Chapter 1. Introducing Adobe Creative Suite 2

Why did you purchase Adobe Creative Suite 2? Most likely, it was a matter of economics. Most people recognize that it’s much cheaper to buy the entire suite of products than each of the individual applications (what Adobe calls the point products). However, using Adobe Creative Suite 2 has many more advantages than just the price of buying in bulk.

We suspect that since you are reading this book, you have some idea that Creative Suite is more than just the sum of its individual point products. If so, you’re right! Working with all the applications in Creative Suite has some very special benefits.

In this chapter, we’ll look at the evolution of the Adobe applications and how they became a creative suite. We’ll give you some special advice on installing, activating, and getting help for working with the suite. We’ll give you a tour of some of the hidden extras that come with Creative Suite. Finally, we’ll make sure you have the right computer system to run the software.

The Road To Creative Suite

While it may seem perfectly obvious that Adobe would package certain products together as a suite, that concept has not always been so apparent. In fact, the entire and heretofore individualized process of engineering, marketing, and developing the various Adobe applications made it very unlikely that the applications could be integrated into a suite of products.

Development Cycles

One of the biggest hurdles to achieving a creative suite was getting all the products on the same development cycle. In the past, each product team released its newest version of the product without coordinating with the others.

This meant that it was difficult for the engineers on one team to develop a feature in their product that might rely on an asset in a different product. For instance, if the InDesign team wanted its product to be able to read the layers in a placed Photoshop file, the team would engineer this feature to the current version of Photoshop. But a few months later, the Photoshop team might come out with a new feature such as Layer Comps.

Because InDesign was released before the new version of Photoshop, the InDesign development team might have to wait for the next InDesign revision to add the new features. In this way, the Adobe products were always playing a game of leapfrog with each others’ features.

Even with today’s Creative Suite and the release of five full, new applications, Acrobat is on its own development cycle. For instance, when the first version of Creative Suite was released, Acrobat 6.0 Professional was included as part of the Premium Edition. Later, Acrobat 7.0 Professional replaced Acrobat 6.0. The Premium version of Creative Suite sold from that point on included Acrobat 7.0 Professional.

Communications and Codes

Another problem along the road to a creative suite was the fact that the engineering and product teams are in different cities. Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat are housed in San Jose, California, while InDesign is in Seattle, Washington. The majority of the GoLive team is in Hamburg, Germany. There’s a team of engineers in India working on certain areas of the suite, and another in Minnesota. Even in an age of email, video conferencing, and Internet communications, it isn’t easy to get all the teams to work in tandem.

There are some benefits, though, to having people all over the world. When the engineers in California go home for the night, they can throw the project over to the team in India. When that team goes home, it can send the project back to the folks in California.

In addition, all of the products have been developed over the years very independently of each other. This means that the code for a feature such as the Pen tool in Illustrator is not the same as the code for the Pen tools in Photoshop and InDesign. (Sandee always has the image of the engineer from Photoshop going over to the Illustrator team, asking to borrow a “cup of code.” This causes her friends who work at Adobe to snicker and shake their heads in disbelief.)

Shared Components

Although dissimilar codes make it difficult for Adobe applications to share code, Adobe has special teams working on what are called shared components. These are applications such as Bridge and Version Cue, which can be used by all the Creative Suite applications.

Adobe also has engineering groups that work on special core technologies. The type engines in InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop all use the same core technology for text composition. Core technologies also help ensure that the applications in Creative Suite work well together. For more information, see “The Core Technologies That Bind,” in Chapter 7, “Managing and Customizing the Interface.”

Suite Philosophy

Undoubtedly you’ve heard the phrase that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Nowhere is that more true than in Creative Suite 2. By coordinating the products into a single suite, Adobe has been able to make the applications work better than ever. For instance, the smart objects in Photoshop rely on Illustrator knowing how to launch when you need to edit the smart object. (We’ll cover smart objects in Chapter 9, “Smart Objects and Intelligent Layouts.”)

Adobe has also made the applications in the suite look and feel as similar as possible. Thus, if you understand how to work with layers in Illustrator, you’ll instantly feel comfortable working with the layers in InDesign. If you know what the icon for New Swatch means in Photoshop, you’ll know exactly what to click in Illustrator or InDesign.

What’s In The Box?

