Here are some of the sessions that I will be presenting:

From InDesign to the iPad and Android Apps
Wired, the New Yorker, Time, and Esquire are all doing it… Learn how you can you get your content out of InDesign and on to the iPad. What solutions are currently available? What’s coming down the pipeline?

Let’s Talk PDF: Best Practices for PDF Workflows
There’s PDF and then there’s PDF! Learn the best practices for making efficient, print-ready PDFs on Mac and Windows.

• Export vs. Distill
• Tweaking PDF export presets for optimum output
• What to do when the printer says “convert type to outlines”
• PDF/X1, 3, and 4 – why, when, where, who, and how!

InDesign Beyond Print: Interactive PDFs, SWFs, and iPad and Tablet Apps
InDesign is the world’s best layout tool, but that doesn’t mean only print layout! Learn how InDesign makes it easy to create interactive PDF files, SWF (Flash) files, EPUB documents, and iPad/Tablet apps.

• Building presentations
• 5 Keys to a successful EPUB export
• Building navigation links efficiently
• Making smaller and faster interactive PDF files
• SWF vs. FLA from InDesign
• Building apps for iPad and Android

Reset InDesign’s Preferences

Check for Application Updates

Check to make sure your application is up to date. Go to your help menu and choose “updates”. InDesign will check to see if there are any updates, not just for itself but for other Adobe Creative Suite applications as well. If there are updates you will need an admin password to install. Be aware that your IT department might have to do this for you depending on computer configuration.

Refresh the File

If only 1 file is acting strange (and not the entire application) you might want to refresh the file. If you are using CS3 or earlier you should export your file to .inx and then reopen it again. If you are using CS4 or later you can export to IDML and then open it back again. This will rebuild your file and hopefully fix the issue that you were having. I highly recommend this if you have converted an old Pagemaker or QuarkXPress file since they can sometimes cause your files to act strangely.

The latest release candidate of the Flash Player (candidate 7 of 10.1) does not appear to be vulnerable to this exploit and it seems version 8 and earlier are not affected either.

See Adobe’s official notice here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa10-01.html

The link for the latest release candidate here:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/

If you would like to assume more control over when Flash material runs in your web browser, you may be interested in installing a Flash blocker plug-in for your browser. The blocker stops all Flash content by default but you can just click on any content you would like to see and then you can watch or interact with it as you normally would. You can even whitelist entire sites with most blocker plug-ins so you don’t have to click-to-load each Flash movie on that site. Blockers allow you to enjoy Flash content on the web but assume more control over what happens in your web browser.

Blocker for Apple Safari

http://clicktoflash.com/

Blocker for Firefox

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433/

Blocker for Chrome

http://www.chromeextensions.org/appearance-functioning/flashblock/

Blocker for Microsoft Internet Explorer (not a plug-in, a built-in whitelist)

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/disable-flash-all-but-whitelist-sites-ie8/

(Please use the browser appropriate for each link when clicking!)

When you place anything into Adobe InDesign (text, graphic or table) a commonly overlooked feature is import options. It is located in the lower left hand corner of the place dialog box.

If you choose to click import options you will be greeted with a plethora of information regarding your file that will help choose how the file will be imported (content and/or formatting).

Microsoft Word Import Options

Word’s options let you choose the formatting options of text, importing of inline graphics/tables or even map Word styles to InDesign styles.

*If you want to remove Word’s formatting, but keep local changes (like bold and italic) don’t forget to click “preserve local overrides”

Microsoft Excel Import Option

Excel’s import lets you select the sheet you would like to import and/or formatting options.

Image Import Options

Placing a layered .psd file with import options allows you to choose the visibility of individual layers or even pick from a Photoshop layer comp. Be sure to save .psd files with maximum compatibility to ensure proper importing into InDesign. Other options include activating the clipping path and changing the color profile.

PDF/AI/INDD Import Options

If you are placing a PDF, Adobe Illustrator file (.ai) or even another InDesign file (.indd) you can choose which page range, transparent background, layer and cropping options.

