Adobe CS4 - Search Engine Friendly Video

[SteveC]

I was fortunate this month to meet with the sales and marketing manager for Adobe here in Australia... and he ran through the new CS4 suite with me... one of the things I thought I would share with you is the fact that with Premier Pro you can now produce search engine friendly video.

And some of the features in Photoshop are amazing and this time the whole user interface has changed in Dreamweaver...

Our initial thoughts can be found here:

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection - Cyber Aspect -dot- Com - Online Computer Magazine (http://www.cyber-aspect.com/sreviews/software_reviews.asp?rev=146)

And Photoshop CS4 to upgrade or not can be found here:

Buy or Die: Photoshop CS4 - Cyber Aspect -dot- Com - Online Computer Magazine (http://www.cyber-aspect.com/sreviews/software_reviews.asp?rev=145)

Interesting isn't it.... ?

[Blessed]

But I'm not ready to spend the money to upgrade yet... :D I like CS3...

Oh well, guess that's the nature of the business. I'll check out the links you left.

[cbscreative]

Interesting, but I think I'll wait it out a while. I am curious to see the new interface because I can't be sure what to expect (good or evil).

[SteveC]

The new interface is different and as I have used Dreamweaver for years I much prefer the old one... in fact I was told by Adobe that new users to Dreamweaver find it easier as it now matches other Adobe products... whereas old users don't like the new interface as much as the old one... and I'm in that camp.

As to the cost... it is somewhat steep but you have to remember it is aimed at the professional market and as such is a business expence... although are the new features worth the price... when I started in the 90's we used to always miss an edition... so we bought version 1, 3 and 5 and missed out 2 and 4 for example... as this made the upgrade path much more benefitical.

Here, you'll get our main developers upgrade whilst people like me who don't do that much coding will stick to what they have... at least initially... but you know what we are all like with toys... sooner or later we all want the latest and greatest.

[vangogh]

I just have to say I love Deke McClelland's videos.

The only program I really use in the Suite is Photoshop and CS4 looks very good. I'm not sure I can run out and buy it at the moment given all the money I just spent on a new laptop, but it's at the top of the list.

[Blessed]

I like to let the new versions be out for about six months before I upgrade - it's in my best interest to keep running the latest version of all the software so that's what I do, and yes it's a business expense, but it's my business and that means that all business expenses come out of my salary... ouch! :)

At least QuarkXPress doesn't upgrade as often as Adobe does...

[cbscreative]

I was told by Adobe that new users to Dreamweaver find it easier as it now matches other Adobe products... whereas old users don't like the new interface as much as the old one... and I'm in that camp.
That's what I was afraid they might do when CS3 came out and I was pleasently surprised. I think Macromedia had some great ideas and was pleased that they didn't "Adobe-ize" the former Macromedia products. I was hoping they would learn from Macromedia because there is nothing easier about Adobe's approach to creating an interface. If anything, this is all the more reason I would rather stay with CS3 as long as I can. I will probably like Photoshop CS4, but the rest of the suite might prove disappointing since that is the direction I did not want to see them take.

I have no motivation to upgrade Illustrator since I've never much cared for it anyway. One thing that sucks with Adobe is you can't upgrade individual components of a Suite, you have to upgrade the entire Suite or purchase the full version of an individual program.

[SteveC]

The new version of Photoshop is fantastic... the image resize tool that will automatically scale and proportion images... is worth the cost of Photoshop alone, as we have to resize quite a lot of photographs to suit the websites we design... this added feature in Photoshop should save us many hours of work each year... although perhaps that isn't such a good thing as our billable hours will reduce.

[vangogh]

Your clients don't have to know that Photoshop is making your life easier. I promise I won't tell.

[Blessed]

I won't tell either - I'm a firm believer in maintaining the status quo - if I can do things better and faster with newer equipment and software it just means that the client doesn't feel the increase in my hourly fee...