Adobe Creative Suite 2 comes in two different editions, Premium and Standard, as shown in Figure 1-1. The Premium Edition contains the full suite of five major applications. The Standard Edition is a lower-priced product with three major applications. (Look closely at the boxes, and you’ll see that the Premium Edition has five leaves, but the Standard Edition has only three—get it?) All of the other applications, as well as the Extras, that we describe below are included in both versions.

Figure 1-1. Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium Edition (left) and Adobe Creative Suite 2 Standard Edition (right).

The Applications

Here’s a brief summary of all the products, including the shared components, included in Creative Suite 2.

• Adobe Photoshop CS2 is a digital imaging application that allows you to retouch images and apply color corrections, as well as combine images, text, and effects. Photoshop CS2 also includes ImageReady CS2, the specialized program for creating web graphics and animations. Photoshop is featured throughout this book.

• Adobe Illustrator CS2 is a vector-drawing program that you can use to create everything from simple logos to intricate maps, package design, illustrations, technical drawings, and web graphics. You’ll find references to Illustrator throughout this book.

• Adobe InDesign CS2 is a state-of-the-art page layout program with professional type controls and imaging effects. InDesign features are covered in most of the chapters of this book.

• Adobe GoLive CS2 (Premium only) is web- and mobile-design software that allows you to combine text and graphics for web pages using CSS, XHTML, and SMIL. Some features of GoLive are covered in various chapters; most appear in Chapter 17, “To the Web”. Most of the time, though, we’ll focus our attention on the print products of the suite.

• Adobe Acrobat Professional 7.0 (Premium only) gives you a full set of features for editing, enhancing, and viewing PDF documents. You’ll find many references to Acrobat throughout this book, as well as in Chapter 14, “Creating and Using PDF Files”.

• Version Cue CS2 is one of the special shared components of Creative Suite that enhances file management and collaboration between members of a workgroup. We look at Version Cue in-depth in Chapter 13, “Integrating Version Cue into Your Workflow”.

• Adobe Bridge is a new file browser and communications tool that gives you complete control over viewing, arranging, placing, and working with files that you use in Creative Suite. Given its importance as one of the shared components, we’ve devoted a whole chapter to it (Chapter 3, “View from the Bridge”).

• Adobe Stock Photos Service is an electronic service that makes it easy to search for and purchase stock photography from some of the leading stock photography providers. The Stock Photos Service is covered in the “Accessing Adobe Stock Photos” section of Chapter 3, “View from the Bridge”.

• Adobe Reader 7.0 is a free PDF file viewer. This product is included as part of Creative Suite to make sure that you can read the manuals and installation instructions without having to download any other software. If you have bought the Premium Edition containing Acrobat Professional 7.0, you probably won’t need the free Reader.

The Extras

Applications are only part of what’s in each box. Creative Suite 2 also includes several content CDs that contain valuable extras.

Because this content is not automatically installed along with the applications, very possibly you installed your edition of Creative Suite without taking advantage of its wealth of material. Look over the following lists for any files that you would like to use. Then dig out your original installation disks and transfer the files you want to your computer. That way you’ll get the full benefits of working with Creative Suite.

Guides and Manuals

Each Creative Suite 2 box contains a myriad of publications, only one of which is in book form: Adobe Creative Suite 2 Design Guide is a small, printed manual that gives you an overview of what’s in the suite as well as instructions for installing the software. It also contains some excellent tutorials that will help you work with the applications.

Don’t be upset when you look at the size of the Design Guide. What about the application manuals? Sure, Adobe doesn’t expect you to work without any official user guides! Fortunately, the user guides are included on the Resources and Extras disks. Here are the guides (as PDF files) found on the Resources and Extras disk, in the Documentation folder:

• Photoshop CS2 Help is the complete, searchable product documentation (including ImageReady).

• Illustrator CS2 Help is the complete, searchable product documentation.

• InDesign CS2 Help is the complete, searchable product documentation.

• Version Cue ReadMe is a brief guide for installing and using Version Cue.

• PDF Integration Guide is a brief guide for incorporating PDF files for web pages, electronic file distribution, editorial reviews, printing proofs, prepress, and archiving documents.

• Color Guide is a self-help guide for managing color workflows within the Creative Suite applications.

If you have the Premium Edition of Creative Suite 2, you will find the following PDF files on the Resources and Extras Disk 2, in the Documentation folder:

• GoLive Help is the complete, searchable documentation for GoLive CS2.

