documents where these new features will pay off quickly in increased productivity, the move to InDesign CS4 is a wise investment. Mac users who are plagued with problems running CS3 on Leopard should also seriously consider CS4, which is 10.5-compatible.
Finally, if you didn’t upgrade to CS3, or if you’re in the market for a new, more powerful computer, it makes sense to buy CS4 now. Adobe has done a good job with the entire Creative Suite. (Read reviews of the other apps here.) And the more Adobe CS products you use, the more benefit you’ll get from the upgrade.
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on October 30, 2008
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cinsel sohbet
While I’m ranting, why did they make silly changes to CS4 LIKE splitting character features, the tracking used to be along the top bar its now in the character window NOT with font size etc in the top bar. AND here o where is mode change to cmyk in PS CS4? I had to ring a technician to find out that i have to click ‘more options’ to find that! DUMB DUMB DUMB ANDDDD worst of all, windows dont pop to the front any more, I literally have to move them to the side for example if i want to bring a file to the front that is peeping behind another open file I used to just click the peeping file behind and it woudl pop forward, NO NO NO not now thats too easy they have removed this function..thank you so much cs4 you have really made me mad about these changes. they forget US proper designers like functionality, its key to working quickly and well. instead the focuss on adding in stupid web functions and trying to look cool like a mac. screw that! function over form! PLEASE
for the record I’m staying with CS3 its much better from a layout and interface point of view. CS4 is like a car that has the accelerator on the dashboard and the brake on the roof with a steering wheel in the boot its all over the place i can’t stand it. I like to design fast and I’m bloody good at it, the interface and windows snapping like crazy drive me crazy, I’m reluctant to even use photoshop now that’s a whole other nightmare..CS3 was superior.
AND what is up with release so many upgrades?! this is just a money making scheme. NO more upgrades for me please!
I have found CS4 suite a nightmare regarding the pasteboard and tools interface. Its SUCH a clutter now, my paste board has been reduced by 1/3 due to everything snapping all the time, and what on earth is up with multiple files opening with tabs along the top I HATE THAT! especially if you want to work quickly between multiple windows its a NIGHTMARE. really not impressed with CS4 from a mid to high end user point of view i dont care much for all the whizzy flash rubbish i just want to do good print layouts guys!
thanks you print out the links list? I know that you can do it in CS3 via the preflight report but as far as I know it is not customizable and it. includes mirc much info that is extraneous to my needs. Also is there a way to sohbet see the percentage increase or reduction on the image..
InBooklet allowed us to paginate a document (usually for a quick printer), and Save As another document. CS4 only lets you go straight to print. I just want to be able tothank you sites sohbet sohbet cinsel sohbet …
My “bread and butter” typeface: Helvetica Neue Light is no longer available to me.
Why and what can be done about this?
Jim Anderson
Good job covering the essentials while keeping it fairly brief….I’ve been looking at CS4 for awhile and with the majority of my projects now involving interactive PDFs this looks like a smart move from CS3. Thanks! – Steven S.
1. In InDesign CS4, when packaging the document for the printer, where can you decide that maybe you just want the InDesign document, not the fonts, or maybe not the links, because the printer may already have the fonts. In CS2, you could deselect FONTS, LINKS, etc., but where is that option in CS4?
2. InBooklet allowed us to paginate a document (usually for a quick printer), and Save As another document. CS4 only lets you go straight to print. I just want to be able to PAGINATE.
I’ve used Pagemaker 7 for a long time, but can’t make any sense out of Indesign. Why can’t they use plain language?
If you use the hollow arrow head, not the solid one, click on the image and it shows the bounding area of the photo/image & also the percentage
It is frustrating as you go to place when using multiple paged pdf files the show options tick drops off, so when in a rush you end up placing page 1 of the document.
Has anyone got a solution to keeping the show options box checked.
Will CS4 cope with gradients output to pdf. The function doesn’t work in CS3.
Is it possible in CS4 to print out the links list? I know that you can do it in CS3 via the preflight report but, as far as I know, it is not customizable and it includes much info that is extraneous to my needs. Also is there a way to see the percentage increase or reduction on the image?
Thanks!
