My absolute favorite is Real World InDesign. The new CS edition is just shipping in about a week (Amazon lists availability in 11-12 days). It also seems to be the favorite reference of my fellow Adobe-ites.

Now, depending on what your approach and background are, and what you are looking for, there may be another book that would also be good to have. But Real World InDesign is the indispensable reference, covering both how to do things, overall complex concepts, and very importantly *why* you would want to do (or not do) certain things. I've had two copies of the ID2 version: one for the home, and one for the office. On those occasions when I need to do something or figure out some InDesign behavior I am not understanding, Real World InDesign has come through pretty much every time.

On top of that it is very well written, being both clear and humorous while conveying complicated ideas.

I hope that helps!

Regards,

T

Thomas Phinney
Program Manager
Fonts & Core Technologies
Adobe Systems

Thanks for the info, Thomas. I've been meaning to ask that same question.

Thank you very much, Thomas!

I may now hijack this thread, but is the CS a must buy for 2.0 users?
I just designed my 1st book (a novel) with 2.0 and it looks OK.
My next book will include pictures and I wonder would I get any real benefit from switching to the CS?

InDesign CS has a fair number of new features. Highlights are here: <http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/newfeatures.html>

A really big (5.7 MB) PDF listing new features is here: <http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/pdfs/indesign_nfhs.pdf>

However, the two biggest things in my opinion are fewer bugs, and significantly better performance.

Also newly available is the "PageMaker Plug-in Pack" which adds some additiojnal features. <http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/pm_pack.html>

Hope that helps....

T

>>However, the two biggest things in my opinion are fewer bugs, and significantly better performance

You're probably right.
I've worked for software companies quite a bit and they are almost always the biggest improvements in any new version.
Its a shame that customers can't see the value in those improvements (or that marketing departments can't see that customers do see the value...)
If only new versions could be marketed as "Less buggy and slow than the thing we sold you 2 years ago", then there wouldn't be the need for so many new features, which end up introducing new bugs, and slowing the whole thing down again.

As someone trying to extend the usable life of my old blue+white G3 (450mhz/768MB RAM), would you imagine CS to be a net positive, or a negative compared to Indesign 2? I don't feel like I need the features (and am wary of the lack of backwards compatibility), but is it really noticably faster/more stable? If Apple can do it with OSX, no reason Adobe can't, I suppose!