I took a few minutes to record this short video to remind you about some of things you may be missing out on if you haven't upgraded your Adobe Creative Suite in a while. Even if you're a current user you may have still missed out on some features that were introduced a few versions back. Here's a look back on what was introduced in Design Premium CS2, CS3 and CS4 (Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign):
Check out MORE Adobe Creative Suite CS4 features here. Want more tutorial videos (who doesn't?) Check out my Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast here and Adobe TV here.
Really like your website and I understand you work for Adobe, but I for one am tired of keeping up with upgrades to Adobe products. I have come to the conclusion that ‘s it throwing money down an empty hole.
After the fiasco with CS4 and Snow Leopard I think I can get by on just the plain ole version I have now and consider moving to Aperture3 down the road.
Adobe upgrades are too expensive for what you get… 2 or 3 new features and a redesign of the tool bar.
I concur Gary, I think it was a mistake for Adobe not to support CS3 in Snow Leopard. I have lost hours of work in Illustrator because of its instability running in 10.6. Adobe’s upgrade model is unsustainable.
Let me start off by saying thanks your interest here and also that I don’t want to sound insensitive in any way. I’m just curious as to why you hold Adobe at a higher standard or expectation than the rest of the industry including Apple. Correct me if I’m wrong (wouldn’t be the first time), but I don’t seem to remember Apple going back and updating older versions of their products (ie FCP, Aperture, iLife, etc.) to work with their own major OS and hardware upgrades. You mention Aperture which is a prime example of this when Apple released it with only support for the newest hardware. Apple typically brings out software updates that only support their most recent OS updates and they charge upgrade fees for them. So why is it so unreasonable that Adobe (or any other Apple developer) wouldn’t go back and update software that was already discontinued when the new OS/hardware came out.
Lastly, in many cases Adobe DID actually test and report on what worked in CS3 and what didn’t so that customers could make an educated decision about upgrading to Snow Leopard or not. Unfortunately some of that testing couldn’t actually take place until Snow Leopard actually shipped.
Many of the features in iPhone OS 3.x don’t work on the original iPhone. However, technically there is no reason they couldn’t have been made to work. However, my guess is that Apple (like Adobe) is looking forward to new products and technologies and can’t always go back and work on things that aren’t even being sold any more.
Again, I’m not trying to pick a fight or even be defensive. I’m just trying to understand why people see it differently for Adobe than even Apple themselves?
At the end of the day we all vote with our dollars and I’ve always said when asked, judge an upgrade by what it does for YOU and decide if you need those things or not.
Apple sometimes (rarely) issues point releases to enable their software to run on new OSs.
More to the point, however, I find that their software “just works” after OS updates. E.g., I have a OS X 10.4 “Tiger” iLife version on my laptop that works well on OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”. That’s probably a bit easier to achieve for Apple since they control both the OS and the app, but I don’t really care how it’s achieved: It’s just frustrating that my investment in Photoshop CS3 is spoiled by its instability on “Snow Leopard”. Clearly, Adobe has no legal obligation to provide updates to any versions, but decisions like that will have consequences for your customer relationships. My anecdotal evidence is that my Apple-software-using friends tend to be delighted with their products, whereas increasingly the opposite is true for my Adobe-product-using friends.
Me too! Adobe needs to get a clue. I’m tired of them dropping support for products, their BS squabbles with Apple (and lack of development of Mac products). Wish Apple would buy them.
Once upon a time Adobe made really elegant products – NOW it seems they only try and emulate M$ cr*p. How about fixing the products and giving us real upgrades rather than lackluster updates (and changing all the menus/toolbars).
They have really gone downhill since purchasing Macromedia – or did Macromedia really purchase them?!
No, I think if Macromedia had bought Adobe, we might still have FreeHand, in which case I would be very happy. I still can’t get my brain around Illustrator, and I really have tried. When I was running Mac OS 9, and even early in my Mac OS X days, FreeHand was my go-to drawing program. It feels so much more tangible, in the same way that (don’t throw things at me) PageMaker feels more like working on a real pasteboard than InDesign does, and Mac OS 9 (PLEASE don’t throw things at me) feels more like working with real objects than (despite its sort-of-photo-realism) Mac OS X does. In all of these cases, the interface, rather than being pleasant and unobtrusive, is (somewhat) irritating and less-than-unobtrusive. I don’t discount the power of the newer applications and OS, but I just wish someone hadn’t thrown out the good to make room for the good-but-not-good.
Wow the Apple guys are kinda mad. For years I hit every upgrade starting back when the suite I used was Macromedia. CS4 is very tempting but with the economy and the feature set not being something that I can’t work around my current plan is to upgrade at every other point from now on. It has more to do with upgrade price than the program features. Yes I would use the new stuff but it is harder to justify it than it was when clients were spending more money.
I really disagree with some of the above statements and believe that Adobe has totally embraced the whole community idea that came from Macromedia. Never have had a problem with any of the suites except for Quicktime integration but then I run them on Windows.
Perhaps I should have been clearer that my complaint really is more of a touchy-feely one than a (with a few exceptions in both applications and operating system) features and attitude one.
