As a fairly proficient user of Pagemaker 6.5, I expected to be able to start using InDesign pretty easily. It didn't happen. So if a how-to book can take me from barely even being able to get a new document open in a software program, to completing an entire client project in that program over a weekend, I'd say it's a pretty darn good instruction manual.

So that's what I'd say about Adobe InDesign CS: One-on-One by Deke McClelland, published by Deke Press/O'Reilly, because that's what it did for me.

Being a writer myself and a professor of writing, I naturally notice writing style when I read--and having some experience in writing technical docs and even documentation, I especially look for readability in training materials. Deke's got it.

Author McClelland--a famous O'Reilly trainer/author who's been writing for them for ages--has a fun, approachable style that is a pleasure to read and takes some of the intimidation out of the to-me-painful process of reading-to-teach-myself-how-to-do-something. I suppose many folks are like me and find it easier to have someone show us. But still a book is a much affordable alternative to a class or a personal trainer.

A little confusing at first where to go--video says you must do certain steps before you begin, but doesn't clearly indicate where in the book those steps are. Also, it's called "install training" on the CD and "install lessons" in the book--why the inconsistency??

Nice quality video. Wonder what's up with the smoke in the background when Deke is talking to us... I like it though. However, the video execution can be jumpy. Later in Lesson 1 the video simply stopped working at all--all sound stopped, all images disappeared. Had to use End Task and restart the video from the CD. Lesson 2 stopped sound--just kept video going. Also, if you lose your place, the fast-forward "chipmunk-voices" function seems a bit clumsy.

When each lesson is over, everything disappears. Have to start the CD again. Unless I missed something, that could definitely be improved.