Adobe Systems Inc. will announce on Monday that the company is discontinuing ongoing development of PageMaker, Adobe’s Mac OS 9 page layout application. However, Adobe is not leaving its PageMaker customers without a way to upgrade to InDesign and keep the same workflow they have become accustomed to in PageMaker.
Jo Ann Buckner, Senior Product Manager and Paul Kim, Product Marketing Manager at Adobe, explained to MacCentral that the features PageMaker customers were looking for in a new version were already available as part of the recently released Adobe InDesign CS. The last customer concern that Adobe had to deal with was an issue of workflow for PageMaker users. While PageMaker users indicated to Adobe that InDesign was a product they would use, they also expressed concern for the amount of time and money they had invested in creating a productive workflow and didn’t want to lose their investment.
To answer that concern, Adobe on Monday will announce the PageMaker Plug-in Pack for Adobe InDesign. The plug-in pack includes ALAP InBooklet SE; Bullets & Numbering; Position Tool; Data Merge; Enhanced File Converter; Keyboard Shortcuts; Windows Style Toolbar; Template Browser and Professional Templates; and a Training DVD, Supplemental User Guide, Template Guide and Conversion Materials.
The PageMaker Plug-in Pack can be purchased from Adobe for US$49 as an electronic download only. The plug-ins will also be made available as part of Adobe’s Creative Suite (Premium: Full $1,229; Upgrade from Photoshop or Collections — $749 Standard: Full $999; Upgrade from Photoshop or Collections $549) and a new version of InDesign called InDesign CS PageMaker Edition, which will sell for $349.
Adobe expects the PageMaker Plug-in Pack for Adobe InDesign to ship in the first quarter of 2004.