The Shift Key

The problem with choosing the import options check-box is that it remembers that you have checked it and it will remain checked for every subsequent item that you place. A workaround this problem is to hold down the Shift Key as you place the file(s) that you would like to see with the import options box. The shift key will allow those particular items to bring up their respective import options, but the check-box will remain off in the subsequent item placements.

The Adobe Creative Suite has a variety of options for switching between screen modes. If you are going to be showing a client a design on your screen, it can be distracting for them to see all of your panels and menus. To hide your panels, press the tab key and they will disappear until you press the tab key again. The following showcases the features of each program’s view settings.

InDesign

You can change the visibility of the document window using the Mode buttons at the bottom of the toolbox or by choosing commands from the View > Screen Mode menu. When the toolbox is displayed in a single column, you can select view modes by clicking the current mode button and selecting a different mode from the menu that appears.

• Normal Mode  – Displays artwork in a standard window with all visible grids and guides showing, non-printing objects showing, and a white pasteboard.
• Preview Mode - Displays artwork as if it were output, with all non-printing elements suppressed (grids, guides, non-printing objects), and the pasteboard set to the preview background color defined in Preferences.
• Bleed Mode  – Displays artwork as if it were output, with all non-printing elements suppressed (grids, guides, non-printing objects), the pasteboard set to the preview background color defined in Preferences, and any printing elements within the document’s bleed area (defined in Document Setup) showing.
• Slug Mode  – Displays artwork as if it were output, with all non-printing elements suppressed (grids, guides, non-printing objects), the pasteboard set to the preview background color defined in Preferences, and any printing elements within the document’s slug area (defined in Document Setup) showing.
• You can also tap the letter “w” on your keyboard to switch between Normal and Preview, Bleed or Slug (depending on what was chosen last.

Acrobat

• Enter Full Screen – Cmd (ctrl) + L
• View menu > Enter Full Screen

Photoshop

• To display the default mode (menu bar at the top and scroll bars on the side), choose View > Screen Mode > Standard Screen Mode. Or, click the Screen Mode button  in the Application bar, and select Standard Screen Mode from the pop-up menu.
• To display a full-screen window with a menu bar and a 50% gray background, but no title bar or scroll bars, choose View > Screen Mode > Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar. Or, click the Screen Mode button in the Application bar, and select Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar from the pop-up menu.
• To display a full-screen window with only a black background (no title bar, menu bar, or scroll bars), choose View > Screen Mode > Full Screen Mode. Or, click the Screen Mode button in the Application bar, and select Full Screen Mode from the pop-up menu.
• You can also tap the letter “f” on your keyboard to switch between these various modes.

Illustrator

You can change the visibility of the illustration window and menu bar using the mode options at the bottom of the Tools panel. To access panels when in Full Screen Mode, position the cursor at the left or right edge of the screen and the panels will pop up. If you’ve moved them from their default locations, you can access them from the Window menu.

• Normal Screen Mode  displays artwork in a standard window, with a menu bar at the top and scroll bars on the sides.
• Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar  displays artwork in a full-screen window, with a menu bar at the top and scroll bars.
• Full Screen Mode  displays artwork in a full-screen window, with no title bar or menu bar.
• You can also tap the letter “f” on your keyboard to switch between these various modes.

Join C2′s own James Fritz, the world’s top InDesign experts and members of the Adobe InDesign team, May 12-14 in Seattle for the InDesign event of the year! Find answers and valuable insight on the topics publishing for eBooks, print, interactive documents and more. Be inspired by fresh ideas and new products! Plus, if you use the discount code below, you get a $50 discount on your registration!

Topics include:

• InDesign CS “X”*: What to Expect
• Boosting efficiency with InDesign’s automation
  features
• Best practices for a cross-media workflow
• Creating and managing ePub and Kindle documents
• Working with Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver,
  and Flash
• XML, XSL and You

*Note that Adobe has not yet announced the next release of InDesign, but the new version is widely expected sometime in late Spring, 2010. During the conference, we will include as much information as we can (that Adobe has made public).

