F* Computers

During a recent InDesign User Group meeting developers from Adobe stopped by after the MAX Conference to share some Q&A time regarding Adobe CS3. Here’s what I learned:Adobe Version Cue CS3I asked Adobe if Version Cue CS3 is finally ready for professionals. They said it’s significantly better than previous versions. It’s optimized for server use and saves pixel-level changes over the network rather than the entire document. Workgroups larger than 25 users may need something more robust, but if you are a small workgroup with a server then turn on Version Cue and start using Bridge to manage your workflow. This is the future! Learn more about Version Cue from this great new blog.Adobe Bridge CS3Bridge is the face of Adobe Version Cue (although you can use Bridge without Version Cue). And now digital asset management systems like Portfolio and Cumulus are tying into Bridge.MORE INFO ON ADOBE CS3…Is CS3 Slower than CS2 on PPC Macs?Adobe doesn’t believe this to be true (let us know what your experience is!) However, they acknowledged that Adobe CS3 application startup times are significantly slower on a PPC Mac (versus an Intel Mac) and unfortunately, this often sets the tone for the user.Don’t Convert Quark TemplatesNothing new, but worth repeating… If your moving from Quark to InDesign and use templates then:1) Open Quark and export your template to PDF2) Place this PDF in InDesign and use it as a guide to rebuild your template.LiveDocs are a great idea (see more info below). Unfortunately finding LiveDocs help from within InDesign wasn’t intuitive for me, but it’s a start!

In‑product and LiveDocs HelpIn‑product Help provides access to all documentation and instructional content available at the time the software ships. It is available through the Help menu in your Adobe software.LiveDocs Help includes all the content from in‑product Help, plus updates and links to additional instructional content available on the web. For some products, you can also add comments to the topics in LiveDocs Help. Find LiveDocs Help for your product in the Adobe Help Resource Center, at www.adobe.com/go/documentation.

Last weekend I attended a presentation by Frank Romano at GraphEXPO here in Chicago. Frank said he is often asked to comment on “Print” yet many people don’t realize that print is many things. Below is Frank’s list. He noted that only Advertising, Direct Mail and Packaging will grow between 2000 and 2010…27% Advertising (collateral)09% Packaging (not hurt by the Internet)08% Periodicals08% Catalogs07% Newspapers06% Books06% Directories (White Pages and Parts/Price lists dead)06% Stationery (Only biz cards doing well)06% Misc (Greeting cards down but steady; wallpaper down; wrapping paper growth in China)05% Direct Mail (Growing)05% Financial/Legal (Annual Reports going digital. Only 15% of bills are paid electronically)04% Forms (Going away)03% Documentation

The Mac Business Unit at Microsoft recently announced they are pushing the release of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac to… 2008!So Intel Mac users have to wait another 6 months before they can get a stable and fast version of Office. Or maybe not…Apple just released the new iWork ‘08 suite — some refer to as the Office killer. And it’s only $79 (compare this to $399.95 for Office).Replace Word with Pages, PowerPoint with Keynote and Excel with Numbers and say goodbye to Microsoft. Sort of. In my testing Pages is not a 100% reliable Word translator. Strange things can happen to the formatting. But the text is all there.And if you don’t have Word or Pages did you know Apple’s TextEdit application (comes with every Mac) can open and save Word documents too!?