I use InDesign, They Use Quark

[michelen]

I have recently been "merged" into the production department of a very popular Mac-oriented magazine that shall remain nameless. I don't work on the unnamed Mac magazine, I still work on the video-game magazines I've been working on for the past eight years.

The edit staff at the unnamed Mac magazine use Quark. The games magazines use InDesign. The reason they use InDesign is because I recommended it when we made the leap to OSX. As far as I know, no one has ever regretted the change.

This is NOT a Quark vs. InDesign thread.

People at the unnamed Mac magazine keep asking me why I do things the way I do, and my answer is "because I can."

Example: If I want a 6-line drop cap, I tell InDesign I want a 6-line drop cap, and it does it. My boss says, "no no you can't do it that way, you need to put the cap in a separate text box, put a wrap on it, and group it." Huh?

Is this a Quark thing, or is my boss just clueless.

This is NOT meant to be a Quark vs. InDesign thread. I haven't used Quark since version 4.1, so I can't judge the merits of one over the other. But the unnamed Mac magazine folks are asking me if I think InDesign is better than Quark. Well, it's certainly better than Quark 4.1, but that's not the answer they are looking for.

My impression is that the staff is divided about whether or not they want to make the switch. And they want my advice.

All I can say is that we found the transition to be pretty painless, but that was going from Quark 4.1 to InDesign CS. I don't know about going from Quark 6.5 (I think that's what they're using) to InDesign CS2.

Does IDCS2 read Quark 6.5 files? What other gotchas can we expect?

Any input will help very much.

Regards,
Michele