Speakers include:

• David Blatner
• Anne-Marie Concepción
• Russell Viers
• Rufus Deuchler
• Mordy Golding
• Michael Ninness, Group Product Manager, Creative Suite
• Chris Kitchener, Senior Product Manager, InDesign
• Olav Martin Kvern
• Branislav Milic
• Diane Burns
• Keith Gilbert
• Jim Maivald
• Steve Werner
• Mike Rankin
• David Creamer
• Gabriel Powell
• Colin Fleming
• Will Eisley, Director, Digital Publishing Division, Adobe Systems
• Pariah S. Burke
• James Fritz
• James Wamser
• Members of the Adobe Engineering Team

Registration Information

1. Visit: http://indesignsecretslive.com/conference.html
2. Click Register online here
3. On the first page of the registration form, type C2PEPSEA into the Discount Code field and save $50!

We had a good turnout of about 50 people. Most of the attendees were students at MIAD and MATC, not surprising since the event was part of the College Lecture Series, but there were also some professionals from the community there.

It was an interesting time as the four panelists had a great variety of experiences and focus that they brought to the discussion. The panelists were Micah Eberman of Fullhouse Interactive, Jason Evans of GS Design, Nick Waraska of Blend Studios, and me (Alexander Lucas of C2 Graphics and Stamm Media). The experiences touted included: high-end broadcast motion graphics, interactive websites, iPhone apps, trade show displays, and flash applications.

The panel agreed for the most part on the prepared questions concerning whether you need to continue to educate yourself, where to find the sites, and the importance of knowing broad skills but also specializing in a specific skill.

One topic brought up at the panel, of no great surprise, was the question of the future with the iPad and other tablet computers. There was again mostly consensus on this issue that while the iPad does not support Flash that it would not be an instant Flash killer and that it will take a long lumbering time for the internet to fully embrace HTML 5.

The two biggest questions which split the panel, however, concerned the role of social media and the future of the web/interactive/motion graphics space. Some of the panelists saw social media as being of the most importance and something that is the wave of future revenue and expression, while others admitting not really having a firm grip on where to proceed in this realm and what to do with it.

The only main consensus in the future debate: a sense of uncertainty of exactly what will happen. But that is what makes the future so interesting. We can still be surprised and be creative with emerging technologies.

Ideas we’ve been rolling around include blogging for professionals, 3D techniques, Video, mobile app development, After Effects and more! What do YOU think?

In order to run the scripts you need to open the script panel located in Window > Automation > Scripts. Inside the script panel open up the Application > Samples > JavaScript folders until you see a large list of scripts. Inside here you will find a variety of scripts that will vary in their usefulness depending on your work-flow. Here is a selection of my favorites scripts that come with InDesign and how they work.

Add Guides
With this script you can choose to add guides to any side of your selected object, even if you have multiple objects selected

Corner Effects
You can finally control the corners individually on every box. Round any corner you like!

Crop Marks
Easily add crop marks to as many items on the page as you wish. They will even be put on their own layer. This is really useful when you need to mock something up for the client.

Make Grid
This is my favorite script. If you draw out a large fame and run the script, you can determine the number of frames are a created as subdivisions from the original frame.

These are just a small selection of the scripts that ship with InDesign. Explore the other scripts and you will be surprised at the variety that you will find.

“How do I convert a PowerPoint into a format where I can reformat it and bring it into InDesign. I need to reformat the slides and make them look not like a PowerPoint.”

It seems logical that it would be easy to import an PowerPoint file into InDesign since Microsoft Word and Excel files import well. Unfortunately, there is not a native import for PowerPoint files.

Given this, we are left with two options – PDF Export or Manual.

1. PDF Export Method.

If you only need each slide as a non-editable graphic inside InDesign, this is the best option. From PowerPoint, save the presentation as a PDF (file save as > PDF). Inside InDesign, place the PDF from each slide on each page or use the place multipage PDF script that comes with InDesign.

This will get your presentation placed into InDesign, but it will not be editable. If you need the file to be editable, you will have to do some manual work.

2. Manual Method

If you want each slide to be editable, manually bringing everything over  is your only option. The problem, is that you can’t just copy the whole slide because it will paste into InDesign as one large embedded image.

Graphics
A better idea is to save out each graphic element one at a time from PowerPoint. Right click on the graphic and choose “save as picture.”  You can choose from PNG, JPG, PDF, GIF & BMP. I recommend PDF for vector and JPG for bitmaps.

