Here are my notes and observations from today’s meeting. Since there was a lot of info, I pretty much just wrote down what was new to me (or what I’d remembered hearing before but forgot). Therefore, please send any additions/corrections and I’ll add them and credit you:
- It was the best attendance I remember at a BVAUG meeting; I counted 22 people.
- Re: Adobe apps will be available through SELL. From a follow-up email from Tom:
The Student Licensing program is for TAMU students only. The web site isn’t up yet, but will be in the next couple of weeks from what I am told by Romona Stites, my contact at SELL. Three products offered: Design Premium, Web Standard (CS3 edition of the former Studio 8), and Acrobat Professional. Pricing is a much better deal than purchasing standard Education shrink. For example, Education shrink for Design Premium is $599, TAMU student pricing is $395. They may add more products, such as Master Collection, based on the initial success of this new student perk.
- Fireworks:
- for quickly creating web graphics
- new prototyping tools— using hotspots, ‘Share Layer to Pages’ command, etc.
- .pngs can be multi-page (like Freehand documents)
- pretty strong integration between Fireworks, Photoshop and Illustrator: layers, transfer modes, layer styles.
- Bridge: allows live previews of Flash animations and video (.flv, .mov, .avi)
- Dreamweaver:
- native .psd import; Dreamweaver automatically opens a dialog like Photoshop’ ‘Save for Web’ when a .psd is imported. This graphic will be updated automatically when the external .psd is updated in Photoshop (like ‘Publish’ in Illustrator or a similar feature in After Effects).
- Browser Compatibility Check feature and its integration with Adobe’s CSS Advisor. This is actually useful; I’ve used it exactly as presented. Of course, you don’t need CS3 to browse or google the CSS Advisor on Adobe’s site.
- Spry: quick demo of Adobe’s implementation of AJAX. The question about whether it’s accessible brought this answer: ‘No.’ Perhaps he was correct. They’ll fix this, of course. See below for some books I’m currently reading and recommend on JavaScript and Ajax techniques.
- Flash
- you can choose to keep .psd vector layers as vector shapes
- can specify these files’ text layers as bitmaps, vector outlines or editable text
- can assign instance names in Illustrator for addressing with ActionScript
- Device Central: amazingly well-developed mobile device emulator for Flash, Dreamweaver,and other CS3 apps. Supports some 200 phones etc., with so far one notable, and perhaps sticky, exception (actually two: the iPhone and iPod touch).
- a new certification process featuring interactive (presumably Captivate-created) quizzing with an emphasis on workflow across products, rather than on full mastery of any one.
As a note regarding the Spry/lack of accessibility note above, here’s some books I’m currently reading, and recommend, on standards-based, unobtrusive, accessible, and gracefully-degrading JavaScript: