Customer Reviews

Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Master Collection [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anyone who gives the Master Collection less than five stars obviously doesn't know the product. I spent 4 months in a CS3 Illustrator class in college just learn advanced basics of Illustrator alone.
User friendly, intuitive and the industry standard over ANY Microsoft product, CS3 Master Collection if for serious geeks like me.
I cannot imagine trying to handcode HTML or XHTML without the wonders of Dreamweaver. I am much more productive and can crank out large websites in a matter of days instead of weeks. For serious Web designers, this product will pay for itself in the time you save hand coding and such. Worth every penny.
I would, however, recommend buying Adobe's "Training from the source" books to go along with the software. You can get them cheap used on Amazon or eBay. The books are invaluable in learning the software.

This baby was required for my Graphic Arts class. My first thoughts were "What's wrong with my Abode Photoshop 7? & why do I NEED a $965 piece of software?" Well, it turns out that my school's supplier was charging less than half of the retail price, so I shut up.
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When it got here, I wasn't happy that I had to install 8 dics that wanted 32 gigs of RAM or that it had more system requirements than a high-end video game. But it does make sence, concidering you're getting InDesign, Illustrator (which I've been wanting), Acrobat 8, Flash (been wanting that too), Dreamweaver (heard good things about it), Fireworks, Contribute, After Effects, Premiere, Soundbooth (if it's like Sound Forge, it's a boon), * Encore as well as Photoshop, so I'll be exploring this stuff for months.
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On the plus side, there are Flash tutorials on how to use this stuff; great for people who learn best by watching, doing, & hearing & get distracted when reading. Who knows what kind of cool artistic things I can make, I can even learn to make webtoons!

I paid over $700.00 for a adobe creative suite that was stated in "like new" condition. When I received it the box was in poor condition, there was no users manual and I couldn't activate the software. When I called the customer service (after researching it online) they told me that this was not an original and was a illegal copy of the software and that I was unable to use it. So I had to return the software back to "Bigtime Books". Please be aware when purchasing items from Amazon. I was very disappointed with my purchase. I waited a long time to get it and when I did finally receive it, it was no good.

We did discover that the installation of the DVD did not work properly and that the hacks published on Adobe's website did not apply to us. For us to install it we had to put a CS3 map into the root of the station with exactly the same name as on the CD. It is important to maintain exactly the names and all files of the first three application DVD's. You don't have to copy all the other data to that folder, just the application directory content. From there you can run it. All other tips and tricks simply didn't work but this one did. After the intial application install you can add the other components at will directly from the DVD's.

The software itself, well what can you say. It delivers what it stands for and is the #1 in this area. We rather use this then the free ware or cheaper alternatives to save money at the end of the day.

I hope this is helpful for others. GZ

If you have Production Studio Premium or other such suites this really is not worth the massive difference in price. Adobe CS3 Master Collection is more hype and fluff then substance. I might have upgraded to this suite from my modestly priced Production Premium $799.00 upgrade if Adobe had not slapped such an outrageous $1999.00 price tag onto it for doing so. Come on, $1999.00? I paid less then that for my original full version of CS Production Studio Premium! Seriously Adobe, $1200.00 more for 5 or 6 added programs of which 2 or 3 I will probably never use? Give me a break! No, I mean it, give us ALL a break! Save your money and just go with CS3 Production Studio Premium, minus Adobe Audition 3.0 of course, you'll have to pay extra for that one since Adobe felt compelled to replace it with Soundbooth, a lesser quality program (thanks a lot Adobe!). In the end I'll say this, Adobe makes some of the best software for film, animation, entertainment, graphics and web design, they just need to work a little bit on better customer service and work ethics and a good place to start would have been making the upgrade for CS3 Master Collection a lot more affordable.

Once we got all the parts of the set we were very happy with the results of the product. Makes our performance on work requests turn around much faster.

This version of Adobe Creative Suite 3 aka CS3 combines what used to be Macromedia suite and the Adobe suit into one big/huge software suite that works well together. This provides professional looking results for video, print, photographs, websites and more. It's all here including some wonderful additions like 'bridge' that I originally didn't think I'd use much but have found that I use it all the time.

But...and this is a big one..there is a steep learning curve with many of these programs. If you are a sporadic user that just needs a quick correction, there are a lot easier and less expensive programs available. On the other hand, if you need to purchase one or two of these programs for professional or upper end use, the entire suite is a great purchase. Because I previously owned both Macromedia Suite and the Adobe suite, this was eligible for the upgrade price rather than having to purchase the entire thing from new. Of course, that will be phased out now that a newer version is once again available - CS4.

Video tutorials are a great help to those that are searching for the changes and already know how to use the program(s) - but novices will also benefit from figuring out how to use the main features. You will need books and additional tutorials to learn all the powerful features of the program...many of which I still do not know since my main use has been limited to a couple of the more common programs.

As a long time adobe user, this is another excellent suite with ample tools to provide great looking results. I did encounter a conflict with microsoft after installation that took some time to figure out - both on Vista and XP. For those that have been considering the purchase of the full suite, keep in mind the cost savings of buying an older version then an upgrade and/or not letting your upgrade version expire. In my case, I've been closely watching the new cS4 but have't purchased the uupgrade as I'm not convinced there are clear benefits to doing so yet. Given the price difference, it's a calculated risk to wait for the 5th version...only time will tell.

Bottom line-great product. Steep learning curve. Professional looking results after you learn to use the product.