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Provides: Media creation and alteration
Developer: Adobe
Requirements: Varies per product/suite (see Adobe's website)
Retail Price: Varies per product/suite (see Adobe's website)
The task is truly daunting: the release of eighteen major applications along with a wide peripheral collection of many supporting applications, web-based applications, Flash-based applications, and associated shared resource applications. To release any one of these is a big task, to release them all, on the same day is, well, either risky or reckless. To be successful at it is amazing. To do it 5 times in a row, is battling luck. But if Pixar can be successful time after time, why not Adobe?
The range of product improvements goes from subtle and cool to drop-down amazing. When you consider that John Nack, product manager from Photoshop, was warning users to not expect much because of the chores of changing Photoshop from a Carbon to a Cocoa application (meaning it runs natively in the Intel environment) and then brings us not only Content Aware Healing and a significant improvement in HDR, but also some of the best noise reduction on the shelves, only leaves the user to wonder what the next release will do now that PS is fully Cocoa and fully 64 bit.
[Important hardware note: To do all this, Adobe had to draw a line: CS5 works in Intel Macs only. If you still have a G4 or G5 PowerPC computer, it's time to update. Also, if you chose to obtain a low-level video card, or the PowerBook you purchased only came with a limited video card, be prepared to have somewhat hindered features from some applications like Photoshop or Premier Pro. Both of them work better with a higher end video cards with OpenGL. Some of the OpenGL dynamics were presented in Photoshop CS4 with (for example) flick-panning. Now, more and more of these higher end visual features depend upon OpenGL and to get all of the bells and whistles will require OpenGL. And there's one more wrinkle in this regard. If you purchased one of the early Intel Mac Pros, and because you are not a gamer, you elected to get the Nvidia GeForce 7300 (like I did), well, here's the deal. For whatever reason, if you want an updated video driver, you have to get that from Apple, not Nvidia. At some point during OS X.5, Apple stopped updating the driver. To get as much out of that video card as possible, you MUST update to X.6. That's it plain and simple. For what it's worth, Snow Leopard is a great update and I've only had a few small shareware applications fail to work in X.6 and with both of those, the company has ceased to exist, so their time was limited anyway.]
Not one of these releases is Ho Hum. Overall, this has to collectively be one of the biggest improvements in a collection of software ever. Despite that, you might end up expecting/hoping for more. InDesign is still waiting for Footnote/Endnote improvements. Dreamweaver is still the coders dream, not the designer's dream. Illustrator still cannot let the user alter a round corner rectangle after the mouse button has been released.
But keep in mind that each of these complaints are complimented by other issues that make each product significantly better in many other ways. If every product was finally made perfect, there'd never need be another update. Meanwhile, it seems that every update provides only more features we want, so the story never ends and the products keep on coming, every 18 months or so.
I remember at the January 2000 MacWorld expo in San Francisco I was asking both Macromedia and Adobe about how well their respective software worked with each other. I was curious as to whether how much one could easily, efficiently, and quickly have their programs interacting with each other to obtain the best possible results. While I'd love to take responsibility for instigating the whole Suite concept, it's much more likely that others were thinking along the same lines: in 2002 Macromedia released Macromedia Studio MX and by 2003 the first Creative Suites were being released by Adobe. By 2005 after Macromedia Studio 8 had been released, Adobe purchased Macromedia, and so begot CS3, the first release that merged the two corporations lines. And all of that brings us to the Creative Suites 5.
Why should you consider the suites? Simple: value. If you use ONLY one application from all of Adobe's product line, than don't bother to read on, go out and play, it's springtime, soon summer. But if you consider that the standard release of Photoshop is $699 and Illustrator is $599, the combined price for the two is $1298. For $1299 you can purchase the Design Standard and get InDesign and Acrobat 9 for free. To see the full list of the various products and the various Suite combinations check out this comparison chart here that displays the different products, which Suite contain those products, and how much they cost.
In a nutshell the Suites break down like this: Design Premium: $1899 (upgrade $599); Design Standard: $1299 (upgrade $499); Web Premium $1799 (upgrade $599); Production Premium: $1699 (upgrade $599): and the grand colossus: the Master Collection: $2599 (upgrade $899). Yes, that's a lot of money, but if you were to purchase each product from the MC as a separate item, you'd be spending $6987. That's like buying a car piece-by-piece.
By the way, if you are a student or educator, there are considerable discounts available to you that can be seen here.
Over the next month, I will try to review in depth a select group from all of these applications. I'd love to do more but I try as a reviewer to focus in depth a few programs that I know rather than write on items that I am not really familiar or knowledgable about. (Fortunately, one of our other writers, Kirk Hiner, will be supplementing on some of the other applications.) But here, let me gloss over some of the basics: the installing process, the new Help system, and an overview of the new on-line products and support. I'm doing generalities here, so please do not look for too many specifics.