Hi Christian Liljestrand,
You are indeed correct with your general analysis of Freehand vs. Illustrator, that the former requires less wrangling while Illustrator requires a struggle. For example, I still do not understand the need for two selection tools in Illustrator where Freehand did excellently with just one which eliminates the the need to make an unnecessary choise between Illustrator’s two. And most feel that Freehand had the superior interface. Why Adobe did not build on superior technology and went with the geeky, more intrusive UI of Illustrator has to do, I guess, with pride in its in-house geekdom.
Terry, more than anything (at least for us), is the development history Adobe has with these Suites. Each version brings its own issues that seem to never be resolved until (hopefully) the next major paid upgrade… and that brings along a whole new set of issues as well. Just look at the dearth of updates that were made to CS3; InDesign was the winner w/ 4 minor updates, the rest got 1 or 2 minor fixes. If you doubt the need for updates & fixes, travel no further than Adobe Forums to see the amount of issues that exist.
Add to this the indefensible strategy of selling feature-inferior software to Mac users for the same price as the Windows version, and you can understand where the ground swell of indignation from Mac users towards Adobe has come from. Look no further than the identical situation that befell Quark w/ such an approach to know this is not good business on Adobe’s part.
Stop the excuse making and PR spins, and get down to making great software again…for ALL users, Adobe!
/
Terry, can you make an ease-of-use case for the inferiority of Freehand’s single selection tool and the superiority of Illustrator’s two?
Vito, I would only be speculating since I don’t know the answer off the top of my head. I suspect that like most things when you have a product that’s been around since 1986, changing the tools not only requires a lot of work (maybe not so much in this case), but it also impacts all of the users who are used to using it that way and that’s a lot of users.
An example of this would be everyone wants the same keyboard shortcuts across the apps, however if/when we sit down to do it the question will be “which ones do me choose to be the same”. No matter which ones we pick, someone will not like it.
My vote would be to continue to make one tool (the Selection) tool do everything that both tools do now, but not take away the direct selection tool for those that it is second nature to.
Terry,
Not sure of the answer for sure, but I think you are on the right path…. I was considering this question and came up along the same lines… Thanks for the post.
As Ray K mentioned, I am also only upgrading every other year as CS is more a hobby for me. So, does anyone know when the next upgrade will be? I’m ready!
March 2010
I, like many, got ticked at Quark’s arrogance and cheered for InDesign to upset Quark. However, I’m less verbal against Quark now – that was one product but Adobe has screwed up with several products and situations. Adobe royally screwed up GoLive, then dropped it. Then the FreeHand situation. Then the cruddy Flash situation. The anti-Mac comments by whichever boss it was at Adobe. The focus on Windoze. The costly upgrades with little improvement. The slowness to adopt Cocoa. Etc., etc. When I look at the big picture, and hear excuses and justifications like above, I just say, forget it – Adobe is the new Quark. I’ll look elsewhere whenever I can…
It isn’t the upgrades that bother me, it is the cost and frequency (and this isn’t just Adobe). I teach a lot of the Adobe stuff, and we have to stay current. The cost of upgrades comes straight out of our pockets and even with the “discounts” it is still expensive to keep up. I would be happy to wait and upgrade every 3-4 upgrades (2-4 years), but when you have to teach it, you have to know it, and to know it you HAVE to use it regularly, therefore you HAVE to upgrade.
I used the Macromedia products too, but since Adobe has taken over, they have made the programs integrate well with each other (which is very nice), you just have to be willing to accept the change and adapt. The forced learning and relearning is what keeps a person adaptable. The more adaptable you are to change, the more of an asset you can become. Self-motivation! Do with it what you will.
You can’t please everyone! I enjoy your blog Terry keep up the great info!
Terry, thank you for your post. We all know that we cannot please every one.
I would like to provide a little feedback. Personally, I love Fireworks CS4 as well as other features in the Design Premium CS4 suite. Adobe got it right when they bundled Fireworks with Design Premium. Fireworks is the program I use the most and only use Photoshop and illustrator to compliment my Fireworks use. While I had CS4 at work, I didn’t see a need to upgrade my personal CS3 Web Premium until CS5 is released because the value of the upgrades in the other apps aren’t enough for me simply because what I have works well and I can still do my job.
I cannot wait for CS5. People say April of this year, I am hoping Adobe is able to continue with their 18month development cycle. I also hope that Dreamweaver adds Ruby On Rails support.
Thank you,
Mike
Thanks again Terry – I have CS4 and love it, but in a production environment it is real easy to forget the new features that come out in each version of CS. Your post reminded of a few that kind of got lost in the daily grind of producing files, that save so much time and make things go faster. So thanks for this reminder, you are the Man!
Terry, this video was very helpful. (As always!) I can’t wait to try the tips you have outlined above. Sorry for the sour responses above. Most of us with positive feedback just take the nuggets and move on. Just wanted to stop and say thank you!
@Isidra Person-Lynn: Are you apologizing for others that just don’t agree with Terry? Sorry but the “comments” feature isn’t strictly for praise and kissing up. Sure there can’t be the occasional jerk-off but strong opinion in opposition to what is being said is healthy. In the end, it might make you look at what was said in a different light. Keep an open mind to all perspectives.