55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An indispensable guide and overview, July 2, 2010
This review is from: Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium All-in-One For Dummies (Paperback)
This book is essential for someone who owns the Creative Suite for Designers. If you have had it before, it brings you up to date on the changes and additions to each individual program. If, like me, you've owned individual programs in the suite but never the entire suite, it gives you a general overview of the purposes and capabilities of each individual program, and an idea of how to make the Suite work together seamlessly and in an intelligently coordinated manner.
The initial overview serves to:
* define the scope of each program
* help you set Suite-wide preferences for color management, etc.,
* familiarizes you with elements of the user interface, concepts like layers, shortcuts, and menus that are common to all programs,
* shows you how to move the same file from program to program or work with files created in another Suite application
* and just generally points out ways to work more efficiently.
From there, you proceed to program-specific details on each of the seven component programs. Each program is given sufficient attention that you become familiar with its capabilities, interface, and very general usage instructions for common tasks. This overview or introduction covers the important features and is sufficient to make you feel comfortable in the workspace and eager to experiment, but is not a substitute for a book that goes into more depth and specifics on the type of work that you plan to do with an individual program.
Looking over the programs I know fairly well (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Acrobat), I found the information to be both general and relevant to all types of users. In Photoshop, for example, which has two constituencies (the photographer and the designer) both needs were well covered. Since this is the first time that I have owned Photoshop Extended, I appreciated the introduction to those features. The coverage of the other two is equally good and, since I was upgrading from several versions back, I really benefited for the review and update.
I was vaguely familiar with both InDesign and Illustrator and had often seen other people work with them. I found that the explanations were very understandable and sufficient to allow me to create a basic document in either, but not a complex project. (Both these programs have steep learning curves).
Flash and Fireworks were two programs I've even never seen used. I now understand them enough to know that I'll probably never need Flash (thank goodness!) but I really should get to know Fireworks better. I'm actively getting familiar with the program and I can understand the explanations given and the concepts involved since it intersects so well with both Photoshop and Dreamweaver. The instructions in this book are sufficient to get me started and keep me entertained for a while.
So, all in all, I'm delighted to have gotten the book. It is fact-oriented, not project-oriented. It is not aimed at the professional who has been working with all these programs for a long time, but anyone else (from beginner to strong intermediate) will benefit from the coordinated overview. Sure, it's possible to just play around with the programs until you figure them out (or, at least, those parts you actually need), but there is no substitute for laying a good groundwork of basic skills and practical knowledge about each program and a clear and up-to-date overview of where everything fits in.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Overview!, September 3, 2010
This review is from: Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium All-in-One For Dummies (Paperback)
I was pleasantly surprised and genuinely impressed by the amount of information I was able to learn about CS5 from reading this book. Its huge! A great deal for the price. I admittedly knew nothing about the design premium when I purchased this book. The authors do a great job at presenting this material for a `dummy'. The setup and direction of the book makes it easy to follow along from start to finish. I would recommend this to any beginner looking for an great overview of the features of Adobe's Design Premium CS5.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Invaluable Adobe guide!, September 13, 2010
This review is from: Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium All-in-One For Dummies (Paperback)
I couldn't have asked for more out of this book! Since I am a complete beginner in all Adobe creative suite products, I was surprised at the books ability to walk me through the basics as well as teach the new features that are introduced in the CS5 version - and pack it into just 1 book. This book covers a lot of ground (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat 9, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks) while keeping it simple enough for "Dummies".
I do not hestitate to recommend this book to a beginner, intermediate or to someone with more advanced skills; the Creative Suite 5 Design Premium all-in-one for Dummies is a valuable resource. I will definitely keep this book handy - I plan to use it as a reference guide until I become an expert with the programs.
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