Poll Results: Which programs do you wish you knew better?
Hey folks, it’s time once again to review the results of a poll and launch a new one.
Recently, we asked which programs other than InDesign that you wish you knew better. Respondents could pick up to three programs.
The results showed that Illustrator was the program most respondents would like to know better, closely followed by Photoshop. After Effects was a distant third, followed closely by Premiere, Lightroom, Acrobat, and Excel.
Don’t forget that our sister site, CreativePro.com has thousands of articles on programs like these!
Here’s a sampling of a few recent posts:
How to Make Patterns in Illustrator
How to Fill Text With Images in Photoshop
Here’s a graphic showing the results of the poll:
New poll: Does Adobe’s decision to remove older versions of applications from the Creative Cloud affect your workflow?
Our new poll asks if the removal of older versions of applications like InDesign from Adobe’s Creative Cloud impacts your workflow. Not sure? You can read the details about it in this post.
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Sure does in our prepress workflow. Purchased plugins only worked for 6 months before we were moved to newer InDy versions. Being unable to use the compatible InDy version for the the plugins makes us resistant to investing in plugins again, unless extremely desperate. Doing the work over manually would be about a wash—and pretty dumb and irritating.
YES! It is a huge issue.
We have hundreds of clients, many thousands of files, dozens of InDesign users, custom scripts/apps we write ourself and need months of testing before moving to a new version of InDesign.
InDesign has not had an update that provided any features that we can use in our workflow since CS6. (and bugs from CS6 still remain)
We are currently using InDesign CC2017 and testing CC2019.
We were using Creative Cloud Desktop app for new installs and now have to use the downloaded installer outside of Cloud. (Whew, if InDesign CC2017 installer was not available on Adobe site we would be out of business, thank goodness we weren’t still in CC2014 as we were last year!)
No issues for us with Photoshop, Illy or any other CC apps updating—it’s only InDesign that we write custom apps for.
This is EXACTLY why I never upgraded from CS4—it lives on my machine, no Adobe interference—I can work whether I am on line or off. I maintain a computer with Mac OS 10.8.5 for that very purpose.
I live in the dark ages on Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and CS6. I’ve kept an eye on the InD CC updates in case there’s anything compellingly new relating to typesetting books (which is mostly what I do). Can’t find anything!
Have been trying to download a copy of CS6 and, although it’s on the huge list of invoices/serial numbers on my ID on the Adobe website, I cannot find anywhere to download it. I’m a tad nervous, I must say, as I feel Apple and Adobe have dumped me after all these decades! Just want a fresh copy to keep in case of . . .
All those who’re using older, non-CC versions of InDesign should take great care to preserve them. A hard disk crash and restoration from a backup left me with a version of Photoshop CS-3 that had lost its activation. I’d bought it directly from Adobe, so there was no question that I had a right to activate it again. And aside from a few quirks, it runs fine on my Mac.
But when I called Adobe about the problem, they told me that the server that delivers up valid activation codes was no longer available. What should have been an easy reactivation became what even they admitted was a complicated process involving multiple apps that I must download and run. I followed their procedure three times. On each, the process failed not once but twice. I was left wondering if Adobe was doing the equivalent of Apple’s old-battery slowdown in an effort to get me to subscribe to a product I only rarely use. Making me even more angry, suspecting that Adobe had left an authentication backdoor that would be easy to use, I tried to get them to tell me that to no avail.
Adobe may have hoped to sell me a Photoshop-CC subscription. Instead, I bought Affinity Photo for my iPad. It should work well enough for my needs and more.
I’m not sure how many versions back Adobe’s inability to effectively re-authenticate older apps goes. Someone might query them about that. But I would advise you to make sure you never face that problem.
The last time I needed to reinstall InDesign CS4 from disk, the disk was too thick to fit in the built-in drive. Fortunately, I was at the Apple store and the “Genius” was able to help me with the Adobe site/interface and I got it done. I have my serial number and physical disk.
Notice how few people want to learn Word better. Perhaps you should conduct a poll on “The Apps You’d Most Like to See Disappear.” Many years ago, proofing for Microsoft Press the book, Working with Word, made me want a Mac. I loved the app until the marvelous 5.1 was replaced by the dreadful 6.0. Since then Word’s path has been downhill, with more features but less usefulness. Some companies spend too little adding features to a product. Microsoft has spent too much adding them to Word.
YES! I still remember Word 5.1 fondly. Word 6 was the beginning of the end… Word 2011 for the Mac was another reasonably happy plateau, but now I’ve made the switch to 365 and I keep wondering why, why, why…
Try to create a style in 365! an exercise in frustration.
I use OpenOffice; would not spend the money on MS Word—especially not in subscription mode. I like my software to live on my computer, under my control.
I have the Microsoft subscription–the software IS easily installed on the computer. For $99 US, I get 5 activations (Mac or Win) and 1 TB cloud storage. I WISH Adobe’s subscription service was as cost effective
As far as I remember part of the promise of Creative Cloud was that you would always have access to older versions of the software.
