Publisher's future?

R

RichardS.

1) What do the big boys have mostly (InDesign and Quark)
that makes them stand out from Publisher (no funny remarks
here)?

2) Do you think MSPublisher will ever be able to play with
the big boys?

3) I'm fairly well adept w/Publisher to have created a
newsletter business w/pretty good success. I'm not
intimidated by Quark or InDesign, but not interested in
the long learning curve. So, I'm wondering if it's worth
waiting for a more sophisticated version or if what the
others offer are qualities that I'll never need anyway.

Any and all opinions would be appreciated. I respect your
responses and enjoy this group.

Thanks
RichardS
 
C

Cerridwen

RichardS. said:
1) What do the big boys have mostly (InDesign and Quark)
that makes them stand out from Publisher (no funny remarks
here)?
Click to expand...

You're comparing apples with oranges - they are aimed at two totally
different markets. Publisher's target is the home or SOHO user - Quark
(which is a Mac only application), In Design and PageMaker are aimed at
larger organisations - you only have to look at the price to know that.
Publisher costs around £100, QuarkExpress costs around £1500, InDesign about
£600 and ditto PageMaker.

2) Do you think MSPublisher will ever be able to play with
the big boys?
Click to expand...

See above.
3) I'm fairly well adept w/Publisher to have created a
newsletter business w/pretty good success. I'm not
intimidated by Quark or InDesign, but not interested in
the long learning curve. So, I'm wondering if it's worth
waiting for a more sophisticated version or if what the
others offer are qualities that I'll never need anyway.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean by "a more sophisticated version" - Publisher is
what it is - a medium-level DTP tool for the home and SOHO market. Existing
features may be tweaked and refined, but it's never going to compete with
any of the applications listed above.
 
C

Cerridwen

RichardS. said:
1) What do the big boys have mostly (InDesign and Quark)
that makes them stand out from Publisher (no funny remarks
here)?
Click to expand...

You're comparing apples with oranges - they are aimed at two totally
different markets. Publisher's target is the home or SOHO user - Quark
(which is a Mac only application), In Design and PageMaker are aimed at
larger organisations - you only have to look at the price to know that.
Publisher costs around £100, QuarkExpress costs around £1500, InDesign about
£600 and ditto PageMaker.

2) Do you think MSPublisher will ever be able to play with
the big boys?
Click to expand...

See above.
3) I'm fairly well adept w/Publisher to have created a
newsletter business w/pretty good success. I'm not
intimidated by Quark or InDesign, but not interested in
the long learning curve. So, I'm wondering if it's worth
waiting for a more sophisticated version or if what the
others offer are qualities that I'll never need anyway.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean by "a more sophisticated version" - Publisher is
what it is - a medium-level DTP tool for the home and SOHO market. Existing
features may be tweaked and refined, but it's never going to compete with
any of the applications listed above.
 
C

chris

I don't know what you mean by "a more sophisticated version" - Publisher is
what it is - a medium-level DTP tool for the home and SOHO market. Existing
features may be tweaked and refined, but it's never going to compete with
any of the applications listed above.
Click to expand...

What he means is self explanatory: Are there any plans to make Publisher a
sort of half way programme?

The question is an important one. I speak as someone who refuses to play the
insane learning curve game. When I recently sought out a simple map making
programme I was pointed to Map Maker Gratis and Adobe Illustrator. The
manual for the first is huge and unhelpful, whereas the help files for the
second seem to be written by a moron with no consideration of the new user.
Incidentally, after seeking this prog, I eventually found that Publisher did
everything I needed (once I had discovered my nodes!) and I had it all the
time.

Chris
 
C

chris

I don't know what you mean by "a more sophisticated version" - Publisher is
what it is - a medium-level DTP tool for the home and SOHO market. Existing
features may be tweaked and refined, but it's never going to compete with
any of the applications listed above.
Click to expand...

What he means is self explanatory: Are there any plans to make Publisher a
sort of half way programme?

The question is an important one. I speak as someone who refuses to play the
insane learning curve game. When I recently sought out a simple map making
programme I was pointed to Map Maker Gratis and Adobe Illustrator. The
manual for the first is huge and unhelpful, whereas the help files for the
second seem to be written by a moron with no consideration of the new user.
Incidentally, after seeking this prog, I eventually found that Publisher did
everything I needed (once I had discovered my nodes!) and I had it all the
time.

Chris
 
M

Mike Koewler

There's going to be a lot of highly irate customers who have bought
Quark, planning on using it on their PC when they read your post: "Quark
(which is a Mac only application)...." Wonder what they will do - wait,
I know, keep on using it.

Mike
 
M

Mike Koewler

There's going to be a lot of highly irate customers who have bought
Quark, planning on using it on their PC when they read your post: "Quark
(which is a Mac only application)...." Wonder what they will do - wait,
I know, keep on using it.

Mike
 
C

Cerridwen

Mike said:
There's going to be a lot of highly irate customers who have bought
Quark, planning on using it on their PC when they read your post:
"Quark (which is a Mac only application)...." Wonder what they will
do - wait, I know, keep on using it.