If your PowerPoint document does not contain any vector images, you do have another option. Using Acrobat Professional you can quickly export all of your bitmap graphics. Inside Acrobat Professional, go to the advanced menu > document processing > export all images. This will quickly export all of the images out of the PDF into a specified folder. This option will only grab bitmap graphics – therefore, it may not work if your file has a lot of vector data.

Text
There is no easy way to bring all of the text over. I end up just copy and pasting the text over. If you want to keep the formatting from PowerPoint, edit your clipboard handling preferences and choose “all information” when pasting text from other applications.

Note – I have had some experiences in the past when I pasted the text it came in as an embedded graphic. To avoid this you can always just copy and paste into TextEdit (or notepad) and then back into InDesign.

Making it not look like PowerPoint.

I loved the second part of the question – “I need to reformat the slides and make them look not like a PowerPoint.”

PowerPoint is one of those words that strikes fear into the soul of designers. Let’s say it together now, “PowerPoint is not a design program.” Now, doesn’t that feel better.

Rather than ramble on about design, I will just recommend that you stay away of defaults. Most PowerPoint presentations scream POWERPOINT because they are using a default theme that includes default fonts, colors and clip-art that is used by millions of people everyday. For more help on design principles I would recommend the book The Non-Designer’s Design Book – by Robin Williams

There are 3d applications to fit every budget, purpose and skill level, from Google Sketchup for architectural plans, all-around programs like LightWave and Cinema 4d, to high-end applications used in gaming and Hollywood like Softimage, Maya and 3d Studio Max.

Every studio should have a person on staff who can service their customers with some type of 3d skill. How do you determine which software is right for your clients, your workload and your personnel’s skill levels and focus?

October 9th’s $5 Friday will help you navigate into the world of 3d, help you to figure out when to move into 3d, find out what software will suit you best, and even when to call in the big guns, like Radiance Media.

Brad Krause/Radiance Media has been creating every kind of 3d illustration and animation in the Milwaukee area for the last 5 years. He’s created TV commercials, movie monsters, 3d logo animations, product, medical, mechanical and architectural previsualizations, character animation… you name it. Prior to going freelance, he worked at a number of graphic design and advertising agencies, so he knows how 3d can fit into a variety of creative environments.

After a show-and-tell of some of his projects, Brad Krause will talk about integration of 3d into graphic, video and web design workflow, basic 3d concepts, tools and navigation, and the differences between major 3d applications.

I have been using Cairngorm (CG) for awhile now, on
various projects and teams with some fair amount of success. CG is great with the scalability and function it provides.

Working with various groups of developers there are few patterns of
mistakes that people can make with CG. I wanted to point out
a few that I thought might be helpful for you when deciding on the
architecture of your next Flex application.

Note: This article assumes you know CG and have used it on a few projects.
If not, please take a look at Introducing Cairngorm

from Adobe. It provides a solid guide intro to CG.

ViewHelpers/ViewLocator are depreciated:

This confused a lot of developers, me included. ViewHelpers in
CG made sense at first because they offered you a buffer from
having your model communicate with your view. It also allowed you a way to
communicate with any view at any location of your application by
accessing the view’s, ViewHelper through the ViewLocator.

The new recommended approach is allowing the power of Flex binding to
bind objects from ModelLocator directly to your view.

Now, it may sound like a step back from the original
implementation but it really does offer you a strong way to push data
from the model to views with Flex binding.

Organize your classes:

One of the biggest pet peeves is the way some people to depend too much on a
micro-architecture like CG and think that they can throw all other OOP
best practices out the window.

Once in a while you see the command package having every single
command in the root of the package. A good practice would be to
organize your commands into relevant packages, and even sub-packages,
if appropriate.

Your model and view packages should be just as organized. Try not to stuff everything in them -  keep them lean and organized.

For example, let’s say you have a list of commands associated with user
log-in and others for managing a shopping cart. Organize those into
two packages in the commands folder so other developers can easily
find commands associated with that section of functionality in your
application.