Another promise of CC was to release new features as and when they were ready.
Both of those promises have been broken.
Removing older versions doesn’t affect me – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a bad decision – as seen by Sandy, Bret, Sally and others’ replies above.
Technically, you CAN download older versions. Unless Adobe adobe specifically said “you can download CS6 forever”, they are not breaking any promise. As some point, the support required to run old software on a new(er) OS becomes cost prohibitive. Companies like Adobe are usually smart enough not to make promises they can’t keep.
As far as new versions go, Adobe is the one who decides when a new feature is ready. I’m sure they are thrilled when a feature is released and it turns out to have bugs…
In its day Quark stuck to old programming routines and raised its prices to unrealistic levels.
That gave Adobe its chance to unseat the king. Adobe’s programming routines were modern, but now it’s falling into the trap of raising its prices to unrealistic levels for small and casual users. Then, making smaller users feel quite insecure, Adobe instituted the money-grab of subscription software, with no option.
That’s giving Affinity the opportunity to built its graphics suite from the ground up, with the aim of being unashamedly pro, not having a subscription mode, and with reasonable pricing. Result? A high probability that Affinity will unseat the current king.
Adobe, learn from your origins, or see history repeat itself.
I’ve already switched, so it may be too late start turning the behemoth.
Well, for one: the beta of Affinity Publisher can not even create Tagged PDF’s. Talking about ‘Pro’ uh…
Beta, right? Give them time. At least the financial model is reasonable for those of us without big corporate budgets behind us.
Affinity Publisher is beta. It cost me nothing to try.; I don’t expect it to be InDesign, now or ever. I also don’t expect it to cost me thousands of dollars. And break my heart when I can’t get the activation code to work for an older version that’s on my old Mac.
I love InDesign and Photoshop and even Illustrator. I have the original CS. And a couple upgrades-which I bought from Adobe, Itself, the last one being CS4, obviously years ago. My hard drive went; I had a new one installed, but the activation code for CS4 didn’t work. I called Adobe and spent 4 1/2 hours on chat and phone, first arguing that I had a right to the activation code. They claimed I didn’t because I had CS, and I could have only bought an upgrade for the entire suite, not just InDesign. Well, if that were true, why’d they sell it to me? I had an individual Photoshop as well, that I’d bought from them several years even before that.
When that hurdle was behind us, none of the activation advice worked. It was like, oh I don’t know, incompetence squared. None of us were very happy. Until it id finally work. But I was given a special activation number in case I ever needed it again.
Which I did, eventually, and of course; the activation number I’d been given didn’t work. Another 4 1/2 hours and finally I got it.
I am subscribed to CC at work; I would never do that on my own. So I am pleased to have the Affinity products, and I hope that Publisher will end up having some of those things we like to take for granted on the unlimited $$$$ Adobe plan.
I was fortunate to have an Apple Genius to help me with it. Although I downloaded the Affinity Publisher beta version, I have been lazy about experimenting with it. Glad to see new choices being developed.
(I actually go back to Aldus PageMaker, version 3 or 4 I think—was distressed when Adobe purchased it, though I happily upgraded on my own schedule through CS4—skipping a version here or there, and then catching up when the time seemed right.)
I will be activating my new Mac on the weekend and I’m torn between migrating everything across, including a bunch of junk that is probably the cause of the old macs collapse, but at least I can be assured CS6 will be transferred, or take the risk and try the discs… see if the installers work in this day and age. Yikes!
Keep in mind that Affinity Publisher is in Beta, even though its current version number is 1.7.0. Is Affinity going to use the ‘Infinite Beta’ release system or will there be a Gold Release?
If there is a Gold Release, I’ll see if my InDesign V1.0 disk will still install, allowing me to make a comparision. That will take me back many years.
I suspect Publisher Gold Release will have significantly greater ability that did InDesign V1.
Will there be an easy way to port InDesign CC files to Affinity? Will Affinity open InDesign CC files and allow me to Save on my computer?
We can only hope.
I Spent the last week trying out Affinity Publisher, Designer & Photo 1.7.1 … This is the future of graphic design.. I’m Stunned.. The Studio Link feature where Affinity Designer or Photo Tools & Interface Pop right up when you are Using Publisher without having them Launched is nothing short of AMAZING.. and the SPEED, PANNING & ZOOMING even on our old 2012 Macs is STUNNING… All my artists and designers love it and it is Unanimous.. WE ARE SWITCHING to Affinity right after Catalina is stable and running. We are so sick and tired of the Subscription Model Issues We have had. Can’t Use our Adobe Apps when the Internet goes down. Updates in 2018 & especially 2019 that were Horribly Bug Ridden. The list of Pros & Cons of switching and troubles we’ll have are welcome compared to the Absurdity that Adobe has become. $120.00 for all 3… will save us Thousands in Adobe Fees. So October/November we plan to jump off the Adobe runaway gravy train and into not only a new Era, but a much More modern and pleasing Workflow for Creatives who don’t like Institutional Style Applications. If we don’t switch I’m afraid my artists and designers will Mutiny. THEY want Affinity and I’m ready to DO IT!
