Need help w/Pagemaker

Of course, I guess my first question should be "does anyone even use Pagemaker anymore?"

If you do, perhaps you can help me. I lay out a couple newsletters a year for a good friend. He has some photos in the newsletters, but he usually has those placed in last by a graphic designer who, you know, knows what he's doing. That, however, is getting a bit pricy, and another computer-savvy friend of his says I could place the photos myself.

But every time I try, the photos come out all fuzzy and warped. I can't seem to reduce them to size and/or crop them so they look like normal photos should. Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance!

 

Sorry, Beej. I haven't used Pagemaker since high school. Don't even remember how.

 

I haven't used it since my early college days. It would take me a long time to get back up to speed, probably a LOT longer than it took for me to pick QuarkXPress back up when I started by current gig.

Have you tried working with the photos in Photoshop before using PageMaker?

 

1) Rip PageMaker out of computer
2) Toss far out the window
3) Toast to doing the above with chilled beverage of your choice.

You're welcome, BYH.

 

Thanks Sam. I had a feeling that was coming, you jerk.

If I did anything design-wise beyond this, I'd get the new programs. But it's not worth the expense to design a few things a year.

Still waiting for help DAMMIT!!!!

 

Download Quark or InDesign for free off a file-sharing network. You're welcome.

 

Just make sure the right heads go with the right bodies.

 

You sized the pix in Photoshop first, right?

 

Good question. A follow up is whether they're fuzzy when you print them or just on the computer.

 

;D

 

1. Most newer versions of both require passcodes. (Of course, you could pony up only -- used for comparative purposes -- a couple hundred and have a college friend of yours buy them for you, as opposed to shelling out $1,000.)

2. Playing with zip files coming from a download service ain't exactly a safe proposition.

 

GMTA.