[X4U] Looking for OSX replacement for Publisher

[Phillip Deackes]

On 22/3/05 2:17 pm, "Jim Colgate" <ColgateList at cox.net> wrote:

> I just received a plea for help from my niece who is a long time PC user,
> but her employer just gave all the teachers iBook laptops and she is
> struggling with the transition. Word and Excel work is OK, she is noticing
> some differences, but is relearning. However she does a lot of flyers and
> posters that she used Publisher on the PC for. What is a good, better, and
> best alternative for such a layout program on the Mac?

The best DTP app I have used for the Mac is Create, part of the Stone Design
suite. There are education discounts available too. Create is a superb app.
Drag and drop graphics and text from web to Create document, drag off a pdf
or image file from a Create document - just loads of features. Far nicer to
use than MS Publisher!

http://www.stone.com

Create will not import Publisher files but if you make PDF files from your
publisher documents, Create will let you annotate them. As ICT Coordinator
in a UK high school we took MS Publisher off the network because of its file
incompatibility - not just between Publisher and other apps, but also
between Publisher versions. We frequently got this scenario:

Pupil sends home a Publisher 97 document. Pupil opens Publisher 97 document
at home with Publisher 2000. It opens successfully, pupil does work, saves
document and sends it back to school. At school the document no longer opens
with our 97 version. Work is effectively lost and cannot be assessed as we
only have Publisher 97.

There are a great many other reasons not to use Publisher - document
corruption, loss of ability to print, etc. etc..

-- 
Phillip Deackes