*** From the Archives ***
This article is from August 20, 2018, and is no longer current.
Poll Results: Creative Cloud Use
Hey folks, it’s time once again to review the results of a poll and launch a new one.
This past month, we asked Creative Cloud subscribers: Besides InDesign, which elements of the Creative Cloud do you use on a regular basis?
The big (and to me, surprising) takeaway was how few of you are using the other apps and services in Creative Cloud. Photoshop was the clear winner, with almost 27% of respondents saying they use it in addition to InDesign. Illustrator was close behind with almost 25%.
And then there was a big drop off. Adobe Bridge is used by just over 10% of respondents, followed by Typekit (9%) and CC Libraries (7%). The remaining apps and services, including Adobe Stock, CC Files, and mobile apps like Comp and Capture, all came in at less than 5%. Poor InCopy came in last at less than 2%, which is a shame because I’m certain it could be helping more InDesign users to improve their editorial workflows.
Here’s a chart showing the results.
New poll: Where do you use InDesign?
Simply put, where do you use InDesign? Please be sure to select all that apply!
Bonus question (answer in the comments): where’s the most unusual place you’ve used InDesign? Fixed missing links on a golf course? Made bookmarks at the beach? Published an ebook on the back of an elephant? Used the Gap tool at the Grand Canyon? Let us know!
 |
I forced myself to use Bridge instead of Finder after attending the Creative Pro conference and now there’s no going back. It does so much more and than Finder and offers far more customization. It take a tiny bit of getting used to but it’s definitely worth it.
Interesting; I stumbled into it once, got totally confused, and have not investigated again. I do not do a lot of InDesign work any more, but maybe I should explore a bit. (Stand-alone CS4.)
ha! I love hearing that, mouse!
Don’t forget that in Enterprise environments, users are often prohibited from using Adobe cloud services (Typekit and Libraries are verboten for me-anything in the Adobe cloud -cannot even log in to cloud) – we’d use them if we could.
Also our IT dept will not allow many of the CC apps – they don’t want to support them and we have to prove we absolutely need the app in order to for them to let us install it.
Bit late to the party with this answer but…
I absolutely second this. We’re theoretically using CC but blocked in just about everything. We can’t download fonts/scripts/plugins/Adobe images, save CC libraries, convert files saved in newer versions to our older inhouse one… So much goodness we’d love to use but it’s not allowed by our IT policies. And there’s dozens of us, not just one or two people, affected by this. (Government organisation. And whenever I go to Adobe training courses I always find lots of other government staff in the same boat.)
Another way to look at is that subscribers are a paying a lot for tools they don’t need or (in some cases) want.
Exactly—why I got off the train when I did.
There’s a good argument for that. On the other hand, it’s nice to have Prelude and Premiere handy for the few times I really needed it, and I would never have considered using Adobe Audition if it wasn’t included in CC, but I use it all the time to edit audio. And I fell in love with Muse because of it’s InDesign-like interface (sadly only to see Adobe give up on it). It’s nice to have all these tools available, even if it means finding a use for them, or even just giving them a try, which I don’t think a lot of people bother to do.
Being exposed to and trying new stuff is indeed cool. It can inspire one to take a different approach or expand one’s product offerings. But I’m at the tail end of my career arc and my clients are hiring me exclusively for print design. I make my money with InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator (in that order). If I could pay a subscription charge for just those three that was fair but more proportional, I’d feel a lot better about Adobe. As it stands now, I get charged for a lot of apps that I don’t even download. And I don’t have a choice. As much as I admire and appreciate InDesign, I secretly hope another industry-standard app comes along to give people options.
I tried using the Illustrator app on my ipad, but realistically to design a good vector file, you do need ALL OF YOUR TOOLS…so…NO!
Given the annual cost of an upgrade for just one of Adobe’s tools, I think the $50 per month charge is a bargain.
Only 10% of designers use Adobe Bridge? That’s crazy, it’s SO MUCH BETTER than using the Finder. It’s the 2nd most important piece of software I used on a daily basis. I know other designers that don’t even know what it’s for and how to use it in the daily workflow. I will say it does help to have a second monitor to keep Bridge in the fore front. But do yourself a favor and take a hour to be introduced: https://helpx.adobe.com/bridge/user-guide.html
Who has an extra hour? I’m 65, still working full-time in book publishing and I am tired folks! The first Mac-based layout program I used was Ready, Set, Go and I worked at a beta site for Framemaker–that’s how old I am. Bridge is so slow to launch, I wince if I click it accidentally. And how does it replace finder if it only sorts Adobe products, I’d like to know. Does it search email topics or attachments? Does it search on line? I have to weigh the front end and the learning curve to keep up w my daily work load. I thank God for people who still buy books, whether they read them or not.