• Acrobat 7 Help is a getting-started guide for what’s new in Acrobat 7 and learning how to use Acrobat. This is not the complete Acrobat documentation. That file is available by opening Acrobat and choosing Help > Complete Acrobat Documentation.

Printed guides

Many people don’t like the idea of electronic guides. They’d rather have honest-to-goodness printed manuals they can scribble in, paste sticky notes onto, and dog-ear pages for future reference. If you must have such manuals, you can go to the Adobe online store (http://store.adobe.com/store/products/trainingandsupport/) and purchase the supplemental user guides for Adobe Creative Suite. Be aware, however, that the online Help contains more material than the printed manuals. See “Getting Help,” later in this chapter, which describes the online help for the Creative Suite applications. As you’re reading the manual, you’ll see references to the online Help files.

• Premium Supplemental User Guides (US$59 for the set) contain separate printed user guides for each of the five main applications in the Premium Edition of Creative Suite 2.

• Standard Supplemental User Guides (US$49 for the set) contain separate printed user guides for each of the three main applications in the Standard Edition of Creative Suite 2.

• Point product user guides (US$29 each) are available for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and GoLive. There is no printed user guide for Acrobat.

Technical Information

The Documentation folder isn’t the only place where you can get information about working with Creative Suite 2. Of course, there’s this book. In addition, there are several important technical guides and white papers that have been created for working with Creative Suite. You’ll find the following PDF files on Resources and Extras disk in the Technical Info > Creative Suite 2 folder:

• Bridge JavaScript Reference is a reference for how to write JavaScripts for automating Adobe Bridge.

• Getting Started With Transparency is a brief introduction to the transparency effects found in the Adobe applications. We have included some of this information in Chapter 11, “Transparency,” along with additional information on transparency.

• Designer’s Guide to Transparency is an in-depth reference for avoiding production problems when using the transparency features in Adobe applications. Again, some of this information can be found in Chapter 11, “Transparency.”

• Understanding Version Cue is a more detailed look at working with Version Cue. We have included much of this information in Chapter 13, “Integrating Version Cue into Your Workflow,” along with additional information on setting up Version Cue workflows.

• PDFX is a short guide that explains how to create print-standard PDF/X files from the Creative Suite applications. We cover much of this information in Chapter 14, “Creating and Using PDF files,” along with addition information on creating PDF/X files.

Each of the individual applications also has a self-named subfolder of technical information in the Technical Info folder on the Resources and Extras disk. These are the files for Photoshop CS2:

• Photoshop CS2 Scripting guides is a collection of four PDF documents: JavaScript Reference guide, AppleScript Reference guide, Visual Basic Reference guide, and Photoshop Scripting guide.

Technical information files for Illustrator CS2 include the following:

• Illustrator CS2 SDK is a folder that contains the software developer’s kit (SDK) for those who want to create plug-ins for Illustrator.

• Scripting is a folder that contains the documentation for creating scripts. In the Macintosh version of Creative Suite 2, this folder contains AppleScript and JavaScript documentation. In the Windows version, it contains Visual Basic and JavaScript documentation. This folder also contains sample AppleScripts, JavaScripts, and Visual Basic scripts. These scripts are also installed as part of Illustrator’s Scripting folder.

• White Papers is a folder that contains two background papers. The first, AICSXMLGrammar, explains the syntax used for working with XML in Illustrator. The second, Illustrator New Features, is self-explanatory.

InDesign CS2 has the following technical information files:

• InCopy CS2 Plug-ins contains the plug-ins necessary for working with InCopy. Don’t let the name of the folder throw you off. While most of these plug-ins are useful in an InDesign/InCopy workflow, some features are useful within InDesign alone. Install the plug-ins, and then read the InCopy section of the InDesign Help files.

• InDesign PDF Automation for Acrobat 7 contains plug-ins and documentation for setting up InDesign to work automatically with Acrobat.

• Scripting contains a wealth of information on how to create AppleScripts and JavaScripts (Mac) and Visual Basic and JavaScripts (Windows) for InDesign. There is also a folder of sample scripts. Unlike Illustrator scripts, these scripts are not installed in the InDesign application folder. Every week we meet a student who asks how to do a particular task that would be solved instantly by using one of these scripts!

• InDesign CS2 Printing Guide is a comprehensive resource for ensuring that your documents print correctly. We cover much of this information in Chapter 16, “Preflighting and Printing,” along with additional information on printing.

