All I can say is I’m excited. I was skeptical about Adobe acquiring Macromedia at first, wishing it was the other way around. The only real Adobe product I was using was Photoshop, where was Macromedia has Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks. However, I have to say, I’ve been impressed with Adobe’s efforts to improving Macromedia’s products. I was worried they would cannibalize the different programs and just merge a few features into the Adobe products. However, they had done opposite with Creative Suite 3, they kept all the products and basically focused on making integration between all the products better.
It looks like with Creative Suite 4, the theme is still integration. Adobe seems to be taking the approach of “let each program do what it does best, and let them integrate seamlessly.” It looks like each program has received a new features, and Adobe has standardized the UIs across each program to help with consistency. I’m really excited about Smart Objects across Photoshop and Dreamweaver. It allows for smart objects to be shared across the two programs, so if you update the image in Photoshop, it will show up in Dreamweaver. Very, very cool!
The one thing I think the Creative Suite is missing is a solid program for advanced programming and scripting. I wish Adobe would make something like a Zend Studio for Adobe. While I can see why there really isn’t a program like that for Adobe, I still can wish.
Here are a few links to reviews and websites on Adobe CS4:
I wish I knew how to use Illustrator
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