PageMaker 7 is supposed to solve these problems, enabling it work with Windows 2000 and ME (and even with Apple's new UNIX-based OS X in "classic mode"). Many man hours of programmers' time have resulted in very little change in what you see; the work has been under the hood.

So this can best be called a "maintenance release" - but it probably expresses how strongly its users are committed that PageMaker continues to dominate the business side of the page layout arena even though it has not seen a major update since 1997.
 
PageMaker 7 does include the ability to directly import native Photoshop and Illustrator files - and, with the increasing dependence of publishing on Portable Document Format, many will see the upgrade as essential just to be able to place files created in the PDF formats used by Acrobat 4 and 5. It also works with PostScript 3 for both output and EPS placement.

An aside here: Page layout software is for the final assembly of pages and for outputting them in a manner that can be used for making printing plates, or as used in computer-to-press (CTP) direct-to-press printing. For this reason, page layout software has to be able to place files created in all the commonly used ad and editorial creation programs and in formats which can be created by even the lesser-used ones. 

Except for the creation of PDFs, which are now an essential step towards the press, page layout programs do not export well. PageMaker makes a half-hearted effort at exporting to HTML, and this can be useful provided one recognises that a print publication is seldom suited to Web use without a great deal of work in a web-production program. (PageMaker does make a good job of converting print graphics to web-based graphics as part of its export-to-HTML facility). Export to HTML is also a useful way of getting text files from a complex document - open the resultant HTML file in a word processor and convert to text in that.

For those producing long documents, there remain the table-of-contents and indexing tools within PageMaker. While these, and the table plug-in, are by no means perfect, they are better than in many other layout programs, if such programs have them at all.
 
I've already heard of some minor glitches that remain, and overall I'd suggest that anyone who uses PageMaker to the extreme will probably do better by upgrading to InDesign, but you'll need to upgrade your computer too.

For some users the new DataMerge plug-in will be worth the upgrade price in itself. I have written a PDF suggesting how this can be used for a simple ad booking system to suit a newsletter or small magazine and will be happy to e-mail this to any MelbPC member who thinks it may be interesting (it will form part of my forthcoming book "Newspaper and Newsletter Production using PageMaker 7"). The existing ODBC filter will do more but it takes a good deal more work to use it successfully.

Another advantage is PageMaker's simple yet powerful scripting system and the fact that it is cross-platform (InDesign scripts are considerably harder to write and need work to translate from one platform to the other, while QuarkXPress can only be scripted on the Mac platform). The script engine has not been updated, so if there are things it won't do for you now, then PM7 won't do them either. Existing PageMaker 6.5 scripts will work, provided one allows for the new extension for PageMaker 7 files - .pmd and .pmt instead of .p65 and .t65.

I'm not impressed by the switch from the old-style help to HTML help requiring a browser (but if you are upgrading you can keep the old help files and create a shortcut to lead to them).

PageTools, the very useful set of toolbars and plug-ins no longer sold by Extensis, won't work properly with PM7, but there is a workaround which will get most of it working, provided you have a copy of PageMaker 6.5 to install temporarily.

PageMaker is a big jump up for users of Publisher, though many will want to use this more professional program. PageMaker 7 does convert Publisher 2000 files, and makes a reasonable job of that, as it does in converting QuarkXPress 4 files, though don't expect such conversions to be faultless.

There is also the big advantage over Publisher that PageMaker does not require one to go cap in hand to Microsoft for a new registration code every time you reinstall the program, or the operating system, or add more than a couple of pieces of new hardware.

Some existing users of PageMaker feared that the new release would be a "dumbed down" version. It is not. It is still very much the program you know but with additional artwork and templates such as were included with PageMaker Plus.

Figure 5. This screenshot shows a layout similar to that in Figure 4 but filled with data from the spreadsheet.

Figure 6. One of the aspects of PageMaker 7 which some users may not be so happy with is the change to HTML-style Help. Scripting help is now in a separate PDF file and no longer available directly from the Help menu.

The template palette can be loaded with your own templates in place of, or additional to, the ones that come with the program. If you use many templates, it is worth planning to use the template palette in this way, and it opens automatically from the first button on the PageMaker toolbar, so you can safely uncheck the "Show every time PageMaker opens" checkbox at the bottom of this palette.

In summary, if you need a basic page layout program (one that was considered advanced until two years ago) and are prepared to learn at least a little about the technical side of print production, then PageMaker 7 may well be for you. If you already use PageMaker 6.5, then consider whether you need the ability to place the latest versions of PDFs or whether extras such as DataMerge will be worthwhile.
 
