Top 5 InDesign CS6 features

Time savers and production helpers aplenty in a robust update. But only one new (content collector) tool.

1. Content Conveyer: Collect and distribute objects and ‘sets’ of objects from one file to another, maintaining a ‘parent child’ relationship. A fabulous addition that makes updating shared file collateral fast. Including text blocks!
2. Save as: Now includes IDML interchange. At last, an elegant way to ‘back save’ up to CS4.
3. Primary text frame: Instead of ‘master text frame’. Set it up on master pages and a text box is live on each page. Not as cosmetic as it sounds. A real time saver I use all the time.
4. Layouts – Alternative: Multiple layout options side by side in the same file.  Flexible: Intelligent scaling of multiple page assets. Liquid: Set up rules for how groups of objects scale. These layout helpers are all about saving time when publishing one document into many formats. I.e. A poster to a flier; a booklet for print (portrait) to an epub (landscape). An A4 layout to an iphone, a Kindle, a Kobo. Not forgetting the old school letterhead to business card to Comp slip.
5. Interactive forms: Buttons panel renamed buttons and forms. Creating an InDesign layout destined for interactive PDF used to then mean a lot of work in Acrobat PRO. Client changes become a problem. As we all expected, InDesign now has more interactive components built in. Form fields, check boxes and radio buttons – magic!

In short: CS6 is a production managers dream come true and designers are given some time saving tools. For those into book and magazine layouts check out flexible columns and auto size text frames and more. Typographers get a list of recently used fonts and fitting frames to different types of text contours.

If you want to see all  these new features plus many more for Photoshop & Illustrator come along to Bring Your Own Laptops Adobe demo on June 21st 2012. Tickets here: http://www.bringyourownlaptop.co.nz/cs6-demo.html