Photoshop Insider

Unexplainable Phenomenon

By Scott on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 1:06 am | updates.

This would have a made a great April Fools joke, if only it weren’t true, but check out what’s available for sale, brand new in a box from Adobe on their online store; That’s right—PageMaker 7.0. I’m not joking—here’s the link, go and see for yourself (it’s $499 for the full version, but you can get the upgrade starting at $79, depending, of course, on which version of PageMaker you’re currently using).

Now, seeing this brings up a number of questions, the first being, “Why is it there?” There can only be one logical explanation—people still buy it. Think about it—if nobody bought it, Adobe certainly wouldn’t be stocking it, they’d remove the product from the store, and that would be the end of it. But it’s there, and I even added it to my shopping cart just to see if it’s for real, and……son-of-a-gun it’s for real.

OK, now that we know it’s real; what computer made today could possibly run it? Believe it or not—it says it runs on Windows XP (I kid you not!). It says it will also run on a Mac with OS X, but you have to have a version that will let you run it in Classic Mode (in other words, a really old version of Mac OS X). There are third and fourth questions that immediately spring to mind (like what are the “New” features that appear under the “New Feature” link), but instead lets just take a moment and everybody, come on, say it out loud—”Who in the world is buying PageMaker?” Makes you stop and think, doesn’t it?

Comment form for this post

^#1

I am ashamed to say it, but the County I work for uses Page Maker 7 to publish their annual budget report. Sad I know. But true.

~JV

John Voegeli on April 1st, 2008 at 1:33 am

^#2

happy pagemaker fools day

Stephan on April 1st, 2008 at 1:57 am

^#3

I was going to say it looked like an April Fools joke but it’s actually there!
-Jason

Jason D. Moore on April 1st, 2008 at 9:00 am

^#4

I’ve never used Pagemaker. But my local newspaper still uses Quark 4…. despite the fact we have the CS2 Suite. 0_o

Randy on April 1st, 2008 at 9:20 am

^#5

That’s positively retro.

Jessicam on April 1st, 2008 at 9:27 am

^#6

Well, everyone should check again April 2nd

Thiago on April 1st, 2008 at 10:11 am

^#7

If you want to see a fun April Fools joke, see Terry White’s Tech Blog today.

Jason D. Moore on April 1st, 2008 at 11:00 am

^#8

I work with someone who still uses PageMaker (6.5, no less) to do layouts. I don’t knock it because if it works for you and you know it well, no reason not to use it. The file also worked extremely well when I opened it with ID CS3.

Jeremy Schultz on April 1st, 2008 at 1:00 pm

^#9

I knew ahead of time it this was a joke but you still got me to look Nice work LOL I’m enjoying this years round of April Fools posts. Its been equally fun writing for and reading others posts for the day.

Jim Goldstein on April 1st, 2008 at 7:25 pm

^#10

Know ye not that PageMaker was, and still is, loved? Whether or not this is an April Fool’s Joke, I have many fond memories from 1991 of the old Aldus PageMaker in the violet/white box. I have used many different page layout programs but PageMaker was always my favorite.

S P Myers on April 2nd, 2008 at 1:14 am

^#11

I still have the Mac disks from 1.0 Aldus PageMaker and currently use 7.1 with OSX 10.4.11. We have lots of instruction manuals, simple layout, not fine art, but neat. Yeah, I’ve got CS3, could use ID, but PageMaker is smaller, faster, lighter and is all I need to get the job done. Besides I don’t want to spend the time to covert all those manuals, in several languages, make sure the layouts don’t change, etc. There was a time before email that I would compose faxes in PageMaker and send them directly from the Mac. Made beautiful messages. It is still my word processor of choice. Letters look a lot better than in Word(ugh). Some tools are good enough. I use it with a 17″ G4, the last iteration before Intel, which is getting a little long in the tooth. Maybe it’s the difference between a fancy new graphite fly rod and the old hand made bamboo one with the great feel. I’ll miss it when it’s gone.

Peter Nord on April 2nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm

^#12

I found your blog through Miz Booshay and thought this post was absolutely hilarious. I used PageMaker for YEARS and am now a true InDesign convert from Quark. I’ll be checking back often for tips and fun stuff. Thanks for such a great site!

Missy on April 9th, 2008 at 5:04 pm