If you are using PageMaker with Win2000 and have not mastered all the workarounds, then this could save a lot of trouble. At a $229 upgrade (quite a bit more than a direct conversion of the US$79) to a A$1199 market price program, you certainly won't have trouble with mastering anything dramatically new (though it could be worth an upgrade just for the included Adobe Caslon, the elegant Trajan bold titling face, and several other top quality typefaces not included with 6.5).

Will there ever be a PageMaker 8? Time will tell. In the meantime it remains the DTP workhorse for most who produce print products whether they are business cards or local newspapers.

The Contenders Which page layout program for you? The following are the major contenders. The Web addresses given are, where possible, those of an independent information site, often that of a mailing list serving users, rather than of the software company itself. Most give links to other useful sites. Any top quality word processor: If most of your work is straight down the page, or very simple multi-column newsletters, then Microsoft Word or Word Perfect or StarOffice etc. may be all you ever need. However, in such programs it can be difficult to achieve small movements of graphics or text items without much planning. There's a lot of Word advice at: http://www.mvps.org/word/ Microsoft Publisher  Comes with many templates and with "wizards" to help you achieve a passable layout in a very short time while shielding you from the technical side of print production. Best suited to the person who has to produce a printed item occasionally, and the latest versions are much more acceptable by many printers, who are now less likely to tell you: "Publisher file? No we won't touch that." It also does a fair job of producing simple Web pages. Contact the MS-Publisher group at http://www.yahoogroups.com Adobe PageMaker Now it should work with current operating systems, and though its code is old, and convoluted, it still provides professional quality output (it is, for example, used by many of the independent newspapers throughout Victoria). Fairly easy to learn and also easy to automate with templates and scripts. It emulates the pasteboard working method; assemble the contents of a page on the surrounding pasteboard and then drag them into position. Will work on anything that will run Win98 or better with 32 MB RAM. The PageMakr List Web site: http://www.makingpages.org/pagemaker Adobe InDesign A complete rewrite of the PageMaker code, with an ability to produce top quality typesetting - better than anything seen since the days of handset metal type (with the possible exception of TeX, a command-line typesetting system that is horrendously hard to use). It provides many of the facilities users of page layout programs have been calling for, but omits a number of essentials, some of which are available as plug-ins from other vendors. The InDesign List: http://www.blueworld.com/lists/indesign.html QuarkXPress Quark has produced a Windows version of its page layout program for many years, but if you think Quark, you think Mac - one of the reasons being that the Windows version cannot be scripted. It is also the most expensive of the layout programs, but will work on almost anything you can call a Windows computer. QXP has similar problems with Win2000 as did PageMaker 6.5, and these should be solved with QXP5, expected late this year. Try http://www.xpressobar.com/ Corel Ventura This program originated from Xerox PARC along with the graphical user interface, the mouse, postscript, and, it seems, almost everything else which plays a major role in today's computing. However, the transition from the GEM operating system to Windows was a disaster and it was not until a major rewrite after acquisition by Corel that it started to regain credibility. Well worth consideration but any user will be in a minority. Like InDesign, and unlike QXP, Ventura can be scripted under Windows using Visual Basic. A starting point is http://www.solid-us.com/pages Serif PagePlus Often forgotten, this program has the advantage on price, but many users swear by it. I know of at least one newspaper produced using it. If capital cost is a problem, you should look at this program (currently US$59.95). See http://www.calcaria.co.uk Adobe FrameMaker This is the program of choice when you have complex long documents. Have you heard the story that the maintenance manuals for a Boeing 747 weigh more than the aircraft itself? I'm not sure that's true, but they are produced in FrameMaker, which specialises in handling tables, indexes, etc. The Framers forum is at http://www.frameusers.com Creator Originally known as "Multi-Ad Creator", this was a Mac-only program used by many (we could almost say most) Mac-based newspapers for producing all those mini-display trader ads, which were then taken as EPS files into pages in QuarkXPress. Yellow-page directory firms around the world swore by it. Now it has grown into Creator6, a fully-fledged page-layout program for PC as well as Mac and you can get a 20 MB trial version from http://www.triotech.com.au.

About the Author
Gordon Woolf, gordon@worsleypress.com is a long-time Melb PC member who lives at Hastings on the Mornington Peninsula. He has written several books including "Newspaper Production using PageMaker 6.5" and "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter", detailed at http://www.worsleypress.com. He is a co-owner of the PageMakr List, a self-help e-mail list based at Purdue University, Indiana, whose Web page is athttp://www.makingpages.org/pagemaker.

Reprinted from the October 2001 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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