The Origami Forum

Hi! Robert Lang told me a little while ago that a good (non-macromedia freehand) program for diagramming was Adobe InDesign CS4. Rather than going out and buying the program, I decided to download a trial for it. Well, it is working pretty well (I don't know if I would want to buy it, though) however, how do I make dot-dash lines? anyone know? I am still figuring some stuff out.......

Any help is greatly appreciated!

I've never used InDesign CS4, but I played around with the CS2 version of that program. I didn't find it very easy to use... It's got a LOT of options and tools though.

For dotted lines, try playing with the Stroke Style Editor.

Ah, thanks for taking the time to reply! I really appreciated it . I guess I will try to do the Stroke Style Editor thanks so much!

P.S., I thought CS4 was kinda hard to use, too

Illustrator is sort of overkill for just making diagrams or CPs.
It's like using a calligraphy brush to write a memo, or using a hunting knife to cut your toenails.
You'd probably be better off with a simpler program because there's a lot of features in Illustrator that aren't related to diagramming and will just get in the way and make it more difficult or confusing than it needs to be.

I've heard that Inkscape is good, and it's free too.

Illustrator and InDesign are two different programs.

Illustrator is very similar in options to Freehand, which is the reason that Freehand is being discontinued since Adobe swallowed Macromedia.

InDesign in my opinion is more suitable for arranging the final diagram for a book for example and not so much for drawing the diagrams. You could for example draw the steps in Illustrator then arrange and add the text in InDesign.

I use Illustrator (CS3) for all of my diagrams, and it works quite well. It took a few weeks of experimentation to really learn how to use it, but it was worth it, so just keep trying it, and use the help file and you should be able to figure it out. If you have any specific questions, just PM me and I'll try to help you out (Illustrator and InDesign are different programs but they are similar) Try to find a trial copy of Illustrator and play with it.

I use OpenOffice.org Draw to diagram. Works great and it is free!

Until a couple of year ago I used for work the Corel Suite, and I hve to say that Corel Draw is definitively best soft to do diagrams. It is easy to use and to learn, and it already has all the kind of tools, strokes and the multipage support that you haven't in Illustrator.

Actually I've discovered inkscape, that is basically an open source clone of Corel Draw (even better than Sodipodi), and I find it great.
At the beginning I had some problems of stability, but not that I've solved them, it runs like rocket

InDesign is a publishing tool.
It is great for arrange and paginate web or "to be printed" documents, but using it for diagramming...
Well it could be ok if you already have it, but buying it just for diagramming it sound to me like a waste of money.

Spend a little time with Inkscape and you will not get back

Inkscape is ok for diagramming. It has sufficient amount of functions and it is small (in contrary to Corel Draw). But last release is slightly different in some behavior and I think it is not so much better. I hope next release will be available soon.

Wow everyone! thanks for all the advice and help I will definitely look at these different programs (I have inkscape on my PC, but I haven't really had a chance to use it much). If I ever am looking at an expensive piece of software, I always (try to) download a trial so that I know about the program. I thought that I would get used to it, and that it would be great once I did. If you guys had never replied, I would have gone and bought it! Thanks for saving me so much time, trouble, and money!

I would say learn indesign, if you can. Even if it isn't the right package for putting together diagrams, it's still an excellent piece of software. Steep learning curve, and all the options are a little daunting, but well worth the trouble. If you ever wanted to make your own book of designs, for instance, this is the one.

The indesign for dummies book is a really good aide to getting to grips with it.