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Review: Adobe Creative Suite 3 Combines Two Creative Powerhouses: Page 2 of 6

What's In The Box?

If you're a Web professional, you won't be disappointed with the results. What follows is a brief description of the suite's contents, along with where it came from:

  • Dreamweaver CS3: Design, develop, and maintain Web sites and Web applications (Macromedia)
  • Flash CS3 Professional: Animation and interface development environment (Macromedia)
  • Photoshop CS3: Photo and image enhancement tool (Adobe)
  • Photoshop CS3 Extended : A set of extensions for Photoshop for vertical markets such as architects or medical researchers (Adobe)
  • Illustrator CS3: High-end drawing tool (Adobe)
  • Fireworks CS3: Image editor and vector-based graphics tool (Macromedia)
  • Contribute CS3: Web content editing tool (Macromedia)
  • Acrobat CS3 Professional: Document distribution, editing, and collaboration tool (Adobe)

Additional tools and utilities (all from Adobe) include: Adobe Bridge CS3 (content management), Version Cue CS3 (project management tool), Adobe Acrobat Connect (Flash-based online meeting tool), Adobe Device Central CS3 (online environment for managing a variety of devices), and Adobe Stock Photos (a subscription stock photo service and directory of photographers).

The Standard version includes everything but Acrobat, Illustrator, and the two Photoshop apps (making it more of a pure Macromedia product package). I can't help wondering they didn't at least include Acrobat in the Standard version.


Putting Adobe To Work

As you would expect, this is a lot of software, so anticipate taking at least an hour for installation (or longer depending on the speed of your machine). Adobe requires registration within 30 days, but in the beta at least, there was no activation requirement. If it remains this way, it will be a welcome change for a community that generally dislikes this requirement.

(Click image to go to Image Gallery.)

When you open up applications in Creative Suite 3 for the first time, you will see that Adobe has attempted to give them a common look and feel -- at least, to the extent possible when you have programs that perform such different functions. It is by no means a dramatic make-over, but it does let you know that all the components are part of the same family. Each has been assigned a new two-letter icon that makes it very easy to identify the program in the Windows Task Bar or when you are alt-tabbing through open programs in Windows Vista or XP.