PDF Converter For Adobe InDesign Editing:
OmniMarkz Review by Dave Clayton,
InDesign Designer / Speaker / Author
Dave Clayton, Graphic Designer at ProCook, Graphic Designer / Instructor at Dave Clayton,
Instructor at KelbyOne / Kelby Media Group UK, Author, Podcast Host, Speaker at
Adobe MAX, PhotoshopWorld, Creative South, CreativePro, Print Design Summit, & more
An Adobe applications expert who is an experienced graphic designer offers helpful observations, in the following OmniMarkz review video. Creative professional, Dave Clayton has developed his skills at multiple locations, including a print and packaging firm and his own successful graphic design business at itsdaveclayton.com.
Dave is a Speaker for Adobe Max, KelbyOne, Photoshop World, Lightbox, Creative South, CreativePro, Photoshop Virtual Summit, and Print Design Summit. Among Dave’s many accomplishments, he is also the Author of the “How Do I Do That In InDesign?” book. He also hosts the He Shoots, He Draws Podcast.
A true advocate for freedom of content, Dave frequently handles document workflows that require converting PDFs into Adobe InDesign. As Dave knows, more and more PDF and DTP document users are seamlessly converting various file types into InDesign with Markzware’s reliable OmniMarkz application.
Dave Clayton recommends OmniMarkz to other graphic designers for PDF to InDesign conversion, calling OmniMarkz his “Swiss army knife“. He comments on this unrivaled software to transition content from PDF, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, and other files into Adobe InDesign. His testimonial also affirms the OmniMarkz application’s efficient qualities, such as easy start up and intuitive interface.
Video: OmniMarkz for Graphic Design:
PDFs to InDesign | Customer Interview with Dave Clayton
In this OmniMarkz testimonial video, Markzware interviews Dave Clayton, a
Certified Adobe InDesign & Illustrator instructor and highly-regarded Graphic Designer.
During this engaging, educational conversation, Dave shares his enthusiasm for OmniMarkz,
an essential, game-changing tool in his workflow for graphic design file conversion.
You Can Convert PDFs to InDesign, Too!
OmniMarkz is an invaluable and versatile solution to convert Microsoft Word, Affinity Publisher, and Canva PDFs into InDesign. Visit the OmniMarkz page to discover how to streamline your PDF to InDesign conversions, with an indispensable desktop publishing tool.
Transcript Excerpt
Markzware: Hi, everybody. David Dilling from Markzware. And, today, well, actually last week, we did a great interview with Dave Clayton, here. Dave and I can really get talking. Maybe it has something to do with the name, I’m not sure, but the full interview is almost an hour long. I’m going to put a link to that, later, probably early next week.
At any event, till then, I just want to get you the highlights about OmniMarkz, our bundle of IDMarkz, QXPMarkz, and PDFMarkz, for converting InDesign, QuarkXPress, PDFs, and native Illustrator files, right into Adobe InDesign, Affinity Publisher, or other applications, even IDML. So, OmniMarkz can also fix bad InDesign files, which is really cool.
So, without further ado, here are segments from the interview about OmniMarkz, actually just the highlights. There’s a lot more. He goes into great detail about workflows and Astute Graphics and Illustrator PDFs, InDesign, you name it, Adobe MAX, which is coming up. So, anyway, here’s the interview. So, if you could give this YouTube video a thumbs up and maybe share it, it would really help us. We really appreciate that. Hope you enjoy it. See you at the end of the video. Take care.
Makes better quality and takes less time, when possible. And, then, you’re just moving forward, not moving backwards. So, Dave, now you’re using OmniMarkz. How was your first getting set up with it? How did that all go for you?
Dave Clayton: It was so simple, to be honest with you. I mean, that’s the thing I love about good software, is the effort that’s been put in, to make it user friendly. But the first install of it was kind of like, “Oh, okay. Here it is. It’s ready.” And, then, you see it’s there. I put it in my Dock and, like most things with a Dock, you can drag a file straight onto the icon. It opens up. It’s so intuitive, as well. I’ve had a couple of files at home, which were old, historical files that I’d created for a radio station and it was a couple of leaflets from another company. And I had the same problem.
At the time, they had sent me artwork and said. “Hey, we need this. We need this changing, we need this updating. Can you … ?” And they sent it to me, and it was all outlined. It was horrible, but it was a PDF. So I thought, “Right. Let’s see how good this new OmniMarkz is.”
So, I dragged this PDF onto it, opened it up. And, then, obviously, the window came up and, on the left-hand side, you see the document. But what I love was, on the right-hand side, it tells you how many images were embedded, it tells you what the fonts were, it tells you how many fonts are in the document, and it gives you all this information about that file, that is already understood.
Markzware: Like a mini FlightCheck, is what it is.
Dave Clayton: Yeah. So, it kind of gives you an opportunity to sort of start planning. “Okay. What can I do with this document?” So, obviously, at the top, we’ve got InDesign, Illustrator, and PowerPoint. I’ve not got it open, at the moment. I should open it, really. But, obviously, for me, the InDesign was the important one.
Straight away, like a first-time user, I didn’t do any training, because that’s how I like to use software. I like to open it up and see how intuitive it is.
So, I dragged it on, opened it up, and looked up. InDesign. There is an InDesign file. I tidied the bits up that I needed to, changed out a couple of images, obviously, saved it back out, and sent it to the customer.
Markzware: You have to really check it, because any conversion, you should really check it out. We get a lot of these PDFs from Word or PowerPoint, and they’re using OmniMarkz, and it’s amazing! It’s like, “Wow!” In the last few years, another one that’s has just been amazing and is going up is Canva PDFs.
Dave Clayton: Yeah.