When CS3 was released the big hubbub was the major change in application icons. Known informally as "the elements," some cheered the change as it was much easier to recognize applications by letters as opposed to wondering if the butterfly was InDesign or Illustrator. Others jeered the lack of design sense (in their design-sensed mind). CS4 essentially brought different colors, now we have a semi-3d ambiance shape as shown below (for all of the applications that have icons). While some claim that they look like books, others see empty money clips (after purchasing the software). Your call.
Atypical from past releases is that there is no new version of Acrobat. In the past, a new version of Acrobat was released from 2-4 months prior to the release of next version of CS. This meant that those who were in a hurry to purchase the next release of Acrobat were able to get the end of the cycle of that version of the Suite. The patient were able to wait a bit and purchase the next Suite release and obtain the most recent release of Acrobat. What was happening was that people wised up to this and realized that if the new version of Acrobat had been released, a new version of CS was coming up soon. This time, there's no sign whatsoever of Acrobat 10. Nonetheless, Acrobat 9 is supplied with each version of CS5 as a separate disk in the box.
Another difference between this release and past ones is that the disks are now provided in separate white sleeves in a small cardboard box. The past CD case with hinged supports for the disks is now gone.
Activation is still with us with the same dynamics: for each product or CS box you purchase (or download), you are entitled to two seats. That means two computers you sit at. Thus, if you have a desktop and a laptop, you can install your Adobe products on each of them with no problem. If you get a new computer though, you must DEACTIVATE the software from one computer before you install it on another or you will get a message telling you that you already have the software installed on two computers and one of them must be deactivated before you can install onto a third. Fortunately Adobe will help you if you've had a hard drive crash or a stolen computer and deactivating is beyond reach. If you need extra support (or you do not have an internet connection) there is a phone number where you can get additional assistance. I recently had an issue with activation on an older piece of software (that is no longer supported by Adobe) and was very pleased with the service I received from Adobe. [Note: to deactivate your previous version of CS software, look in the Help menu. Also, be sure to formally uninstall your older CS software rather than just deleting it in the trash can. If you look in your Utilities folder (inside your Applications folder) you will find a folder called Adobe Installers. Within that folder you will find an item to uninstall previously installed Adobe products.] [Extra note: these uninstallers can only uninstall items that the installer installed. Thus any subsequent plugins, files, scripts, swatches, etc. that have been subsequently installed will not be deleted. After running the uninstaller, you may chose to go through and delete any remaining items.
Probably the biggest disappointment with both the Suites and the individual applications is the continued lack of any formal mechanism to save and/or transfer any scripts, actions, swatches, workspaces, etc. from CS(whatever) to this new release. So, when you install, be prepared to start the customize process. If you know where your self-generated items are kept, you can manually move them over to the new version. If you do some Google searching you might find support as to where on your hard drive the old items were kept. Keep in mind that some items like Actions may not work in CS5 due to changes in the product. One day, and I hope it comes soon (maybe CS6?) there will either be automated transferring of personally created items or one central location for finding past ones. Unfortunately, that day hasn't come yet.
Another difference with the suite is the addition of the full line of Acrobat.com and CS Review. Acrobat.com was introduced in Acrobat 9 and I've found it to be a wonderful opportunity. Now Acrobat.com is found throughout the entire Suite. Specifically, Acrobat.com provides a variety of on-line services.
My favorite service is the basic Acrobat.com screen sharing tool where I can share my screen (or I can view one of their screens) with up to two people via an internet connection for free across any browser. To give an idea of the value of this, my son currently is in Africa doing volunteer teaching of English. The village he's in is very small and there is no playground equipment for any of the kids. So he designed some swings, teeter-totters, and other standard stuff but wanted my opinion on the design. I do woodworking, he doesn't. After getting himself to a city with internet access, and with us talking on Skype, I was looking at his screen. Between the two of us, we designed playground equipment while each of us were half-way around the world.
Is that cool or what?
Other features within Acrobat.com is an on-line word processer (Buzzword), A presentation program (Presentation), and a spreadsheet (Table). Since these are on-line, that means that any number of people can collaborate, view, comment upon, and/or analyze the same document since everything, application to the document, is on-line. Note that it is also possible to link Buzzword documents to a document within InDesign. There is also BrowserLab where you can view how websites will look on a variety of platforms and browsers (as opposed to having multiple computers and browsers sitting around your office), and Adobe Story for script writing.
In addition there is also a review region, called CS Review where you can invite people to observe and comment on your work. You can upload documents from InDesign, DreamWeaver, Photoshop, etc. I will have a formal review of these features in an upcoming review.
All of these are provided with a one-year complimentary trial. After one year there will be a charge for use. Considering that most shareware lets you have about 30 days, 1 year is sufficiently long enough for most people to determine if purchasing it will be in their interest.