• Tagged Text is a list of all the tags (codes) used for styling text that is imported from databases and from other applications that don’t have paragraph or character styles. Using tags, you can import text that comes in completely formatted.

Here are the technical information files for Adobe Customer Support:

• Adobe Support Info is a PDF file that contains links to Adobe customer support all over the world. No matter where in the world you may be, Adobe customer support is only a click away!

If you’re working with GoLive, you’ll find its technical information on the CS2 Prem Content CD (Disk 2) in the Technical Info folder:

• GoLive SDK is a folder that contains the software developer’s kit (SDK) for those who want to create plug-ins for Illustrator.

• White Papers is a folder that holds the GoLive Mobile Intro PDF. This document explains how to use GoLive for creating content and interactive applications for mobile phones.

OpenType Fonts

When you install Adobe Creative Suite, more than 160 OpenType fonts are installed. We discuss this in the “Unified OpenType Support” section of Chapter 6, “Type Magic.”

Goodies

Who can resist goodies? In Creative Suite 2, goodies are the extras that fall into many different categories. They might be textures and plug-ins for Photoshop, clip art for Illustrator, or design templates for InDesign. You’ll find them in the self-named product folders in the Goodies folder on the Resources and Extras disk. Here are the goodies for Photoshop:

• Adobe Type Library is a PDF file with information on Adobe Type Products. We cover much of this information in Chapter 6, “Type Magic.”

• Channel Mixer Presets is a folder of the presets that you can use with Photoshop’s Channel Mixer dialog box.

• Custom File Info Panels contains information on how to customize the metadata that appears in the Macintosh and Windows file-information dialog boxes. Although included in the Photoshop CS2 Goodies, this information can also be used for Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, and GoLive. We cover an introduction to metadata in “Mastering Metadata” in Chapter 3, “View from the Bridge.”

• Hi Res RGB Textures contains images that can be used to create textured background.

• Textures for Lighting Effects contains images that can be with the Photoshop Lighting Effects filter.

• Web Photo Gallery Templates contains a wide assortment of additional templates you can use with the Photoshop Web Photo Gallery dialog box (File > Automate > Web Photo Gallery). You can also modify these templates to create your own Web Photo Gallery designs.

• lynda.com Web Swatches contains an assortment of swatches that can be used for web designs. We cover working with swatches in Chapter 10, “Colors and Color Management” and web graphics in Chapter 17, “To the Web.”

• Optional plug-ins are some added plug-ins for new file formats, filters, and scanners.

Illustrator goodies include the following:

• Clip Art and Stock Photos is a folder that contains an incredible assortment of more than 1,600 vector clip art files and 100 beautiful stock photos. Sandee, who is a real clip-art and stock-photo junkie, is thrilled with these!

• 6d Art Pen Brushes is an Illustrator file containing special vector-artwork brushes that have been created to work especially with the Wacom 6D Art Pen. For more information, see the Wacom web site (www.wacom.com/art_pen).

InDesign goodies include the following:

• Adobe Fonts contains the fonts that are included with InDesign. You don’t have to install these fonts, as they are installed along with the applications.

• InDesign CS2 Sample Files is a great resource for beginners and experienced designers. There are sample files for creating a newsletter, interactive presentation, community newspaper, annual report, and book chapter. These files not only offer good design inspiration, they also show how the professionals create their files.

GoLive goodies are found on the Resources and Extras Disk 2:

• Extend Scripts is a collection of 10 extensions for working with GoLive.

• MenuMachine isn’t really a goodie, but a PDF document describing a commercial product for building multilevel menus in GoLive.

Acrobat goodies also are found on the Resources and Extras Disk 2:

• Extending Acrobat is a collection of web links that give you more information about working with Acrobat.

• Test Files is a collection of 16 documents that explain various Acrobat features, such as OCR (optical character recognition), the touchup tools, and features in PDF 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6 files. These files will be great to use as you read Chapter 14, “Creating and Using PDF Files.”

Last, but certainly not least, you’ll find a separate, extra CD with a Total Training Video Workshop. This video workshop contains more than 60 minutes of professional training with onscreen lessons on various components of Creative Suite.

Installing, Uninstalling, and Updating

We’ve asked many people what are the top things they dread about working with computers. Almost everyone agreed that having to install software is the most hated chore. (Upgrading system software and trying to return items to amazon.com were also high on everyone’s list.)

