Adobe InDesign CS3 review

These object effects begin with those longstanding features - transparency, blend mode, drop shadow and feathering - that helped InDesign 2 redefine print design. Now, these have been extended again with a host of new effects: Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss and Satin. If these sound familiar, it's because they're the same effects Photoshop provides as layer styles. And InDesign CS3 also introduces two new options for producing Directional Feather and Gradient Feather effects - excellent for seamlessly merging an image with its background.

Thanks to its new effects, InDesign CS3 again raises the bar to enable richer-than-ever design, but perhaps just as significant is how the effects are implemented. Rather than separate palettes and multiple command dialogs, there's now a centralised Effects palette that offers direct control over the most important transparency and blend mode settings and drop-down access to all other effects. These are in turn all handled by a single Effects dialog that makes it simpler to apply multiple effects and set up effect-based object styles. Even more powerful is the new ability to apply effects, not just to the object as a whole but individually to its stroke, fill and text. In other words, even while pushing the creative design envelope, InDesign CS3 again manages to boost efficiency and control.

This overriding emphasis on productivity is taken to its natural conclusion with InDesign CS3's improved XML handling. This now supports XSLT on import, which proves both more forgiving and more flexible. More importantly, InDesign CS3 provides a rules-processing engine that can lay out and format a page by conditionally responding to data - for example, applying a particular object style to frames that contain a particular subheading style. Set up the rules and the XML correctly and you can watch the publication build itself.

Of course, the development effort involved in such XML automation is only an option for certain organisations and publications, but many more users and jobs will benefit from InDesign CS3's enhanced XML-based output. Using the new Cross Media Export commands, you can output directly to XML or to XHTML. If you link the latter to an external CSS file during export, the resulting file can be automatically formatted for browser display based on the paragraph and character styles applied. Some users will undoubtedly be sorry to see the former Package for GoLive capability disappear, but the greater simplicity and transparency, and the natural tie-in with Dreamweaver, make this a more practical route to web reuse.

From initial import through to final output, this is a comprehensive upgrade with a clear focus on productivity. At times, the advanced power it offers leads to complexity, and those QuarkXPress fans who are happy within their comfort zone will accuse it of bloat - and rightly so, if they wouldn't use the additional power. Ultimately, though, InDesign CS3 is capable of tackling harder jobs and producing better end results, and doing so even more efficiently than its rival. It fully deserves its professional publishing crown.

Author: Tom Arah