Published by deborah.woehr on 20 May 2007 at 04:44 pm
Adobe CS3 Design Premium vs. Standard
I’ve spent the last week drooling over the latest upgrade, agonizing over the price and whether or not I should buy it, and doing some research. This research involved reading review articles on sites such as MacWorld and various blogs. Most importantly, I wanted to find out how CS3 measured up to endusers. Some had horrific experiences with the installation (many were PC users) while others commented on the faster speed of Photoshop.
I downloaded the trial version of Dreamweaver, which is included in the Premium upgrade and came away both impressed and overwhelmed. Fortunately, Adobe offers some great video tutorials that covers all of the CS3 programs. After watching the video tutorials for InDesign CS3, I definitely want to upgrade from my CS version. Creating things like indexes and a Table of Contents were a pain in CS, but are a snap in CS3. I love the new layout of the interface and the fact that I can import and export files from InDesign to Photoshop to Illustrator with a simple keyboard command. This is a huge upgrade from what I was using and one that I hope will produce stellar results for my books.
As for Dreamweaver, again I found it very overwhelming. I’d love to design static webpages for my husband’s site (which I have to start all over because he let the domain expire) and my home page. I’d love to design themes for my blogs that are compatible with every browser. But I have to be realistic with my goals and skills. Crunching out web code is not appealing. So, I guess I’ve made my decision.
TDH on 20 May 2007 at 10:25 pm #
I have yet to update to CS3 myself, but I can’t help but notice that you’re using CS. There’s a huge leap in performance and quality from CS to CS2.3 (the most current version before CS3) and I would definitely recommend an upgrade. Yeah, it’s steep and strains the budget, but you’ll probably make up for things like that with a faster and cleaner workflow.
Good luck anyway!
deborah.woehr on 21 May 2007 at 4:31 am #
I used CS to design the Writer’s Blog Anthology with good results. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what CS3 can do.
fred charles on 22 May 2007 at 9:45 am #
I’m still trying to figure out Indesign Cs, lol. I need to get a book.
Marti on 22 May 2007 at 10:29 am #
Nothing has ever made me feel stupider than trying to learn Dreamweaver - LOL I finally gave up in disgust.
I wish you all the best…you’re a very clever girl, I’m sure you’ll figure out how to use CS3.
Hope you have a wonderful day!
deborah.woehr on 22 May 2007 at 3:00 pm #
Fred: Get Adobe InDesign CS One-on-One, by Deke McClelland. It not only comes with written instructions, but good instruction videos as well.
Marti: I’m glad I’m not alone. One day, I’ll figure out how to construct a website that won’t break. Either that, or I’ll hire someone to do it for me.