Markzware: And they’re getting to more complex and longer documents. Obviously, InDesign is the king of having long documents. It’s like the one interview I had with a lady in a U.S. non-profit.
She made her book and, then, she realized that to do Print On Demand, Amazon, Ingram, or whatever service she went through, they required InDesign files for the Print On Demand process.
So, she had stress. She found us, to convert her Canva PDF, with a click. It didn’t need any touching up, in her case. InDesign file to the printer. And, now, she’s making money for a charity, with Print On Demand of her books.
Dave Clayton: So, we’ll get the work. We shouldn’t compete with each other for the work, but it does give you an advantage, when you’re looking to do a job, like, “Hey, look! I can do that conversion! If you’ve got a ton of files to convert, don’t worry. I’ve got a tool that can help that process. I’ve got this tool, over here, that allows me to be more creative. I can take your PDF, I can use this program to turn it into an Illustrator file, and I’ve got this tool, here, that will clean it up and make it more creative.” I’ve got a workflow that enables me to be a more efficient designer.
Markzware: Like you said, education is key, and that’s why we’re here, actually, because it’s all about sharing with other people. What’s your experience? I’d like to hear about the workflow with OmniMarkz, in particular. Would you recommend OmniMarkz to other potential users?
Dave Clayton: Oh, I’m not just saying this, because we’re speaking. Outside of plug-ins for Illustrator, if you are working with any PDF and another piece of creative software, whether it’s PowerPoint, InDesign, or Affinity, OmniMarkz should be in your Dock.
It’s just like a spoon, you know. If you go to a cutlery drawer, it’s a knife, a fork, and a spoon. OmniMarkz is the spoon. You can’t have it, without it. And I like it. So, I’m not just saying it because we’re talking.
And, now, let’s say, it’s in my Dock, and I probably use it five to six times, minimum, a week, depending on what my workflow is. And that’s at home and at work, because, obviously, I’m trying to get the whole team on it, now.
So, now, we’ve got a new marketing manager. I’m putting my case forward for everyone to have software. But, for me, it’s just, yeah. It’s in my Dock at home. It’s in my Dock at work, so that I can just quickly go, “Right. Okay. This is a job for OmniMarkz.” It’s there.
Without thinking about it, I’ll drag a file in. It opens up. It gives me the information. Yeah, I would say, if you’re doing that kind of work, OmniMarkz should be one of the products you’re using, because you will use it, day to day.
You will find it useful. If not, like, on a daily basis, you will find yourself using it to a point where you’re glad you’ve got it there, everyday. It’s such a super time-saving and a stressless tool. Anything that takes the anxiety out of work is great.
And I love the fact that I can say, a couple of times, I’ve actually used a different conversion, to see what it looks like. “Oh, let’s see what this looks like in PowerPoint.” And it does such a good job of understanding the structure of the file and giving it to you in a way that allows you to continue working.
And, like I said, you have to double check everything. A couple of times, in InDesign, it might put a couple of things together, in one frame, but you’re able to see it. It’s right in front of you.
Markzware: It’s got all your layers, live text, elements, and colors. And it’s just much faster than recreating an entire brochure, booklet, or what-have-you. It just saves so much time and effort.
Dave Clayton: What I love, as well, is it understands. It knows what typeface is in the PDF, because, obviously, the information’s in there, but that’s the other thing. The PDF holds so much information, that the fact that it can extract that and go, “Oh, hey, that’s using Montserrat, that’s using Helvetica.”
Obviously, if you haven’t got that typeface on your system in InDesign, you know what typeface it’s going to find or it substitutes it. And it’s another great tool for … I’m trying to think who it was. Extensis had something where you were able to go and look through, like, every document on your system that included a typeface, so that you could go in.
And the same with OmniMarkz. It’s because you’ve got these PDFs that, maybe, the company’s changed from Helvetica Neue to Montserrat. You’re able to go in and find all these documents, bring them into InDesign, set styles, and then you change the style. And it can change the type, in the whole document, and then, you can re-export it back to a PDF for print, and keep going. It’s a Swiss army knife.
Markzware: That’s a good one, Dave! We used to say it’s a Swiss army knife with all the different conversion options, preview options, and file information that you get. So, well said. Dave, I really appreciate the time. We’re almost an hour on the zoom, here. That’s amazing! It’s been a pleasure.
Dave Clayton: That was so quick!
Markzware: Yeah, it doesn’t seem like it. It just went. Wow! Could you show your book, again, Dave? The InDesign one.
Dave Clayton: It’s “How Do I Do That In InDesign?” with Rocky Nook. If you go to bit.ly/INDESIGNBOOK, it’ll take you to a landing page, and you can download it. I added an extra one.
There’s two full PDF extracts. I think each has got about 50 tips from the book. You can get both of them, now. So, it subscribes you to my newsletter, and that is kind of a once-a-month thing, where I’m just putting loads of free deals.
Markzware: I got your LinkedIn profile. I’ll put a link to that. That’s a nice profile. And I see itsdaveclayton.com. Is that up and running?
Dave Clayton: itsdaveclayton.com, yes. I’m just working on it, at the moment. It never is finished.
Markzware: All designers are always working on their webpages.
Dave Clayton: Oh, I recognize that. A decorator never has a finished decorated house.
Markzware: Or a printer never has a business card, you know. So, awesome! Well, Dave, thank you so much for the time. We really appreciate it. Yeah. And good luck in the U.S., with Adobe MAX, and thank you. We’ll talk to you soon.
Dave Clayton: Yeah. Thank you very much, David. See you soon.
Markzware: Alright. Take care. Get Approved. Get Content. Be Creative. markzware.com
PDF Converter For Adobe InDesign Editing: OmniMarkz Review by InDesign Designer/Speaker/Author, Dave Clayton
