Common User Interface

You bought this book (or "borrowed" it from your friend) because you wanted to learn how to use Adobe Creative Suite 2. It would be a pain if you had to spend time learning how to use a photo-editing program, only to realize that you have to learn a whole new way of using your computer for working in a page-layout application. So it's of comfort to know that the applications in the suite all share the same award-winning Adobe user interface.

By the Way

In case you aren't familiar with the term, user interface describes how a person uses or interacts with software. Examples of these kinds of elements can range from buttons, palettes, and dialog boxes to tools and how they work.

In fact, the interfaces of the suite applications are so alike that it's sometimes easy to forget which application you're using. Because so many things work the same way in all the individual applications, it's possible to focus on doing your work rather than trying to figure out how to do it.

The user interface really comprises many things, and we're going to discuss some of them here, including palettes, tools, and more.

By the Way

Remember that although Adobe Creative Suite promises untold integration among its parts, the individual applications themselves have been around for quite some time (especially in the case of Photoshop and Illustrator), so there might be certain elements or functions that aren't exactly the same. Throughout the book, I point out where such differences exist and why. I imagine that with each release of the suite over the years, the interface will become more consistent among the suite applications.