I bring up these features because one of the dynamics of CS5 is that during the instillation process you will be asked for your Adobe ID. You might already have one: have you ever played in kuler, Adobe's color playground [http://kuler.adobe.com/]? How about downloading plugins or other features from Adobe Exchange [http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/] where you can download both free and not free plugins for various Adobe applications? If you have, than you already have an Adobe ID (it's probably your email address and a password). While you can do a full instillation without your Adobe ID, if you want access to all of these other features you will need to supply your Adobe ID as part of the registration process. If you don't supply your Adobe ID, the software will continue to work just fine, but you will receive an occasional lingering (pestering annoying) request that you register and supply your Adobe ID.
The obvious issue here is that some people just do not like to supply their information (no matter how limited) and/or they work in an environment within a firewall and outside internet access just doesn't exist. That's a matter for you and your company. But if you do have access, it's your call.
Lastly there's Adobe Help files. Adobe hasn't shipped paper manuals in a long time, I'm pretty sure it was the original CS1. Over the years, Adobe has provided manuals as PDFs and various Help applications that were installed on your computer. Now, Adobe has a variety of Help support, but the primary one you get when you select from the Help menu from your application is a new application that lets you access the on-line help. The advantage of this is that it is constantly being updated. The disadvantage is that it's on-line. If you have a weak internet connection and/or you work at a location where access to the internet is limited or nonexistent, you are somewhat screwed. There are options, albeit weak ones. For example, you can select to work offline, but before you do that you do need to let the Help file download any files so that subsequent Help access will be internet free. The primary purpose here is if you know you will be in a location away from internet access you can pre-save all the Help that you might need. (Spontaneous travel needs to be planed for?) Alternatively you can download the PDF Manuals for each application. Again, this does rely upon the internet but is a more viable option for internet-free corporations where the IT can download the PDF manuals and manually (or through a server) install them on users' computers. However, when you select Help from the Help menu of any given application, it will not transfer you to the PDF manual.
I find all of these options surprisingly limited and short sided. At a minimum, the PDFs should be available on the disks that install the software on your machine.
Sadly, Adobe Help, whether on a PDF, The Adobe Help Center, The Adobe Help Viewer, or this new Adobe Help, the help has always been limited at best.
On the other hand, Adobe continues to reach out and supply a tremendous amount of other options to teach, educate, and demonstrate what their software can do and how to do it. Talk to any product manager and they will tell you that the most common answer to feature requests is that the application can already do "that." It's more the rule than the exception that the user didn't look for the feature in any manual. Below is a screenshot of what you get if you select Dreamweaver's Help options (other applications are essentially the same). If you look on the right hand side, you can see links that open up Adobe web sites within this Help viewer to view both text and video tutorials. Also note access to the PDF manual link on the upper right. If you click on that, the PDF will open within the Help window. Let me warn you that you do NOT want to do that because if you do, there's no way to save that PDF onto your computer. From a browser you can download and save from a standard web browser, but not from here. If you do click on the link, you can wait for the 20-30 MB file to download before you can see anything, or click on the left-facing arrow to return to where you were prior to clicking on the link. There does not appear to be any way to save the PDF manual from this Help viewer. On the other hand, if you look above the "View Help PDF (20 MB) link, you will see a URL (http://help.adobe.com/en_US/dreamweaver...) (depending on how wide your Help window is, the amount of this link will vary). That is a clickable link and if you click on that, your default browser (e.g., Safari, FireFox, whatever) will take you to that page. From that page within your browser, you CAN click on the PDF link to download the PDF manual.
Amongst the various opportunities that Adobe provides directly to teach you how to use these applications, after registering your software, you will receive an offer for various "gifts" for registering. There will be such options as two free issues of Layers magazine, a free Adobe font, or, amongst other options, a free month of Lynda.com. This last one is something you might consider, but be sure to block out a month that you know you can devote a large section to suck up as much information as you can. You will be sent a code to use at Lynda.com, and until you enter that code, the month hasn't started, but once you do, that month will go fast. Alternatively you can always purchase more Lynda.com time (by the month or the year) and take as much time as you want. I have found their tutorials well worth the time I've spent there.
Despite extensive beta testing, there have already been issues that have cropped up after release (and there are likely to be a few more. Updates for software, not unlike death and taxes will always be with us. But whether you wait an extra month or so, or run out right now to enjoy, regardless of which flavor of CS5 you chose, you will be getting a great product or suite.
In short, whether you use one (and only one) Adobe product, or you use one of the Suites, CS5 is proving to be a major release in many ways. If your livelihood depends on any of them, get ready to get a job boost.
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___________ Gary Coyne has been a scientific glassblower for over 30 years. He's been using Macs since 1985 (his first was a fat Mac) and has been writing reviews of Mac software and hardware since 1995.
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