DTP Software?

[Alex79]

I need to make a new prospectus / brochure at work*. I could do it in Photoshop, which I'm pretty confident using, but it would take longer, and be less easy to edit / update. I thought I'd try some desktop publishing software. I downloaded a trial of Adobe inDesign which just seems a bit overwhelming, so I'm just about to try MS Publisher. But does anyone have any relatively easy to use recommendations? Also, has anyone else had to make anything like this and managed to find a decent template as a starting point?

Ta!

*I manage a nursery. It'll be info on our different rooms, policies, pricing, parent testimonials, lots of photos, etc etc.

[JaySevenZero]

What format do you want to publish it in?

I use iBooks Author to create the Periodical (unsure if this is Mac exclusive or whether, like iTunes, there's a Windows version) and that has several formatting options and is pretty darn straightforward to use.

[Alex79]

Looking to publish to PDF probably, but ePub and mobi would be a plus. InDesign can do this but has a horrific learning curve (much like most Adobe products, then!)

I'll check out iBooks Author though thanks. Hopefully there may be a Windows version. If so converting iBook format to PDF shouldn't pose much problem.

[mik]

I'd recommend sticking with InDesign and checking out a tutorial online--there are lots on youtube.

[countstex]

I thought DTP software had pretty much dies off given the power of modern day Word Processors outside of the official industry.. would Microsoft Word or Open Office Writer not suffice for all but the most technical situations?

[Alex79]

Yeah I mean I could do a perfectly functional job in Word, but it's going to be quite graphically heavy and I'd like the layout to change from page to page etc. I don't know, I'll give myself the weekend to learn inDesign before giving up on it.

[magicjoef]

I think DTP is still enough of a specific discipline that Word isn't exactly the right tool. The industry standard is InDesign, so it is worth learning if you are going to be doing a lot of it.

I Googled to see if there are any open source DTP suites. This came up, but I have no idea how good it is, but you can install it for free so maybe worth a look?
http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus