We’ve just released an update to the APID ToolAssistant plug-in – version 1.0.47.

This plug-in has no end-user features; it is mainly an invisible, yet critical component of many popular InDesign plug-ins, both developed by us or by other software developers.

As such, APID ToolAssistant provides support for many of our popular tools, like TextExporter, StoryParker, MagnetoGuides, FrameReporter…

If you are using any tools that rely on APID ToolAssistant, please update to the latest and greatest. In the 1.0.47 release, we’ve concentrated on performance and stability. The few new features we’ve added are mainly of interest to software developers who use APID ToolAssistant as a component for their tools.

In our own range of tools, especially FrameReporter benefits from using the latest APID ToolAssistant – the little info-labels now remain better ‘attached’ to the associated frame, even when rotated or stretched, and APID ToolAssistant now avoids drawing information ‘upside-down’.

Click here for more info about APID ToolAssistant.

Both MagnetoGuides and InDesign Magazine are all about efficiency.

Click here to find out more about this irresistible offer, and to read more about MagnetoGuides click here!

InDesign Magazine is the magazine when it comes to learning how to use InDesign efficiently.

Sure, you can roam around the menu items and help files, and post questions on user forums, and with some luck you’ll actually find the feature you need.

But more often than not, you’ll miss an important feature or trick. Nothing beats knowledge and experience when it comes to finding your way around the vastness of InDesign. InDesign Magazine is one of the easiest ways to gain those.

It contains easy-to-read articles written by a host of well-known InDesign gurus – all down-to-earth people who  speak from experience, and who know how to explain things in plain English.

We have free updates for MagnetoGuides (demo/commercial) and the Color2Gray (freebie).

The Lightning Brain MagnetoGuides has been updated to version 1.0.5 and now supports Adobe® InDesign® CS4 (in addition to CS, CS2, CS3).

This tool helps anyone who needs to lay out structured, repetitive documents, for example, paper forms. It allows to automatically coordinate adjustments to the positioning and size of multiple page items that are scattered over the layout

New feature in MagnetoGuides 1.0.5: magnetized guides now are visually ‘marked’ to make them easier to spot. Click here for more info.

The free Lightning Brain Color2Gray has also been updated to version 1.0.10 and also adds supports Adobe InDesign CS4. Click here for more info.

Color2Gray allows you to convert placed color photos (TIFF, JPEG) to grayscale without modifying the original color image. The converted pictures only render on the black (K) plate.

There’s a new version of MagnetoGuides available – click here for more info!

We’d also like to introduce the alpha release of Lightning Brain GREPGrokker – a free on-line tutor teaching GREP in a visual, interactive way. It’s a work in progress, and it is still early days, but it already works well, and it’s fun! Please have a look and give us some feedback. Click here to try it out.

Finally, Rorohiko has become an Adobe Approved Training Center (AATC), and Kris is now an Adobe Certified Instructor (ACI) for Flex.

We’ve released a beta for a new tool, aimed at people who need to do a lot of work on structured layouts – for example, people doing paper forms design. The tool is called LightningBrain MagnetoGuides and a fully featured, time limited demo beta version is available for dowload now. Licenses for this tool cost US$59.00. Click here to read more and watch an on-line demo.