InDesign CS4 News Coming September 23
Adobe today announced that they will unveil CS4 on September 23, 2008. From the little that Adobe is saying, it sounds as though they won’t actually be releasing CS4 on that date. Rather, they’re going public that day about what they call the “largest product launch in Adobe’s history.”
As with so many announcements about announcements, it’s more important to look at what Adobe is not saying — reading between the lines is crucial. Notably, Adobe doesn’t appear to be mentioning anything about holographic imaging technology, wood-carving algorithms, or HDMI inputs. In fact, I want to note that I’m a bit shocked to think that, given what they’re not saying yet, they may (or may not) be leaving out an iTunes panel from InDesign CS4.
That said, stay tuned here at InDesignSecrets and check in on September 23 for all the news and our impressions!
Is there info on new features, what to expect etc.? Or is the massively inflated price the only thing we are certain about?
i kid, i kid, love you adobe.
Meh, unless they’re releasing a beta, I really don’t care about any CS4 app. until CS4 actually gets a release date.
The one thing I do hope for is that they don’t copy the Fireworks CS4 UI as it’s a huge pain in the neck not being able to open files by dragging & dropping them onto the (maximized!) program’s ‘background’.
Just make footnotes span columns and I’m happy.
Fantasy idea:
Make the Object, Paragraph Styles, Character Styles etc., have an option to make th Colour a “Master Page Colour”.
Then the master page has a dialog box, where you assign the Colours you want to the Styles for that Master Page.
Hmmm….. CS4 is badly needed.
Just noticed that a lot of the graphic design forums, indesign forums and blogs have basically dried up i the last month or so.
Just when people are getting comfortable, they bring out a new version, very well timed
Any idea if Beta Testing is open to everyone or do you have to be specially asked?
>Meh, unless they’re releasing a beta, I really don’t care about any CS4 app. until CS4 actually gets a release date.
In the past when Adobe announced new products, they didn’t provide an exact ship date. They’ll usually say it’s coming in the quarter, or something like that. However, typically ship date is a few weeks after announcement, based on past experience.
You can sign up to watch the webcast here:
http://adobe.istreamplanet.com/
I think it should be an update rather than an upgrade. They keep putting out upgrades faster and faster and bleeding us dry. Or at least me. But then maybe I am just poor…..
Nobody’s being forced to upgrade. Wait for the announcement and some details to find out whether there’s anything compelling.
On a slightly different note, in a few weeks the CS5 feature requests can begin.
True Bob. And I am not going to get into an argument about it, but you do try to keep up with the times. I love Adobe products but if you read Dear Adobe I think many of us think they are getting somewhat bloated. Seems like I just uploaded 3.3 premium and I turn around and there is 4. Makes me feel always slightly behind.
To further the “discussion,” during the day I work for a prepress house that does school book page make-up. We have books in Quark 4, 6.5, 7 and InDesign CS, CS2, and CS3. And then you have clients that want to keep it in the original version. So yes, at times you are forced to upgrade.
Anyway, I was simply stating that I think perhaps Adobe should think of making some of these things updates rather than upgrades and let some of us catch up AND get some work done.
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Bob Levine
September 3rd, 2008 • 6:04 amLink
You can sign up to watch the webcast here:
http://adobe.istreamplanet.com/
Hey Bob, thanks for heads up. I have registered and looking forward to it.
It even bookmarked it for me in my calendar, how nice
Pete: “So yes, at times you are forced to upgrade.” No. That is not what “forced” properly means. Upgrading is a totally free choice you make: to buy something which lets you work with the most recent software technologies — or not. “Not wanting to buy something, but I have to do it in order to be competitive” is not the definition of “force”. Force is physical. Force is ultimately a “gun-held-to-your-head”. And that’s not the scenario we’re dealing with in something so innocuous and benevolent as freely choosing to upgrade a software package — or not. Adobe (or Microsoft or Apple) has not one iota of physical force to use against us — that’s how the Mafia “does business,” not civilized, normal companies. Their billion-dollar size or high market share is irrelevant and does not constitute “force,” either: they’re offering me a value, a product, in return for my money — and it’s a 100% free and voluntary transactions both ways.
