Sarasota PC Monitor
PageMaker 7.0
A Software Review
by MartinReynolds
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.PageMaker 7.0 is the latest desk top publishing (DTP) application to be released by Adobe. Adobe started the ball rolling in DTP back in 1985 when PageMaker was first released. Great strides have been made since then as more small businesses move their printed content onto the web. PageMaker 7.0 includes the latest tools to create portable document format (Adobe's own .pdf format) material. In addition, PageMaker files can be made to be downloaded unto PDA's such as Palm V's. E-books have not quite caught on with mainstream consumers but that should rapidly change as converting printed lexicons to palm devices becomes easier and cheaper to do.
The majority of small businesses, and groups such as SPCUG still need to rely on the printed material to get the most and best saturation as far as readership goes. PageMaker 7.0 (PM7) can handle that too. The boxed version contains 3 CD's and a printed manual (surprise). The application is on the first CD and content on the second. The third CD contains a video workshop tutorial with just about an hours worth of full motion video.
After loading the application CD in either a Windows* or Mac machine you can start PM7 from the Start/Programs toolbar. You are introduced at first to a window of templates that the software engineers from Adobe have included for the first time in PM history. You can choose from several different templates in about 10 different categories. These include brochures, flyers, certificates, business cards, labels, and of course newsletters.
You can start with a blank page and create your own 'look' or 'style' as it is known in the DTB biz. For years now the Monitor (SPCUG's highly coveted newsletter) has had a style created from scratch and years of experience by the former editor, Gary Schweinshaupt. Today the Monitor has a slightly different style based on Gary's. Tweaking the style or look of your document is where PM7 stands head and shoulders above the competition from MS Publisher2002 or Corel's Ventura10. Some businesses (and this program is designed primarily for the SOHO market) may shudder at the $499 list price, but it is much cheaper than the strictly professional DTP program QuarkXPress 5.0 ($899).
As the grandfather of DTP applications, PM knew to concentrate on being able to work with competing file formats such as Word, WordPerfect, Quark, and others. By creating filters to quickly change file formats being imported into PM, they accomplished this and the filters in 7 are much improved over the previous version, 6.5. Image files are another issue and that might be worked out in version 7.5, or perhaps sooner. Where PM excels is working with other Adobe program files like Acrobat, PhotoShop, InDesign, or Illustrator.
As I mentioned earlier, PM7 has enhanced export features including the ability to embed tags in PDF files. This preserves the paragraph attributes which keeps the document in the proper order. Now you don't have to worry about reading the ending before getting all the juicy good parts in the middle.
The help files in PM7 are HTML based. Even so I recommend a potential PM7 user to purchase a book to help clarify strong points because the overall complexity and detail built into it can be somewhat daunting. Two such books were reviewed by the assistant editor, Pete Theisen, last month. The learning curve is fairly extensive but after you see what all the program can do, you'll understand. The one nice feature about Pm7 is the use of a whiteboard. To those who have done DTP the old-fashioned way the whiteboard is nothing new. DTP editors in the past used a large glass topped table to cut n' paste stories and pictures in place. The area outside the document area was used to hold extra clipped pieces just in case they were needed later became known as the whiteboard. PM7 uses the same concept. Any extra pieces can be dragged outside the main page border for use later on. Pretty nifty idea when you think about it. Remembering where you dragged that little piece on the whiteboard is the hard part.
I recommend this program for anyone who wants a professional look to their company documents and reports. Even teachers can use it to create classroom documents for their students or contemporaries. The learning curve is steep and extremely time consuming. But if you put the time in to learn it, the results can be very rewarding. The only beef I have with PM7 is the 'UNDO' command under Edit. You can only undo once, if you are allowed to undo at all. Nothing is more frustrating then to realize a change you made three steps back needs to be removed but the only way to correct it now is to delete that whole section and start over. Please fix this, Adobe. Other programs have infinite undo capability. I don't see why you cannot also.
PageMaker 7.0 didn't come with any documentation as to minimum system requirements so these are from another review:
* Pentium 200 or higher
* 48MB RAM
* 175MB disk space
* Windows 98, ME, 2000 or NT 4 (with service pack 5 or 6)
* SVGA, CD-ROM
I don't know why they recommend only 48MB RAM. This program is power hungry so I would say 128MB is a better number with 256 or more encouraged. Most users will have at least two or three other programs running at the same time including a word and photo editing applications. Adobe also has made available the first service pack for PM7 for download free from it's website www.adobe.com.
Lastly, I would highly encourage users of Windows 2000, NT, or XP to thoroughly read a white paper titled PageMaker 6.5/7.0 Windows 2000 FAQ 1.09 by Atlantic Tech Solutions. They offer several excellent tips before installing PageMaker. There are known issues with these Operating Systems and will encounter fewer problems if you follow their findings; www.atlantictech.com.
Copyright 2002. This article is from the November 2002 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,300+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.