Chapter 7. Managing and Customizing the Interface


For the last several versions of its applications, Adobe has pushed to give its creative products a similar user interface. Adobe Creative Suite 2 can now boast the most common elements and the most similar interface in this long evolution towards what Steve sometimes refers to as "the Adobe way" of working. In this chapter, we'll focus on elements in common among Adobe applications, not the least of which is a shared core technology.

What's so important about this commonality? Efficiency, in short. It's easy and efficient to switch between applications if they share similar interface elements and ways of working. It's easy to learn a new CS2 application if you're already familiar with one or two other CS2 applications. For example, if you need to create text in both InDesign and Illustrator, it makes it easier to match the typefaces when the programs share a common interface for formatting text. Or, if you can recognize the New Layer button in the Photoshop Layer's palette, you'll immediately recognize the same buttons for new layers, new styles, new colors, or new pages in Illustrator and InDesign.

It's increasingly easy in CS2 applications to move parts of a project from one application to another to take advantage of what that application does best. For example, if InDesign is missing certain drawing tools, copy the vector elements into Illustrator to fix them up, and then copy them back. New methods used by CS2 applications, like Smart Objects and Live Linking, make it easy to update linked objects and keep the object quality at the highest possible level.

The shared technology between Creative Suite applications also makes you more efficient. You know that when you create type or graphics in one application, they will appear and print the same in each application. If you create artwork that contains transparency, it will be flattened for printing the same way, regardless of whether you print from InDesign, Illustrator, or Acrobat.

This chapter will introduce you to some common underpinnings that tie the applications together. We'll give you a quick tour of some of the ways you can use the Adobe way to navigate quickly around your CS2 applications. We'll focus primarily on Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. We'll mention GoLive where possible, although its interface has some significant differences. We'll discuss the Acrobat interface, which exists in a world by itself. We'll also talk about some important application-specific interface features.

Behind the Scenes: The Interface Protest

In late 1996, Adobe shipped a new version of Adobe Photoshop, version 4.0. This version raised a storm of angry protest from its most devoted users. Tools had been rearranged, and common keyboard commands had been changed. A similar protest arose again in early 1997 among Adobe Illustrator users, when Adobe Illustrator 7.0 arrived. Illustrator users found that the major portions of the Photoshop interface had been grafted onto their application.

The protests concerned what is called the application user interface. Graphics professionals who use their applications frequently become emotionally attached to the way the application operatesthe palettes, tools, menus, and windows that they work with everyday. Imagine what would happen if someone rearranged all the buttons and knobs in your kitchen. Is that switch going to turn on the coffee maker or the blender? When a new version of an application comes out and things are changed around, anger and confusion can ensue.

The changes that appeared in Photoshop 4 and Illustrator 7 were the beginning of the Adobe attempt to create a common user interface for its graphics applications. This slow process continues to this day in Adobe Creative Suite 2.




Real World(c) Adobe Creative Suite 2
Real World Adobe Creative Suite 2
ISBN: 0321334124
EAN: 2147483647
Year: N/A
Pages: 192

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