First, users have to make sure they have the right disks, and then they have to find the registration numbers; then they have to sit around waiting for one application to finish loading before they can install the next. Fortunately, working with Creative Suite has made most of that hunting and waiting obsolete.

Installing Creative Suite 2

Installing Creative Suite is easy because one installer installs the entire package. First, quit any Adobe applications that are running; certain shared files need to be written as part of the installation process. If you have an Adobe application running while you install Creative Suite, the installer might not be able to write the files it needs.

Next, insert the Installer Disk 1 into your computer’s CD drive. Wait a moment until the installer splash screen appears. On the Macintosh, double-click the Adobe Installer shown in Figure 1-2. This launches the installation process. Follow the onscreen instructions.

Figure 1-2. Double-click the Adobe Installer application for Macintosh (left) or Windows (right) to start the installation.

For Windows, wait until the Adobe logo disappears, and then choose the language and click OK. Read the End-User License Agreement, and click Accept. When the installer splash screen appears, as shown in Figure 1-2, double-click the Adobe Installer. Follow the onscreen instructions. Unlike the design collections, just one serial number is all you need for all the Creative Suite applications.

Uninstalling Creative Suite

Why, oh why, would you ever want to uninstall Creative Suite? We’re heartbroken at the thought of people not wanting it on their computers. Of course, it is possible that someone might want to install their copy of Creative Suite on a new computer. In that case, you may need to uninstall the software on one machine before you can install it on another.

If an application becomes corrupt, you may need to uninstall just that one component to be able to reinstall it again. On the Macintosh, simply toss an application folder (except Acrobat and Version Cue) into the Trash. On Windows, use the Add Or Remove Programs control panel to uninstall a single component.

To Uninstall on the Mac

1. Double-click Activity Monitor.app in Applications/Utilities, select AHCRemind, and click Quit Process.

2. If you intend to install the product on a different computer, transfer the activation. For instructions, see the following section, “Transferring Activation.”

3. To uninstall Adobe Acrobat, double-click the uninstaller in Applications/Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional, and follow the onscreen instructions.

4. To uninstall Version Cue 2, double-click the uninstaller in Applications/Adobe Version Cue CS2, and follow the onscreen instructions. If the Version Cue uninstaller fails, see the next procedure to remove Version Cue manually.

5. From the Applications folder, drag the following items, if present, to the Trash:

• Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional

• Adobe Version Cue CS2

• Adobe Bridge

• Adobe GoLive CS2

• Adobe Illustrator CS2

• Adobe InDesign CS2

• Adobe Photoshop CS2

• AdobeHelpCenter.app

6. From the Utilities folder, drag the following items, if present, to the Trash:

• Adobe Utilities

• Adobe Updater.app

7. From the Library folder, drag the following items, if present, to the Trash:

• Application Support/Adobe/AdobeHelpData

• Application Support/Adobe/Assistance

• Application Support/Adobe/StartupScripts/Workflow Automation Scripts

• Preferences/Adobe/Workflow

• Preferences/com.adobe.ActivationUtility.plist

• Preferences/com.adobe.GoLive.plist

• Preferences/Adobe Save For Web GL 8.0 Prefs

8. From the Users/[user name] folder, drag the following items, if present, to the Trash:

• Library/Preferences Panes/Opera Preferences

9. Empty the Trash. You must empty the Trash to be able to reinstall Adobe Creative Suite 2 on the same computer.

To remove the rest of Version Cue if you’ve accidentally removed parts of Version Cue manually or if the uninstaller fails:

1. From the Library/PreferencePanes folder, drag the Version Cue CS2.prefPane folder to the Trash.

2. From the Library/Preferences folder, drag the com.adobe.versioncueCS2.plist file to the Trash.

3. From the Library/StartupItems folder, drag the AdobeVersionCueCS2 folder to the Trash.

4. From the Applications folder, drag the Adobe Version Cue CS2 folder to the Trash.

5. From [user home]/Library/Preferences/Adobe, drag the Workflow folder to the Trash.

6. (Optional) From the [user home]/Documents folder, drag the Version Cue folder to the Trash.

