Motivation: Finding a good book on Adobe InDesign is not easy as one might presume.
Feature: Adobe InDesign CS One on One turns out to be the right book.

One of the strengths of Adobe products has been the consistently good to excellent documentation, a constantly improving help system and Adobe's ability to get a lot of writers to describe their soft wares- and in several variations from beginner to advanced pro books.

But for some reason when I went looking for an InDesign book - I just couldn't find what I was looking for. A book that was not for Dummies but also did not start in on Pantone swatches and was not the heavy Bible with scores of chapters that discourage a quick scan and learn.

So I was relieved to discover that O'Reilly Press' Adobe inDesign One on One by Deke McClelland delivers on 3 out of 4 of my wishes. The book is 450 pages, 12 chapters and delivered in sumptuous colors with carefully chosen screenshots and illustrations plus a CD with lots of resources including a nearly two hour set of video tutorials that compliment the text very well.

Unfortunately, readers pay a price for sumptuous colors - the book is thinner than the Bibles but unfortunately probably weighs more because of its use of clay in the paper. But it is a small price to pay for clarity in exposition.

On my contract assignments, frequently I need to come up to speed on the latest software on site. This past Fall it was InDesign CS. I have used InDesign before but sparingly preferring Corel Ventura (its like my loyalty for the St Louis Cardinals - first team, first polished DTP). But on this project we would be doing a lot of inserting of screen shots and some of unusual shape. So being up to speed on text wrap for graphics with InDesign would be a priority.

A quick glance through the Table of Contents (that's why I don't want the Bible's 69 chapters and verse) reveals that Lesson 7 -Importing and Modifying Artwork: Wrapping Text around Graphics looks promising. Flip inside the book and just glancing through 6-8 pages on text wrapping and I know from the illustrations and the Pearls of Wisdom (small advisory asides dotted throughout the book) that this is likely to have a lot of the answers I need.

Sure enough, I get careful step by step instructions aided and abated by the sample files on the CD in all the intricacies of text wrapping. And I like Deke's writing style => "Text wrap may win my vote for the hardest feature to locate in InDesign. First, instead of implementing it as a command, the way it is in Quark Express, InDesign gives you a palette. Second, even though you apply text wrap to an object - and typically a graphic object, InDesign groups the feature with the type palettes....". The style is very approachable because it is not afraid to comment on some of the foibles or just missed expectations in the product. Also Quark Express users will really like the comparison to their tool made throughout the book.

But equally important is that each step of the way doing the exercises is not only carefully described but also matched with illustrations. Deke really knows how to do documentation. But the icing on the cake for me is the fact that Deke explores different ways of doing some of the important tasks like graphics finishing or the use of clipping paths or the use of XML content. each of these topics gets a second and third "how to" so you feel much more comfortable working with the feature. And always at the end of each chapter there is a summary of "What did you learn" including key concepts and terminology which you have to match with the corresponding description. Yes the old pop quiz and it works.

In sum, give top marks for this book to Deke and O'Reilly Press - InDesign pitched at a very useful level to this wannabee a quick expert.