CG Events:

Cairngorm Events are used to notify your Commands. Developers sometimes create unnecessary custom events for every command. Your events and commands don’t have to be a one to one relationship. Adding all those extra objects for nothing more than firing an event can be a waste and add more to the clutter.

Some might say that they do so to store the event type, but you can easily place the static constant in your controller or just a base event object for the group of functionality.

Use Delegates:

Delegates aren’t required for a CG implementation, but they do provide
another layer of decoupling between your application and the outside
world. Delegates are nice during development because you can create
mock objects into your data until the services are ready.

Having the external communication in one centralized location is beneficial due to the simple fact that if an external service changes you can easily just replace the service without having to change any command or view.

Delegates can be organized in groups. For example, create one delegate object to house all the calls related to user modification. That way you have all the calls made to your API or web service relating to the functionality in one place. There is no need to have a delegate for every single related service call.

Not everything needs to go into CG:

So the point of a micro-architecture like CG is to allow a developer
to hang their code on this very light-weight framework. Developers can paint themselves in a corner because they feel that every object has to be tightly tied into CG. They dump every single data point into the Model or have complex data mining or algorithms sitting right into the command or delegate.

It is important as a developer to architect your application properly and allow pieces of your application to reside out of CG that don’t need to be there.

Summary:

I hope you found some of these points helpful in designing your next CG based application. I know once I started implementing some of these best practices it became apparent to me at how easier my applications would scale and how fast I could update certain sections of my code.

Manually placing every artboard on every page of an InDesign layout can be a drag. Luckily there is a script to help! The PlaceMultipagePDF script that comes with InDesign will also work on the Illustrator file since Illustrator files have a PDF wrapper surrounding them.

Running the Script

1. Double-click on PlaceMultipagePDF (located in the scripts panel under window > automation > scripts) and it will prompt you to find the pdf (or .ai).

2. Chose the document and which page you want to begin placing the artboards on.

3. Sit back and watch the magic

Observations

• All of the links will be placed in the upper left corner regardless of your reference point.

• I tried using this script to place a multi-page InDesign file inside another InDesign file, but InDesign ended up locking up on me. Maybe with some tweaking of the script it could work with other InDesign files, but for the time being I would only recommend that you use it with PDF and Illustrator CS4 files.

• Even though you are using a script that says “place PlaceMultipagePDF” each artboard will be linked as an individual link to the Illustrator file.

When you use Lorum Ipsum (placeholder text) inside your InDesign and run spell check, InDesign will find every single word misspelled which can be aggravating. Learn how to avoid this issue with the following screencast.

Exporting out of InDesign

InDesign can export to jpg (file > export), but it does not save jpgs as well as Photoshop due to its lack of resampling controls. Unfortunately, you can’t export as a gif or png, therefore it is ultimately the best option to have Photoshop do the conversion for you.

From InDesign to Photoshop

1. Select the image with the direct selection tool and find out its scale percentage.

2. Opt (ALT on PC) double-click to edit the original image in Photoshop.

3. In Photoshop go to the image menu > image size. Change the top drop down menu from pixels to percent. Type in the percentage and shrink the image.

4. Save the file in Photoshop using “save for web and devices”

5. Rejoice in your newly saved correctly web-optimized image!

]]> http://www.c2gps.com/blog/2009/08/17/saving-your-images-inside-indesign-for-the-web/feed/ 0 http://www.c2gps.com/blog/2009/06/29/helpful-reminders-about-adobe-photoshop-cs4/ http://www.c2gps.com/blog/2009/06/29/helpful-reminders-about-adobe-photoshop-cs4/#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:39:22 +0000 Kevin Stohlmeyer http://www.c2gps.com/blog/?p=731 As people are (finally) upgrading to Creative Suite 4, I thought it prudent to recap some of the more important tips.

1. DO NOT do an upgrade install. This will cause you a lot of headaches (been there). Use the Uninstall/Reinstall option – it will give you a complete cleanout and fresh install, thereby removing old elements that the upgrade can leave behind.

2. Seems obvious, but run ALL updates after you install. CS4 has been out for 10 months, and during this time Adobe has sent out a lot of updates and bug fixes. Be sure to run your Windows/Apple updaters as well.

