Last month, we gave you some background on Adobe InDesign CS2 and how it relates to PageMaker. We also introduced you to some of the issues related to converting a PageMaker document to InDesign. We will continue that discussion in this article and also begin our look at how the workspaces compare.

Layout & Text May Change

Master pages, layers, guides, pasteboard items, and nonprinting guides undergo minor changes in the conversion process. Master pages and layers in PageMaker are converted directly to their counterparts in InDesign. Master pages retain all objects, guides, and page numbering schemes that existed in the PageMaker document. InDesign maintains the order of overlapping objects in master pages by creating two layers called Default and Master Default, the last of which contains the master page items.

This text was set up in PageMaker with Top Of Caps leading, so the blue guide was exactly at the top of the T. This graphic shows the minor shift that InDesign made when it imposed the baseline setting.

Text undergoes changes in the conversion process. Text frames in PageMaker remain as is, but text blocks are converted to text frames because only text frames are supported in InDesign.

Paragraphs in PageMaker are automatically governed by the Adobe Paragraph Composer, which creates type with better letter and word spacing and fewer hyphens than the function in PageMaker. The Composer views the paragraph as a whole when deciding where to break lines, unlike PageMaker, which proceeds line by line. You can use InDesign’s Adobe Single-Line Composer to achieve the effect most similar to PageMaker, but text still may reflow. There’s nothing to do in this case except go into the document and make manual changes as necessary.

PageMaker allowed Proportional, Top Of Caps, and Baseline leading. InDesign uses only Baseline leading, so Proportional and Top Of Caps are converted. The first baseline offset in PageMaker is set to Leading but is automatically converted to Ascent in InDesign. Ascent means that the height of the “d” character in the font falls below the top inset of the text frame. This all may result in slight shifting of text within the frame.

Styles are converted for InDesign but make the transition intact. The only difference is that [No style] in PageMaker becomes [No Paragraph Style].

Books Get Burned

The InDesign Tools Toolbar contains all the functions of its predecessor, plus many more, including robust drawing tools.

Unfortunately, InDesign ignores booklists created in PageMaker, so books you created will have to be converted manually. The best you can do is combine the booked publications into one large publication. Go into PageMaker and open the first publication in the book. Click Utilities, Plug-Ins, and Build Booklet. Select None for Layout, select the Impose Entire Booklist box, and click OK. The booked publications are combined into one publication. Another drawback to converting a book to InDesign is that text blocks and frames are no longer threaded because InDesign uses a different scheme for that process.

Indexes and tables of contents convert easily. Index entries appear in the InDesign Index Palette, with cross-references renamed to the words See and See Also. Tables of contents convert with the same name. Any associated styles appear in the InDesign TOC dialog box.

Workspace Revamped

Now that you know how to convert a PageMaker file to InDesign, it’s time to look at the workspace you are going to use to work on that document.

There are elements hidden within InDesign with the PageMaker user in mind. You can, for example, resurrect the PageMaker Toolbar by clicking Window and PageMaker Toolbar. You can dock the toolbar to the side, top, or bottom.

The PageMaker and InDesign Tools toolbars differ in the increased number of options available in InDesign. The new toolbar has all the functions of the PageMaker model plus many more. Not only that, but several of the buttons have extra actions that become available when you click and hold on the button.

The new toolbar can be divided into four categories: Selection Tools, Drawing And Type Tools, Transformation Tools, and Modification And Navigation Tools. The number of drawing tools shows the greatest increase over the PageMaker toolbar. You were confined to creating lines, rectangles, polygons, and ellipses in PageMaker, while InDesign provides Pen, Type, Pencil, Line Segment, Rectangle Frame, and Rectangle tools.

Below the buttons are functions that were previously accessed through PageMaker’s colors palette and other areas. These include the ability to define colors for fill and stroke, to apply gradients, and to view the document in four different modes.

Next month we will complete our look at the workspace and talk about more topics PageMaker users should keep in mind while making the switch to InDesign.

by Tom Hancock