InDesign (or Quark) set-up for creating manuals

[suzy wilson]

Hi - I'm trying to find out the best way of setting-up InDesign v4 (which we haven't bought yet - just trying it out) to create technical manuals of around 200 - 300 pages. My biggest worry is whether InDesign can automatically link text on all pages and that I don't have to manually draw frames on each page and link them. Is this possible? I looked at the help files but couldn't find an answer, and when I drew a frame on the master it wouldn't let me type within this frame on a normal page. Also, if you then drag and drop pages from another document, will it mess up the linked text? I don't know whether it's best to create a 'document' or 'book' for a manual- anyone know?

Another thing while I'm here :) if anyone has used either InDesign or Quark 7 for creating manuals, could they let me know which they prefer - we're still deciding which one to buy and our choice is going to be based on how good it is at linking text easily, creating a PDF manual to print, contents and index generation, easy to set-up and use tags/styles.

Any help is much appreciated!!

Suzy

[PrintDriver]

I've not used InD for something that large. One of the others will be along to help you with those linking/master questions.

As for the Q vs InD debate, you'll not get a good response on that. It's been going on now for 3 years. Q diehards (or those with entrenched work flows) and InD converts are all vocal. There is no clear winner. Yet.

[Jam]

Check out this....
http://www.indesignsecrets.com/
they have a great number of tutorials or guides to creating documents as you describe.

[suzy wilson]

Hi there,

Thanks for the info - that's pretty much what I've been hearing too, that opinion is divided. I'll try and test each product a bit more thoroughly and see how I get on - expect to hear lots more questions from me on this forum!!

:confused:

Suzy