It seems that footnotes are still one of the major weaknesses of InDesign. Can you (easily) put footnotes in a single column at the bottom of a two-column page? Can you put all footnotes at the bottom of the right column in a two-column page? And of course import Word files with footnotes (the preferred format by authors) without any restriction. I don’t think so. O.k. you say, buy a commercial plugin. And my answer is: Have you really found one that can do this easily (comfortable) and correctly? The only one I have seen is pricey, unusable, and has restrictions with importing word files (“Microsoft Word footnotes and endnotes can be imported in CS and endnotes in CS2”). Thus book publishing is still difficult. Or did I miss something?
Well, thanks again for the great comments. As it turns out, my beta version would not install on my Powerbook G4 (1.5 GHz), but I just tried to install the shipping version and sure enough, although it warned me that my system did not meet Adobe’s “suggested” minimum system requirements, it seems to be installing the CS4 Master Collection.
So unofficially, that’s three of us who have been able, one way or another, to install CS4 on a G4 Mac. But beware of ignoring the installation requirements, and we’ll see how much speed penalty there is. I’ll report back later!
The good news is, thanks to having to do the review, I found the excuse to get a new Macbook, so all is not lost!
I’m running the last beta build of InDesign CS4 on my G4 PowerBook…I had no issues or workarounds with the installer and it’s running great in Leopard. WAY better than CS3 ever did. Now, unless something changed from the beta to the final copy (which I’m eagerly awaiting), I don’t foresee any issues. Running: PowerBook G4 1.5GB RAM with 1.67 GHz processor, 10.5.
Not sure if this would help at all for the chess books, but I didn’t mention that when you add a custom word, name or phrase to a user dictionary all languages will then treat the term as correctly spelled. A small bit of progress, but could be important for those working in multiple languages! Thanks for the comments–I think it’s safe to say Adobe may be depending on third parties to supply some of the functionality you are looking for.
Thanks for the review Gene. I can’t see any reason to upgrade from CS2 to 4. It sounds like web based flim flam for something to do. I wish it weren’t so.
It would be nice if Adobe would publish WHO these upgrades are for: Hot shot big magazine publishers, web based database catalogs, print publishers, design mavens, etc. To say that THIS edition is for everyone is disingenuous.
Photoshop seems to be like this too.
I’m sure Illustrator could go through a LOT more changes with possibilities.
Handling normal functions such as (IMO) Adobe’s weak “dictionary” limitations and the ability to handle large translation tables (instead of one at a time or writing scripts until kingdom come). Doing a college catalog with lots of reference numbers, etc. is important–the ability to suppress checks of those numbers, or including them is important. The current limitations are very low and useless. I also work in biographical areas and foreign names are important for inclusion and this fills up the dictionary quickly. How about a method to break a file in two pieces without leaving a trailing back half or vice versa. These are very important tools in the publishing area.
So WHO is CS4 for? It isn’t the $200, it’s that it doesn’t seem useful to me for what I do and I do chess books and they can be very complicated.
Thanks David, for the suggestion. I was referencing the “official” specs from Adobe, and didn’t think to try it your way. But you’re absolutely right that the first obstacle is that the installer won’t let you run it on a G4 — your workaround certainly is a clever one (though of course it requires at least one machine that meets the specs, or a willing co-worker or neighbor!).
Thanks for the question. In InDesign CS4, you can control several stroke characteristics in the stroke panel. This includes being able to choose if strokes occur on the inside or outside of a text character, and how the strokes are joined. So, if you choose a larger stroke weight, you can, by varying some of these parameters, get better results than before. These options have been in Illustrator previously, but now can be applied in ID.
Actually, you can use it on a G4, but you need a G5 to install it. I run my computer on an external FireWire drive. I installed CS4 on it with a G5 and it runs pretty good on the G4. needless to say, it is a little slow here.
Thanks for the much awaited description. It is very helpful in my decision to buy or not to buy. I only work in print design, so a lot of the InD CS4 is stuff I don’t need (or need to pay for). Still, can you expand on “the ability to refine the way strokes are created”? Thanks very much for an excellent article and for taking the questino.
-Jeremy
Thanks for the much awaited description. It is very helpful in my decision to buy or not to buy. I only work in print design, so a lot of the InD CS4 is stuff I don’t need (or need to pay for). Still, can you expand on “the ability to refine the way strokes are created”? Thanks very much for an excellent article and for taking the questino.
-Jeremy