So let’s stop all this nonsense about being “forced” to upgrade. We freely do so — because we thereby gain a value which benefits us in countless ways. If you don’t find anything in CS4 of value to your working methods or your business, then you’re free to stay with old technologies: Adobe has no way of “forcing” you to do otherwise. In free transactions, “force” is not a factor — and buying software upgrades is an archetypical example of a free transaction.
i think you’re being far too literal (and a little rude), klaus.
if his choice is “upgrade or lose business revenue,” while he may not being “literally” force, he’s likely being “economically” forced. if you read his description of what he’s doing, this means he’ll be supporting seven different versions of two packages (instead of six).
you’re right that he’s free to choose to not upgrade, but he does that at the peril of losing current and future business. and the upgrade could be purely to be able to support customers, not because of any benefit in the software to him.
The answer could be just to make future versions of InDesign open in CS3, they can’t be that different, can they?
You always have the .inx version too, so perhaps saving as CS4 with the option to make it backwards compatible (at a larger file size) to include the .inx information… perhaps.
I don’t know, I’m just an ideas man, make it happen Adobe.
And I get the whole fuss of having so many versions of the software just so you can take in files from customers. I know a guy who still has Quark 3,4,5,6 running on his computer because customers send in files for Quark are still being used. And I think we all may just know someone else in the same boat.
Thanks Klaus (you said exactly what I meant and so much more succinctly) and Eugene for understanding the point I was trying to make. I am really not trying to start an argument.
It may not have sounded like it but I do love my CS3.3 creative suite. I spend 10-12 hours a day at work and then come home and spend more hours researching, learning new things and trying to keep up with this ever rapidly changing industry.
Correction to above
Thanks Klaus (you said exactly what I meant and so much more succinctly)
Klaus should be Greg
SORRY GREG
I’m hoping there is no CS5, just one big app that does the lot! It could be named “Creative Sweet”!!!
I hear that CS4 may have “tabs” for artwork documents instead of document windows, much like tabs on a web browsers?? I like the sound of that!
I was looking for information on how to add/create your own InDesign dictionary, in trying to help someone out, but I couldn’t find any info, they want to add in a Welsh dictionary, but there’s no info on the web. However, I did find this in a LiveDoc on the web, going back as far as May… they are working on this/ideas for a while now.
Bob - Adobe Writer said on May 30, 2008 at 12:48 PM :
As I mentioned, the operating system determines which program is used to open that file type. On a Mac, Ctrl-click a file (such as a JPEG), and then choose Get Info. From the “Open With” menu, choose the application that will open that file type. By the way, InDesign CS4 will have an Open With menu option that lets you specify the program.
Psst…!
There’s a transitions panel (that was demoed)
The Links panel has been reworked and now shows more info
There’s a new Preflight Panel
And TA DAH…! A Conditional Text Panel!
I only saw pics of this and I don’t know if they will actually make it to the final release, but they were there.
Cheers
I heard that CS4 makes its own gravy.
I saw “CS4″ in a layout yesterday and highlighted it as a typo. A trip to Adobe’s website schooled me otherwise. I couldn’t believe it: CS4 already?? I guess I was forgetting that CS3 shipped April ‘07, putting CS4’s (assumed) release at a timely 18 months. But still, we just upgraded to CS3 not 3 months ago and I’m still getting used to some things. For a small design studio a CS upgrade is a costly event. I’m really curious to see if the new features make CS4 even worth considering.
@Elizabeth Lass: I work solo, so I know the cost of upgrades can be daunting, but with the introduction of CS1, I decided to upgrade right on the day of release. Being late to the party might be good in terms of bugs having been squished, but being early takes away the feeling of ‘dang but I just upgraded’.
Why oh why didn’t they just add pages to Illustrator?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNLFXKyCy0A
Does anyone know how long that webcast thing on the Adobe site will take? I got invited to an InDesign user group thing on the same day that’d take up my entire day, so I can’t partake in it, but if the webcast doesn’t take too long I might be able to get the time off for it (stupid customers always needing attention during the work week!)