3. In PS CS4, you may notice that the Extract and Interactive Layout Photomerge are missing. This was a conscious effort to move people to other options in the program. If you want to bring these back use these links:

Extract: Mac Windows

Photomerge Interactive Layout: Mac Windows

4. Use Bridge to create your Web Photo Gallery, not the “lovely” Web Gallery in Photoshop. This new version, found under the “output” view in Bridge is much more savvy and is Flash Enabled. Very cool and professional, plus you preview in a browser from Bridge and can output it directly to ftp.

5. Contact us with your questions. We get them all the time and have probably heard it all. You’d be surprised at the number of people who panic and restart, reinstall, erase, wipe hard drives, etc. before they ask someone for help. Many times, not all, problems are an easy fix.

You can always start with resetting preferences (hold opt/alt+ctrl+shift during app startup).

1. Never set up a long document in one complete document. If this document were to become corrupted (murphy’s law) you would lose everything. You set up your document, say a book, into multiple files or chapters.

2. Using Adobe InDesign’s Book feature, you can collect these chapters into one document – a .indb file (InDesign Book). This also allows multiple users to edit chapters as you coordinate the composite book (similar to InCopy, but not as savvy).

3. Always use a master “template” file to coordinate your book chapter’s styles and look. In her demo Noha set up a master file with master pages, a baseline grid, layers (see below),object styles, paragraph style sheets, etc. This master file is set at the front of the book and is used to apply these styles and master pages to the rest of the book’s chapters.

4. Noha also did something that I thought was genius (well she did many things but this is one). She set up her master template with layers for multiple outputs, eg. Layer 2 would have elements for an epub or pdf which can be turned off when exported for print.

5. The epub/pdf layer housed interactive buttons. She explained that while InDesign has a button palette and large resource library, you can create your own. You can also have rollover and button down states for added effects.

6. Using the master template, reapplying new styles is a snap. Simply change the master template file and synchronize that master to the book.

7. Footnotes! Not that I have used these in the past, but the fact that InDesign recognizes MS Word Footnotes and live-links the number to the note is awesome. If you reorganize your notes in the copy, the footnotes below swap accordingly.

8. Exporting out as an epub was simple and is really a cool way to distribute  your work.(You can view epubs on pdas and iphones easier than pdfs.)

There was so much covered (in just over 2 hours!) including packaging, table of contents, conditional text, grep styles, and more but I don’t want to make this a long blog post. But keep checking in our blog as we bring topics and techniques to your RSS!

Form Elements

Designing forms in Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 is easier than before with its new form isolation mode, but it can still be a tedious process. For example, if you are creating a series of check boxes it can be annoying to have to re-size each one individually every time you  draw a new one.

Save time by right clicking (Ctrl-Click Mac) and choosing “use current properties as new defaults”. This will ensure that every time you draw out a new check box it will be the same.

This can also be used for text fields. I usually assign my text fields to be input with 10pt Helvetica. Once again, it can be annoying to have to manually change this field. Therefore I use the trick mentioned above to ensure that my text fields are all 10pt.

In case you’ve missed it, the CS4 versions of Flash, Fireworks, and InDesign have received updates in the last couple of weeks.

• Flash PM Richard Galvan lists the issues addressed in the Flash release, including performance problems & crashes.
• InDesign’s 6.0.2 update (download for Mac, Win) includes the cumulative fixes from the 6.0.1 update (posted in February). For a list of fixes, check out its release notes (PDF), plus info on previous updates.
• Of the Fireworks update, newly minted Fireworks PM Bruce Bowman writes, “This updater fixes the most common bugs that we know about in Fireworks CS4, including numerous text shifting problems, stability issues on Mac and Windows, and bugs related to pasting text from Microsoft Office applications. The team would like to thank you for your patience as we developed this updater.” Here are the full release notes (PDF).

First is the advances in Photoshop CS4. We’ve all talked about it, posted about it, and shown you a lot of cool things, but I know people are slow to adopt. But when you do, watch out and be ready for a great time. CS4 makes Photoshop fun again (not that it really wasn’t before…).

Second is Photoshop World Conferences. With Apple pulling out of MacWorld after this year, and Adobe following suit, this poises PSWorld to be the biggest Adobe related conference outside of the über expensive MAX.

