We recently attended the one-day CompuMaster Seminar on using the Adobe Creative Suite. Here are some highlights of the tips and tricks we learned.

Illustrator’s Pixel Preview Mode: When you save artwork in a web format such as JPEG, GIF, or PNG, Illustrator rasterizes the artwork at 72 pixels per inch. You can preview how your images will appear when rasterized by choosing View > Pixel Preview. This is especially helpful to see how the anti-aliasing of an image will look once it is posted online.

Adding metadata to your images in Bridge: Bridge allows you to add information about your images or projects in the form of metadata or tags. This is especially helpful if you have a large collection of files and you often have to search through your image collection to find specific images. Bridge acts as a file manager and can keep all of your images and projects organized.

Photomerge in Photoshop: The updated Photomerge command combines several photographs into one continuous image, also known as blending or stitching. For example, you can take five overlapping photographs of a skyline, and then have Photoshop automatically assemble them into a panorama image. There is also a geometric distortion correction filter that allows you to fix the perspective of the images caused by a vertical or horizontal camera tilt.

Setting preferences in Indesign: Editing preferences can be done in such a manner to apply those preferences only to the document currently being edited or so they apply as defaults for all documents. If preferences are set with a document open they will apply only to that document. If no document is open when preferences are changed they become Indesign defaults.

Acrobat and Reader tips: To prevent copy/paste of text in a PDF use a searchable image. When creating a form in Acrobat use the Auto Field Detection wizard. Beginning with version 8, the reader product is now called Adobe Reader. Enable usage rights to allow Adobe Reader to update and save PDF files. Always leave form field fonts at Auto to prevent long input from being truncated.

Flash tips: Convert your existing video files to Flash video format (FLV) for files better optimized for web playback. Consider using the Flash Import Video Wizard. Photoshop and Illustrator images can be imported into Flash and retain their original layers.