Customer Reviews

Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Web Premium [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Wow. Just, wow. Web Premium CS3 has contributed and simplified every single design task in my life, from web design to t-shirt printing to Second Life clothes making. If you ever feel creatively stagnant doing web work, switching from Photoshop to Fireworks really gets the juices flowing (if only by bringing a fresh POV in tools). They threw in the designer's kitchen sink here: you can even preview vector/Flash designs on cell phones in a program that does nothing BUT model cellphone graphics! Also, Bridge is finally something more than a cheezy add-on.

I was worried the Macromedia apps wouldn't work as well with Adobe; maybe that was true in CS2, but you can barely tell they're from different companies in CS3. Flash finally works hand-in-hand with Illustrator*, and in the right screen mode you almost forget where Photoshop ends and Dreamweaver begins.

Contribute is kind of pointless, especially if you know what you're doing, but if you know what you're doing you use Dreamweaver, and if you don't then Contribute is actually really good (and simple enough to be "mother-needs-tech-support" proof). Acrobat is waaaaaaaay overpriced on its own, but they just threw it in with Web Premium; it's really nice and has a lot of new features (I especially like the guaranteed redaction feature).

I almost wonder if Adobe shoots itself in the foot with this product: all you need more is InDesign CS3 and Premier Elements 3.0 and you can do ANYTHING except hard-core video editing (i.e. professional movies). Lucky for me, I got InDesign as an upgrade to PageMaker. :D

If you can afford it (I financed mine), then you should get it. There's nothing quite like the feeling that you can do most any graphic or design task with what will be the industry standard for the next couple of years.

*going from Illustrator -> Flash; Flash -> Illustrator still produces strange and unnatural vectors

I gave this product 5 stars because it is the best available resource for creating complex web sites. I was able to create and place a site including video and other advanced features.

Having said that however, the documentation and help provided by Adobe is sorely lacking. In order to effectively use all the tools contained in Web Premium CS3 make sure to purchase the "Missing Manual" series of books as well. Relying on Adobe documentation and assistance will prove to be very frustrating.

This purchase was to upgrade from the 2003 CS. I bought a new computer with Vista operating system & thought I'd just go for the whole game. After reading horror stories online about installation I was prepared for the worse. But, it installed itself perfectly with no glitches. Photoshop is going to be a long study to get it working the way I want so one more book to buy!

This is pretty nice - everything is basically the same as before for the things I use it for (Photoshop). I like how Illustrator can convert raster images to vector images. I like being able to zoom in using DreamWeaver and its better support for newer html coding using divs and styles etc. I wouldn't use anything but Photoshop/Dreamweaver to make websites, so I give this a high score.

I am enjoying using this product overall... but I am having some major issues with using Adobe Acrobat 8. It keeps telling me to re-install the program to be able to use the features (like importing a word document to create a new form). I downloaded updates, etc.. and nothing seems to work. (I use Windows XP). It's extremely frustrating since Acrobat was one of the reasons I chose to buy the "Creative Suite" rather than just the individual programs I needed.

Pretty straight forward...

Adobe CS3 Web Premium is one of the most important toolsets of the trade. Buying directly from Amazon is one of the most comfortable (and affordable) places to buy online.

Reviews are great, but if you really want to see if this package is right for you:

1) Read through Adobe's site for each of the included products. Learn what's new and what you can benefit from. Find out which tools will best help you explore your potential and develop your passion.

2) Download a demo
3) Find a healthy handful of tutorials that you're interested in
4) Mess around and see what happens

CS3 is awesome!

This $1500+ software arrived and I tried to register it several times. Each time I got to the serial number part, I was informed by the computer that it was an invalid serial number. I checked on Adobe's site (they have a place to check the validity of serial numbers) and was told the same thing. I called Adobe and asked them for what reason would a serial number be invalid, they told me it would be because it was pirated.

I called Amazon and the CSR told me that I could return it for a refund because they did not have any more copies to replace it with. They did refund my purchase price, the insurance and shipping costs to return it - but not the time I billed them for to get this issue resolved! The refund was in the form of a credit to my newly obtained Amazon Store credit card. So now this credit card has a credit balance of about $25.00 that I really hate to use on an Amazon purchase. I have requested my money back, but so far I have heard nothing back and it has been over a week since I made that request.

This was bought from Amazon, not from a reseller - I was concerned that I might get pirated software from a reseller before getting it from Amazon. I would have bought from Adobe where I could have downloaded it immediately, but they do not sell older versions of their software once the newest version is on the market. Problem is my computer CPU is not fast enough to meet the minimum guidelines for CS4.

So I guess I will stick with my old miscellaneous software for web design right now. I am a professional freelance graphic designer and I can't afford to be using pirated software.

I've been using Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash & Dreamweaver for over 5 years now.

These applications have always excelled at what they do, and this package is no exception. It's also stable, and after 4 weeks I've had no crashing issues (be sure your computer meets or even tops the minimum system requirements).

The major "upgrade" I was expecting in this CS3 package was cross-application compatibility. To an extent that has been accomplished (the "relationship" between Dreamweaver & Photoshop is now very user-friendly and time-saving for example). But I was still expecting a little more integration between the others and would be unsure to upgrade from CS2 had it not been for Action script 3 and the range of applications (like many have said, it's a HUGE INVESTMENT for any freelancer \ small company).

I still miss ImageReady, though, and Adobe Bridge is something I'd rather live without.

That said, this is an essential product for anyone designing & developing websites or other creative content for the web (or print).

All I can say is this program will require I reformat my hard drive in order to install it on my computer of choice. Adobe CS3 is very unreliable and finicky. I was able to install it on my old computer running XP but not my new one, which also runs XP. So, the failure to run does not reflect my ability to install it or my computer's operating system. There seems to be conflicts with other Adobe products. I would recommend purchasing the $9.00 trial version DVD from Adobe to see if it will work on your machine. If not, you have lost only $9.00. Adobe should have done a much better job to insure installability. If you're stuck with it, try googling "Adobe CS3 install problems." There are some convoluted workarounds suggested there. Since I had another computer, I opted to go that route.

The software is great and almost a neccessaty in todays design world. I still would beware of the Express shipping as they use UPS. I would give the sofware 4 stars and shippin 1 star but can't edit my rating, only the review.