7. Empty the Trash.

To Uninstall On Windows

1. Close any Adobe products that are open.

2. Choose Start > Settings > Control Panel, and double-click Add Or Remove Programs.

3. Select Adobe Creative Suite 2, and click Remove.

4. Follow the onscreen instructions to uninstall the entire Creative Suite or its individual components.

The above steps will remove the major Creative Suite applications. However, additional steps are required to remove all traces of the applications from your drive.

1. If you are uninstalling individual components and want to remove preferences settings for those components, select Remove My Preferences.

2. To install the product on a different computer, follow the onscreen instructions to transfer the activation. See the following section, “Transferring Activation,” for more information.

3. Choose Start > Settings > Control Panel, and double-click Add Or Remove Programs.

4. Select Adobe SVG Viewer 3.0, click Remove, and click Yes to confirm the deletion.

5. Delete the Version Cue folder, if present, from My Documents.

6. Delete the following folders, if present, from Documents and Settings/[user name]/ Application Data/Adobe:

• Adobe GoLive

• Camera Raw

• Scripts

• ScriptStore

• Stock Photos

• Workflow

7. Delete the Workflow Automation Scripts folder, if present, from Program Files/ Common Files/Adobe/StartupScripts.

8. Delete the following folders, if present, from Program Files/Adobe:

• Adobe Acrobat 7.0

• Adobe Creative Suite 2

• Adobe GoLive CS2

• Adobe Help Center

• Adobe Illustrator CS2

• Adobe InDesign CS2

• Adobe Stock Photos

• Adobe Utilities

• Adobe Version Cue CS2

Updates

Updates are a fact of software life. Bugs may need to be fixed after an application ships. New operating systems or hardware may make it necessary to change how the software works. Or there may be some new feature that can be added to an application.

Updating the Creative Suite applications is rather painless. Choose Help > Updates. This launches the Adobe Updater application (Figure 1-3) that uses your web connection to search all of Adobeland to find any updates for any Creative Suite application — not just the application from which you opened the Adobe Updater. (Acrobat is the exception, and runs its own updater when you choose Help > Check For Updates Now.)

Figure 1-3. The Adobe Updater dialog box lets you control how your software will be updated.

You can click the Preferences button in the Adobe Updater to have it automatically search for updates every month. We like this effortless process, but you should turn off the preference if you don’t keep an active or broadband connection to the Internet.

Activation

When Adobe added activation requirements to Creative Suite to prevent software piracy, the user community was up in arms. Comments ranged from suspicions of conspiracy theories to dire implications for civil liberties to questions whether Big Brother government was about to take over all computers.

The good news is that after months of watching how activation works in the real world, there have been very few reports of major problems with activation. In case you still have doubts or questions about activation, here’s what happens, and what it does and doesn’t do.

Activating Creative Suite

When you first install Creative Suite, you have 30 days to activate your copy. Activation is an interactive (via Internet or phone) representation of the license agreement between Adobe and its customers, intended to help prevent unauthorized copying of the software. Adobe built in a grace period so that if you were stuck in a cave or on a fishing trawler, and had to install and activate Creative Suite without any Internet access or telephone, you would still be able to work with the Creative Suite applications. The easiest way to activate is to have an active Internet connection when you first install the software. At your prompt, the installer sends a message to the Adobe activation servers, and the servers send back an invisible OK file to your computer. From that moment on, you no longer need an active Internet connection — just in case you need to go back to work in that cave.

So what if you don’t have any Internet connection at all? In that case, you can use the 24-hour automated Adobe Software Activation System or speak directly with an Adobe Customer Care Representative. Here are the steps to activate Adobe Creative Suite:

1. During installation or the first time the software is launched, in the Activation dialog box that appears, do one of the following:

• To activate Adobe Creative Suite over the Internet with an active Internet connection, click Activate to complete the activation.

• To activate by phone or at a later time, click Activation Options.

2. If you clicked Activation Options, click Next in the Activation Information dialog box, and then select one of the following activation options:

• Select Over The Internet, and then click Activate to complete the activation.

• Select By Telephone Via The Automated Software Activation System, and then click Next. Call the phone number that appears onscreen to contact Adobe Customer Service. Enter the authorization code provided, and then click Activate.

• Select Remind Me if you want to delay the activation. Choose a reminder option from the pop-up menu, and then click Next.

3. If you still need help activating the software, contact Adobe Customer Service.

Transferring Activation

If you replace or reformat the hard drive on your computer, you most likely will need to reactivate Creative Suite on that computer. If you buy a new computer, you will need to transfer the activation from the old computer to the new one. Fortunately, transferring activation is very simple. In fact, it will take us longer to write out how to transfer the activation than it will take you to do it electronically.