Untill they need to create tagged PDF’s and have to go to Acrobat… then you will get another mutiny! Or create reflowabkl ePub, or FXL ePub, or Interactivity, or go on line, or… Affinity Publisher is not ready in any way to replace InDesign if you are a professional.
That said: the speed and Studio!ink are impressing!
We have been using much more robust Applications for Tagging, reflowabkl ePub, or FXL ePub, & Interactivity, since it wasn’t that long ago that Adobe Apps didn’t have any of this. There are numerous PDF editors right up there with Acrobat Pro, so we won’t lose much sleep finding an alternative. We may lose some or a lot of functionality compared to Indesign 2019 but we got along just fine a few years ago without all those bells and whistles which are still very Bug Ridden To this day. “Professional” is a very subjective and overused term… Some “Professionals” build websites by dragging & dropping in WordPress… Other “Professionals” Write Code.. Line by Line. They can both look and function very “Professionally.”
Why can’t you use your Adobe programmes when the internet goes down ? That’s not right.
Affinity Designer is not a replacement for InDesign at this point in time.
I have tried it and it falls short in a number of significant ways – see the other answers.
Huh? Why shouldn’t you be able to use Adobe programms ’When the internet goes down’?? You misunderstand how it works. You can work fine without an internet connection as long as once per month you are online for 5 minutes. Your remark makes no sense at all…
About Not working when internet is down.. I wish I knew why… our questions on Adobe Support Forums go unanswered as are many questions on there. We Get That Dreaded Dialog accusing us of not being a subscribed user and to connect to the internet and try again. When we click OK, Adobe Apps Immediately Quit. I even had to delay a class I taught at our Local Library because their Macs & Adobe Apps did the same thing as Mine at the office so it’s not exclusive to my install or subscription status. Indesign may not be a replacement yet but it soon will if Affinity innovations keep up like this. Since we don’t use reflowabkl ePub, or FXL ePub, or Interactivity and numerous PDF editors right up there with Acrobat Pro, we won’t lose much sleep finding an alternative. “Professional” is a very subjective and overused term… like “that’s EPIC!
I’m watching in the wings for evidence that Affinity Designer can deliver solid output files. Currently their PDF output is shocking. I recall issues with InDes 1.0 and how printers couldn’t print from them. Zero accessibility at this point worries me too considering much of our work ends up online. It’s just not good enough (wags his finger crossly).
I solved the problem I wrote about earlier after hunting around for a copy of CS6 to keep in case of emergencies to no avail. I clicked on the chat box at the bottom of one of the Adobe pages and laid out the whole problem. Eventually I had a lengthy ‘chat’ as the person at the other end asked me questions that I’d already answered in my initial ‘chat’. However, mostly all is forgiven now as he gave me a link to download CS6. Now I’ll worry about activation in case my 2014 Mac goes AWOL. The minute Affinity Publisher can cope with books, open InDesign files and export PDFs the printers will like, I’m off. Don’t think I’ve ever had the need for a tagged PDF and wouldn’t know one if I met it, let alone what to do with it. Roll on Affinity!!
Just one more thing … Having To Wait until March the last two years for Stable, Reliable Updates that you were paying for Since October is pathetic and fraudulent. I’ve seen class action lawsuits for a lot less in the Tech Industry. Of course everyone forgets because Indesign is working now.. for the most part. I would love to See Adobe Indesign 2020 come out with even more problems than 2019 did so I can read all the postings that will erupt here like, “Go Back to 2019 – It corrupted all our files!” and don’t forget to pay that scandalous subscription fee.
Sorry to hear that you’ve had so many problems with InDesign. However, the vast majority of users don’t have issues. InDesign is stable and reliable for most of us. But it sounds like you’re happy with Publisher, so that’s great.
Robert – you seem to be having hassles no one else is.
I’ve been on all the 2019 products since they were released and have not experienced any major software issues.
Also you didn’t seem to know that you can use Adobe Products when the internet goes down.
Which I find amazing given that you have a whole team of designers working with the products.
My suspicion is that you are either trying to deliberately trash Adobe (for whatever reason) – or want to promote Affinity – or both. Your logic just doesn’t stack up.
Can you explain the critical InDesign issues you are having in more detail ?
And tell us why your products don’t work when the internet goes down ?
See Robert’s reply to your post above; I suspect that the issue is security issues that keep Adobe from recognizing the computer—and leaving that open would create a hole in the firewall, cookie blocker, or whatever is protecting the computer in question, a particular concern on a public computer such as one in a library. Not a good choice to have to make!