Help with InDesign and using MacBook Pro with 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB

What's your concern? That's a perfectly reasonable machine. It can run any version of InDesign from CS3 through CS6; of course today you should use CS5.5, which is current. CS6 comes out next month.

InDesign doesn't tend to use a lot of RAM, usually under 1 GB, so I wouldn't worry too much about upgrading until you try it.

If you purchase CS5.5 now, you'll get CS6 for free. http://www.adobe.com/products/discount-software-coupons.html?PID=2159997

My MacBook has a 2Ghz Core2Duo with 4 gigs of RAM. Screamer? No. Perfectly adequate for I do with it? Absolutely, including CS6.

I would certainly recommend a RAM upgrade if you plan on running more than just InDesign but other than that you should be fine.

BTW, Amazon appears to be cutting prices a bit on CS5.5 upgrades. Buying there will still get you a free upgrade to CS6. http://amzn.to/JsMDAI

Bob

Thanks for all the help - it is confusing though. I tried to download the trial version of CS5.5 to explore before buying the student version and the program download froze. I have deleted the doadload assistant and spoke with Adobe who told me my machine would not be compatible unless I upgraded - maybe the RAM to 4GB.

You got bad (wrong) advice.

If the download didn't work, it has nothing to do with the performance characteristics of your machine. You could download CS5.5 on a low-end PC from 10 years ago, it doesn't take much.

Unfortunately Adobe's download manager is a bit flakey. Best advice is to use Firefox and try the download again.

It doesn't have anything to do with the power of your computer, be it speed, processor type, or RAM.

Make sure you're using FIrefox (if not, download and install it first), and then try the download again.

Also, the download manager depends on Java. Make sure you have Java installed (but I think you must, because otherwise the download would not have started?).

If it still doesn't work, give us some more detail. Error message? Screenshot?