Customer Reviews

Adobe Creative Suite 2 Workflow: Integrating the Tools, Increasing Your Productivity

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

 

 

If I had gone strictly with the title of the book, I might have not given this one 5 stars at all. It's not about creating workflows between Adobe applications and doing projects. More than that, this book is about experiences from the authors about how one can do small tasks more efficiently by using the CS2 applications together. Think of this as a book that's left next to your desk that you can pick up and read when you have 5 minutes to spare. That's the way this book will benefit. So if you think that the term "workflow' in the title means that you're going to do great things, then you got it all wrong. This book is about those little things that make great differences.

Geetesh Bajaj/Indezine.com

Full of the basics to get any soon-to-be Photoshoper off the ground with CS2. Lots of examples on virtually every page, step you through real-world situations, clearly and quickly.

A few good sections on Bridge, Version Cue and Searching right at the beginning ensure you don't make a mess later on as you wade through all the chapters devoted to Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, GoLive, and Acrobat.

While it does cover Photoshop basics such as removing color casts, red eye, setting up printers and placing text on paths...it also details how it efficiently ties into all the other Adobe applications found in CS2.

And how to make the most of your time - a good general book for beginners but even advanced users may glean new insights if they haven't tried CS2's new features.

This book presents a set of recipes for using the Adobe product suite. The recipes are well chosen and are described in a terse style that works for this type of content. My only gripe is that the examples could have been a little better. With books that cover products like Photoshop I like to not only learn the techniques, but be inspired by the example material in the book itself. And that's why I rate this book a 4 and not a 5.

Adobe Creative Suite 2 Workflow falls short in what I feel could have been a major instructional title for using all of the Adobe Suite programs together. From the title of the book, I was expecting a more in depth "how to" examples and creative ways for cross program utilization. Instead Workflow reads more like an expanded help document. Examples are few and descriptions of tools are short and to the point. It does a good job on providing overall tool awareness for major features and capabilities of the programs, but does little to empower anyone other than a beginning user. Don't get me wrong, the content is good, but is presented visually in what seems to be an moderate to advanced user title, but would be better positioned as a beginners guide. Some of the insets and "tips" seemed redundant to the content previously explained, particularly in the InDesign chapters.

Most cookbook/recipe/tip guides offer new insights into how tools can be used together for a new, creative outcome. You do not find that in this title. You do get an introduction to the different CS programs and how they are even more powerful when used together. Perhaps my view is a bit tainted because I was expecting a more advanced insight. I would recommend this title for computer savvy yet beginners with the Adobe Suite, just not for users already well into their use of Adobe applications.

Jennifer Alspach, Shari Nakno and Steve Samson's Adobe Creative Suite 2 Workflow is no light manual on CS2: it's for the active user who suspects there are more functions and features than meets the eye. From tips on how to use CS2 more effectively to determining which applications fit specific tasks and how to handle illustrator techniques, one big advantage here is a powerful visual approach which packs color screen shots, diagrams, and examples on each page. It's one of the best, more comprehensive CS2 workbooks on the market today and lends particularly well to seasoned users who wish to get more from the program.

'Adobe Creative Suite 2 Workflow' is a nice book, but I think it's way too overloaded to be extremely useful. If you are looking for an overview of Adobe's tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Indesign, GoLive) all in one place (and the key word is OVERVIEW), then this book might be worth purchasing. I myself would prefer to pick up a guide that focuses on 1 topic in particular and then examines all the intricacies of said application. There are a lot of great books out on the market (many by O'Reilly) that accomplish just this task, so I don't know how useful this guide is at the price point it is marketed at.

To use an example, O'Reilly has some amazing Photoshop books under the O'Reilly Digital Studio line that is absolutely ESSENTIAL for all Photoshop users. 'Photoshop Elements 4 One-on-One (One-On-One)' by Deke McClelland is another gem in the O'Reilly line of books, but these books DO focus on particular areas. I suppose if you add up the costs of all of these individual books that the argument might be made that this text is a great bargain, examining all the most popular tools that Adobe has in one book. I personally find that individuals would need a text that is more in-depth in a particular topic and I just don't get the sense that this guide is more useful for anything but a quick overview of these 5 applications. If that's all you are looking for, this book should do the trick.

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