1. Connect to the Internet from your computer.

2. Quit all Adobe applications.

3. Start any Creative Suite application.

4. Choose Help > Transfer Activation.

5. Follow the onscreen instructions.

Although Adobe calls this transferring activation, it actually is just deactivating the software on that computer. Once you have deactivated one Creative Suite application, you have deactivated them all. Deactivating allows you to activate Creative Suite on another computer.

Despite all assurances, people still have questions about activation. Here are some of the most common ones.

• Does activation send any private information about my computer or my files to Adobe? No. Absolutely not!

• What should I do if I forget to deactivate on one machine, and then it is sold? Contact Adobe Customer Service. They can easily straighten out the problem.

• What happens if I have to reinstall the software on the same machine? Do I have to reactivate? Most likely not. The activation will still be on the machine.

• What if I have my computer repaired? Should I deactivate the suite ahead of time? Sandee had a new motherboard installed. Just to be safe, she deactivated and then reactivated. Later on, she was told it wasn’t necessary. Hard drives are different; you must deactivate the software if you have your hard drive replaced or reformatted.

• What if I need to work at my client’s office? Can I install and activate on his machine? Sure! Just make sure you don’t have the software activated on your own two computers. And remember to deactivate when you leave the client’s office.

• What happens if I don’t activate by the end of the thirty days? You will see a message that tells you that your trial period has expired and that you must activate the software. You will be given an opportunity to activate, but the software will no longer work.

Getting Help

Another shared-technology component in Creative Suite is the Adobe Help Center. Instead of using the Macintosh or Windows operating systems to run the Help files, Adobe has created its own Adobe Help Center application that does more than previous types of Help systems.

Adobe Help Center is more than just an electronic convenience. It often includes topics that are not in the PDF user guides, as well as last-minute information that didn’t make it into the printed manuals.

Opening Adobe Help Center

You can open Adobe Help Center from the Help menu in any Creative Suite application. The menu lists [application name] Help. Choose this command to launch the Help application. Adobe Help Center appears in its own window (Figure 1-4). You can also launch Adobe Help Center using the Dock (Mac) or Start menu (Windows).

Figure 1-4. Adobe Help Center window

You can also use keyboard shortcuts to open the Help application. Unfortunately, not all applications have a keyboard shortcut assigned, and the ones that do use different keys.

Adobe Help Center Components

Help Center has three views:

• Product Help is where you search through the Help pages for each of the applications.

• Expert Support is where you can manage your subscription to Adobe Expert Support. This is a paid service that allows you to extend the complimentary support that comes with Adobe products. This service includes extended service hours, priority queuing, direct access to senior technicians, and unlimited toll-free calls. It is useful for those who have critical questions and need immediate help.

• More Resources is where you link to various online support options.

Navigation Controls

Seven navigation controls appear above the Help tabs (Figure 1-5).

• Back moves you to the previous page in the viewing history.

• Forward moves you to the next page in the viewing history.

• Home takes you to the top-level topics for the current application as shown in the Product menu.

• Add A Bookmark works like the bookmarks in a web browser to save the location of a specific Help page.

• Print lets you print the contents of the right pane.

• Open Preferences opens the preferences for Adobe Help Center. You can then set the language options and preferences for the Expert Support area.

• About Adobe Help Center opens the information about the Help application. Use this to determine which version of Help Center you are using.

Figure 1-5. Navigation controls for Adobe Help Center.

If you open Adobe Help Center through an application such as Illustrator or Bridge, it opens to the Product Help view set for that specific application. The Home page shows the top-level topics for the application.

On the left of Product Help you see tabs to choose Contents, Index, and Bookmarks.

• The Contents area lists the Help topics. Use the controllers to open and close the topics. When you find the topic that you need, click it. The information appears in the main Help pane. Most of the Help topic pages have red hyperlinks that send you to related information.

• The Index area gives you an alphabetical list of the Help information. Sometimes it’s faster to just move directly to a specific topic using the Index.

• The Bookmarks area allows you to save Help pages for easy reference later on. This is useful if you constantly need to go back to a particular Help topic.

