Most of my work comes from my websites, so I could really work out of a bolt hole.
Depending on the types of clients you have, many larger clients will want work done in Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, etc. This is just the facts of life.
But I use my copy of CS5.5 as a pass through filter when a client or publication insists on having a document in a certain file type. And to convert images for book and magazine publication to grayscale and CMYK. Designer Pro 7 can export to CMYK but I have never felt real confident about Designer's CMYK TIFF filter. Other than this everything I do is done in Designer Pro 7. I expect Designer Pro MX to be released sometime before summer if last year's cycle holds true.
The are some limitations in Designer Pro 7 PDF export which I keep hoping they will fix, mainly support for Pantone colors in bitmap images.
I have found over the years, however that a TIFF or PDF/X file is all that is needed for publication.
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