Re-learning InDesign

This probably should go on the design thread, but it'll waste away un-read there.

Anyway, does anybody have any idea how long it would take somebody who's been using Quark for two years, but before that was an InDesign guy, to re-learn InDesign? I hadn't touched InDesign in two and a half years until briefly playing around with it on an advertising computer this evening, and while I think I could design a very basic page in it right now, I know for sure my knowledge of it is way below what it used to be. So how long would it take me to be running at my Quark-and-previously-InDesign efficiency on InDesign after such a long hiatus? Anybody ever had that happen to them?

I'm in no immediate hurry to find out -- I'm not switching jobs and as far as I know, we're not switching programs. But if, in the future, we do switch or I do change jobs, I'm curious how long it'll take.

 

Don't know. All I know is, I've been using Quark since I've been in the business and smack dab in the middle of football season we will switch to In-Design. And our normal prep friday deadline just got pushed up by 30 minutes. God be with us.

 

It shouldn't be so awful, Rusty.

After plenty of time using Quark (let's just more than a couple of years), I ended up at a stop with InDesign. Granted, the company was astute enough to give us two full weeks of training, but it took only a few days and I feel like I can switch over with only a couple of bumpy spots along the way.

 

There's an entire thread on this (actually, two or three) on the design board, Rusty. Look on those, you'll get some pointers that helped me out, too.

One thing still confusing me is the fact that there are two arrows in ID, a totally foreign concept.

 

You won't have any problems.

Let me put it to you this way: I had never used InDesign. I had some experience using Illustrator, but hadn't touched the program in 5 years. I started a new job where we use InDesign, and despite having never used it I was able to figure it out intuitively the first time I opened it, just based on my rusty Illustrator skills.

 

had never used indesign and we switched over this month with no training. wasn't really difficult to switch at all. picked up the basics right away. not up to my quark level yet but certainly not sinking into an abyss.

 

I thought InDesign would be a brainbuster for me, a guy who used Quark in various inferior forms over the past six years, but it ended up being a surprisingly painless process. Once you're in the fire, you'll start picking it up quickly. Unless you're throwing in a lot of new style sheets and design principles, you'll be fine.

 

For one, I'll say a big "Thank You" to all who have responded to this thread. I'm in the middle of a job search around the U.S. and, of course, most of the papers I'm looking at use InDesign. I've had experience with Quark. I also go back to the days of Coyotes (no howling, please!!) and ... O God, spare me ... CompuGraphic. So hearing others talk about InDesign and how it should be OK once getting into the swing of using it sure helps.

I love SportsJournalists.com.

I also love Flash ... but I've never met her.

 

Rusty,

I find going back and forth between Quark and InDesign to be only mildly irritating, and the transition doesn't take more than a few days to be complete.

I spent my summer working in both programs. I sucked in Quark 4, but was fine in Quark 7 and InDesign CS2/3.

 

I prefer Quark - for me, InDesign wants one to jump through too many hoops just because it can make one - but I like the fact that I can tell future employers I've worked with both.

 

Rusty, you would likely have very few problems.

I had your exact scenario happen to me ... I had used InDesign, went to Quark for about three years, then had to go back to InDesign. The bigger problem was learning the paper's entire system vs. the actual design program, and after just a few weeks, I felt I was designing better with InDesign than I had been with Quark, because some steps were much easier.

I've since moved on to a new place where I would kill for either.