System Requirements

Most of the people reading this book will have already bought and installed Creative Suite. But you might be someone who uses the software at an office and would like to know if you can use Creative Suite at home. In that case, you should know the minimum system requirements for the Creative Suite components. Here are the official requirements as listed by Adobe.

Premium Edition Requirements (Mac)

• PowerPC® G4 or G5 processor

• Mac OS X v.10.2.8 through v.10.4 (10.3.4 through 10.4 recommended; G5 requires v.10.3 or later), Java™ Runtime Environment 1.4.1

• 384MB RAM to run any one suite application with Adobe Bridge and Version Cue Workspace

• Additional RAM required to run multiple applications simultaneously (512MB to 1GB recommended)

• 4GB available hard-disk space to install all applications (installation of common files requires at least 1GB on primary hard disk)

• 1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card (24-bit screen display recommended)

• CD-ROM drive

• For Adobe PostScript printers: PostScript Level 2 or PostScript 3

• Internet or phone connection required for product activation

• QuickTime 6.5 required for multimedia features

• Broadband Internet connection required for Adobe Stock Photos and additional services

Premium Edition Requirements (Windows)

• Intel® Pentium® III or 4 processor

• Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 4, or Windows XP with Service Pack 1 or 2

• 384MB RAM to run any one suite application with Adobe Bridge and Version Cue Workspace

• Additional RAM required to run multiple applications simultaneously (512MB to 1GB recommended)

• 3GB available hard-disk space to install all applications (installation of common files requires at least 1GB on primary hard disk)

• 1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card (24-bit screen display recommended)

• CD-ROM drive

• For Adobe PostScript® printers: PostScript Level 2 or PostScript 3™

• Internet or phone connection required for product activation

• QuickTime 6.5 required for multimedia features

• Broadband Internet connection required for Adobe Stock Photos and additional services

Standard Edition Requirements (Mac)

• PowerPC G4 or G5 processor

• Mac OS X v.10.2.8 through v.10.4 (10.3.4 through 10.4 recommended; G5 requires v.10.3 or later), Java Runtime Environment 1.4.1

• 384MB RAM to run any one suite application with Adobe Bridge and Version Cue Workspace

• Additional RAM required to run multiple applications simultaneously (512MB to 1GB recommended)

• 3GB available hard-disk space to install all applications (installation of common files requires at least 1GB on primary hard disk)

• 1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card (24-bit screen display recommended)

• CD-ROM drive

• For Adobe PostScript printers: PostScript Level 2 or PostScript 3

• Internet or phone connection required for product activation

• QuickTime 6.5 required for multimedia features

• Broadband Internet connection required for Adobe Stock Photos and additional services

Standard Edition Requirements (Windows)

• Intel Pentium III or 4 processor

• Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4, or Windows XP with Service Pack 1 or 2

• 384MB RAM to run any one suite application with Adobe Bridge and Version Cue Workspace

• Additional RAM required to run multiple applications simultaneously (512MB to 1GB recommended)

• 2GB available hard-disk space to install all applications (installation of common files requires at least 1GB on primary hard disk)

• 1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card (24-bit screen display recommended)

• CD-ROM drive

• For Adobe PostScript printers: PostScript Level 2 or PostScript 3

• Internet or phone connection required for product activation

• QuickTime 6.5 required for multimedia features

• Broadband Internet connection required for Adobe Stock Photos and additional services

Electronic Software Download

You don’t have to wait for a box to arrive to install your new software. You can purchase Creative Suite 2 as an electronic software download (ESD). This makes it possible to order and receive the software at 11 p.m. on a Sunday night—very helpful if you have a project due the next morning, and you save the shipping costs. If you purchase the suite as an ESD, there are several additional requirements to the above information:

• The ESD version of Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium requires 9GB (Mac) and 8GB (Windows) of available hard-disk space.

• The ESD version of Adobe Creative Suite 2 Standard requires 8GB (Mac) and 7GB (Windows) of available hard-disk space.

Obviously you won’t get printed materials or physical disks when you purchase the software electronically. However, since so much of the suite is electronic, we see no reason to avoid purchasing the ESD version. Just remember to back up all the downloaded information.

You’re Ready To Work

With Creative Suite installed and running, you’re ready to start working. Sit up straight. Prop this book up next to your keyboard. And pay attention. The next chapter in this book looks at which application does what. With this book and the power in Adobe Creative Suite 2, you may be ready to achieve your highest creative potential in your next print and web designs.