Be sure to check out Photoshop User Magazine and subscribe here. PS User Magazine and its counterpart, Layers are the two best resources for Adobe Creative Suite applications that I have found. Plus, as they are the main sponsors of PS World and The Photoshop Tours, you get insider information and discounts to events hosted by them. The website alone is worth the subscription cost. Be sure to click the link posted here for a bonus DVD with your order. 

It depends.

This is not just because I don’t like to give firm answers. The truth is there is a lot of reasons to learn different editing software. Here is the rundown of some of the main editing systems, and their advantages. Also this is biased towards the Milwaukee market, as that is where my current experience comes from. Each market is slightly different. This does not apply to New York or L.A.

Adobe Premiere: They recently had a new release of this software in the new CS4 package. The editor has had some greatly improved functionality, especially in the media browser. The transcription program is neat but awful in terms of accuracy. It works great as part of the Adobe suite, which is such a good package of software that it seems a shame to use all Adobe products except for the editor.

Who uses it? Mostly corporate locations that buy the package as a whole and tell their print graphics designers to learn how to edit using this software that they bought. Also I noticed that when working in D.C. that the government agencies use it a lot.

Good for price and the software has caught up tremendously in the last four years. Still not quite as good as the top dogs but good enough that you will likely not find anything that you can’t do in it that you want. They teach this in a lot of schools which leads to people using this as freelancers but most production houses still are too snobbish to use Premiere. It is cross-platform which is a huge plus.

Apple Final Cut Pro: The Final Cut Pro suite is great. Final Cut Pro is a tremendously useful editor, though it would be nice if it could be transfered more easily to other editing systems (as is true with all of them). Motion 3 is the best yet and is quickly giving After Effects more of a run for its money. Soundtrack has always been a cool tool, and in combination with the Mac software Garageband, makes music making a much easier task. Livetype is by now a dinosaur and should be removed since you can do it all in Motion. DVD Studio Pro needs an upgrade (Blu-ray!!!!) but is still a very powerful authoring tool.

Who uses it? To be perfectly honest, every time I have heard of freelance jobs needed (in general) it has been for Final Cut Pro. Boutique production houses and design firms are gaga for Apple, so they like Final Cut Pro as well. I am ambivalent on this, but I have worked now in Mac shops for the last 7 years. They are gaining traction in bigger firms as well as the suite is quite convenient.

If you have a Mac and you love your Mac, use it. If you want to find the most freelance opportunities in this area, this is probably your safest bet. It will do everything you want and more. If you like PC, then you cannot use this.

Avid Express Pro (or Media Composer): To be honest I have not had the opportunity to even use an Avid in five years. My basis for this is based on my historical use of it. Still the “big” dog of the field, Avid is the top name in video and film editing. That does not necessarily make it the best choice. As more and more places switch over to software based editors, the advantages of the Avid dissipate quickly.

Who uses it? Big ad firms, powerful production houses. If you want the best jobs, know Avid. It looks much more impressive than Final Cut Pro. You aren’t likely to get as many freelance jobs, but these are the decent staff jobs.

Only for the PC (though they sometimes pretend to make MAC versions, everyone knows better). Market share shrinking. But at the end of the day it looks the best on the resume….unless the shop uses only a different editor.

Sony Vegas: Let me say this up front. I have only barely used this. And never for a job. This software is neat and has everything you need in one program (unlike say FCP or Premiere where you really need to go to things like After Effects and Motion). It is also quite popular in Wisconsin (which I hear is partly due to the fact that it was partly developed in the Madison area).

Who uses it? Established freelance veterans. It seems like people who have been at it for some time gravitate to this software. It definitely has some advantages, mainly that as part of the Sony line it interfaces better with its own products which means that Sony cameras and Blu-ray technology is much better placed.

Only for the PC, but cool, cool program. Not very popular so people may not even know what the program is.

So what does this all mean – you still haven’t answered the question.

Basically it does not matter which editor you know, as long as you can edit. Practice as much as possible and at least get your hands on each software. This will give you the basis to edit with any of them – and flexibility is so often the name of the game now.