Mike
Click to expand...

I meant QuarkExpress. Quark *IS* Mac only
 
C

Cerridwen

Mike said:
There's going to be a lot of highly irate customers who have bought
Quark, planning on using it on their PC when they read your post:
"Quark (which is a Mac only application)...." Wonder what they will
do - wait, I know, keep on using it.

Mike
Click to expand...

I meant QuarkExpress. Quark *IS* Mac only
 
M

Mike Koewler

Sara,

Quark is the name of a company, not a product, though many people
shorten QuarkXPress to Quark.


"History

Founded in 1981, Quark, Inc. has been on the leading edge of publishing
software since 1987 when QuarkXPress, the world’s most popular page
layout software, debuted. Today, Quark maintains its industry leadership
with a product line that ties together traditional print publishing and
content management for multiple media. With QuarkXPress, we helped spark
the revolution in desktop publishing. With Quark Publishing System™,
Quark Digital Media System™ , and Quark Dynamic Document Server™, we’re
bringing organization and efficiency to information management and
publishing in the Internet age."
 
M

Mike Koewler

Sara,

Quark is the name of a company, not a product, though many people
shorten QuarkXPress to Quark.


"History

Founded in 1981, Quark, Inc. has been on the leading edge of publishing
software since 1987 when QuarkXPress, the world’s most popular page
layout software, debuted. Today, Quark maintains its industry leadership
with a product line that ties together traditional print publishing and
content management for multiple media. With QuarkXPress, we helped spark
the revolution in desktop publishing. With Quark Publishing System™,
Quark Digital Media System™ , and Quark Dynamic Document Server™, we’re
bringing organization and efficiency to information management and
publishing in the Internet age."
 
M

Mac Townsend

FWIW, Quark Xpress has been available for Windows for over a decade.

It's market share on this platform has been miniscule, however.
 
M

Mac Townsend

FWIW, Quark Xpress has been available for Windows for over a decade.

It's market share on this platform has been miniscule, however.
 
M

Mac Townsend

I've been using virtually all of the applications out there for graphics
production for over 20 years.

Some I like better than others, but I'll output from any of them.

In earlier versions of MSPublisher I often would ask a customer bringing in
a Publisher file to sit and watch when I brought it up...and it reflowed
text horribly, almost exploding off the page.

The purpose was to get them to include fonts and a hard copy with their
submission; it usually worked. Sometimes I never saw them again.

That said, the current version (03) impresses me, although I am not much of
a document creator. The catalog merge feature seems less customizable than
Ventura's database publisher, for example, but it is quick, easy, and can do
a darn good job.

The current ability to output cmyk composite from essentially rgb data is
excellent. Better than PageMaker or Xpress, IMHO.

I've not seen many pub files where the user was familiar with paragraph
styles but they seem to work very well in Pub.

Overall, Publisher is a good app for creation of a variety of different
documents. I'm not sure I'd use it for a 600 page book but I really don't
see a lot of commonly needed functionalities that Pub lacks that others
have.
 
M

Mac Townsend

I've been using virtually all of the applications out there for graphics
production for over 20 years.

Some I like better than others, but I'll output from any of them.

In earlier versions of MSPublisher I often would ask a customer bringing in
a Publisher file to sit and watch when I brought it up...and it reflowed
text horribly, almost exploding off the page.

The purpose was to get them to include fonts and a hard copy with their
submission; it usually worked. Sometimes I never saw them again.

That said, the current version (03) impresses me, although I am not much of
a document creator. The catalog merge feature seems less customizable than
Ventura's database publisher, for example, but it is quick, easy, and can do
a darn good job.

The current ability to output cmyk composite from essentially rgb data is
excellent. Better than PageMaker or Xpress, IMHO.

I've not seen many pub files where the user was familiar with paragraph
styles but they seem to work very well in Pub.

Overall, Publisher is a good app for creation of a variety of different
documents. I'm not sure I'd use it for a 600 page book but I really don't
see a lot of commonly needed functionalities that Pub lacks that others
have.
 
B

Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP]

Hi RichardS. ([email protected]),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| 1) What do the big boys have mostly (InDesign and Quark)
|| that makes them stand out from Publisher (no funny remarks
|| here)?

Two completely different products.

|| 2) Do you think MSPublisher will ever be able to play with
|| the big boys?

No. And they don't want to.

|| 3) I'm fairly well adept w/Publisher to have created a
|| newsletter business w/pretty good success. I'm not
|| intimidated by Quark or InDesign, but not interested in
|| the long learning curve. So, I'm wondering if it's worth
|| waiting for a more sophisticated version or if what the
|| others offer are qualities that I'll never need anyway.

Publisher will continue to add features, but it will not match the abilities
of the products you mention.

|| Any and all opinions would be appreciated. I respect your
|| responses and enjoy this group.

The future looks great for Publisher. Each version continues to improve year
after year.
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Office Publisher MVP
Official Publisher MVP Site:
http://www.kvalheim.org

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.
 

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