Adobe CS4 – The Power of Integration and Productivity
Written by: LearnKey Expert, Debbie Berg, WebDeb Productions, Inc
Every two years or so, Adobe wows us with a new release of the popular design programs Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. And with the release of Adobe CS4, the wow factor is definitely there. I will tell you this – whether you are an experienced Adobe user or you are using any of these powerful applications for the first time, CS4 is worth the upgrade this time.
So what’s so great about Adobe CS4? There are actually a lot of improvements and new features in these three programs. Let’s focus on two major improvements that have been made across all three design programs – integration and productivity.
Integration
The three must-have tools for designing a great looking Web site are Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. And if you’re going to use all three of these programs, the more easily you can move between them, the better.
Up until the release of CS4, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Fireworks did not share a common interface. So working between multiple Adobe programs could sometimes be a challenge for novices, and cumbersome for experienced users. But there is good news for all you Adobe users. All three programs now share common workspace layouts and tools so you can move easily among Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Fireworks.
Fireworks is now more than just a Web graphics program – it’s also a powerful Web prototyping tool that can be used to create multiple, fully functional Web page layouts. And Photoshop is the leader when it comes to compositing and making complex selections. So you’ll definitely want to use both Fireworks and Photoshop when designing Web graphics and layouts.
Photoshop files are now easily editable in Fireworks because you can bring vector shapes and layer comps from Photoshop into Fireworks. Photoshop and Fireworks also use the same text engine. So there are noticeable enhancements and compatibilities when it comes to creating and managing text in both programs.
Dreamweaver is the industry standard WYSIWYG editor. And although this tool is used to layout Web page content, there are times when you’ll need to tweak an inserted image or go back and make a major change in programs like Photoshop or Fireworks. With Dreamweaver CS4, you can now add a Photoshop PSD file in Dreamweaver to create an image Smart Object. A Smart Object in Dreamweaver is an image asset that is connected to a Photoshop PSD file. When you make changes to the image Smart Object, you can update your image in Dreamweaver without ever opening Photoshop!
Productivity
Another improvement that deserves attention -- the increased productivity features in the CS4 programs. We all like to save time and work faster, and with the new Adobe CS4 programs, you can accomplish both tasks.
With Adobe Photoshop, the new Adjustments panel allows you to make nondestructive changes quickly and effectively. And say goodbye to tedious and time consuming cropping. Instead, use the new Content Aware Scaling feature to crop images vertically or horizontally without distorting them and keep important parts of the image at the same time.
Adobe Fireworks has some precise positioning tools and features that can help you save time and work more efficiently too. Smart Guides allow you to align and position objects with a set of guide lines that appear on-the-fly on-screen as you move an object. The Measure tool is great too if you want to measure and note the dimensions of an object. Instead of using guides or the Property Inspector to measure objects, use the new Measure tool and even leave the dimensions displayed on-screen.
Even Dreamweaver CS4 has some time savers worth noting. The new Live View feature allows you to preview your pages in Web browser view while never leaving the Dreamweaver program. And the Code Navigator displays CSS code based on your current selection in Design view, allowing you to quickly and easily access your code. The Related Files feature can also save you time because you’ll now have direct access to any file that is related to your current page. All related files are shown as tabs on-screen, so you no longer have to go searching for that CSS file that is attached to your document.
With so many new features and improvements in Adobe CS4, I’m sure you’ll want to start learning about these new programs right away!
