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Adobe to acquire Macromedia...

 
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jammerbirdi



Joined: 23 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: 04/18/05 4:58 am    ::: Adobe to acquire Macromedia... Reply Reply with quote

Deyamm!

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Adobe-Macromedia.html


sambista



Joined: 25 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: 04/18/05 6:58 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

this is such vindication for me, may i say, because i'd started using a macromedia product at work to post documentation to our intranet - flashpaper, which i was convinced was the future and would eventually bury adobe's pdf's - but some of my colleagues complained that i was introducing yet another new form to the mix (between html, word docs, pdf's, etc.) the problem with pdf's is that the splashscreen takes FOREVER to load; by the time someone working on deadline has to wait for that, s/he has already picked up the phone and called me instead. with flashpaper, the files open instantly, and it has the same/better features as a pdf. and now, most people have flash built into their browser setup; two years ago, it would've been a problem. macromedia also has another nice new product called breeze, which seems to be among the products of choice for online, global, real-time teleconferencing/training. this also solves part of adobe's problem fighting for the hearts and minds of designers as the next generation of products comes out. macromedia has been coming up with some amazing products lately that just became too much of a threat to adobe, in spite of its entrenchment in the design field. macromedia had also bought out the company that made robohelp, which is hard to explain in words but highly coveted by corporations trying to manage a lot of documentation on their sites.

this is really big news.

btw, if anyone out there regularly uses pdf's and has a need to convert word docs to to pdf's, take a look at flashpaper. it renders word docs perfectly, without any munging typical of pdf's. it's only $79, but it comes bundled with contribute 3 for $150. contribute 3 is another great macromedia product, basically designed to make it easy for companies that hire webmasters to design their sites to then be able to update their pages easily and without any html experience. it's not a good web design tool, but rather a tool for updating templates without a webmaster's intervention.

(if you have a .mac account, there's a discount available for contribute.)



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inky



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
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PostPosted: 04/18/05 11:46 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

Your PDF reading problems will be drastically reduced if you use FoxIt, a free download that is far more efficient than Acrobat Reader. Documents load in a heartbeat, and there's none of that horrible lag time when scrolling down a page. Try it. You'll like it! [The only problem is that if you make it your default PDF reader, all your twisty red Adobe PDF icons will turn into little FoxIt books. It took me 15 minutes to find a PDF to read the first time.]

Unfortunately, FoxIt's only available for the PC now. I haven't heard anything about developing a Mac version. I try not to look at PDFs on my Mac anymore. Smile


sambista



Joined: 25 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: 04/18/05 11:55 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

well, now that flashpaper will be in the mainstream, no worries. the toolbar is a single layer, files launch lightning-quick (in a flash!) . . . i tested a bunch of people by having them open a flashpaper file and manipulate it without tellling them how. it was intuitive, and no one needed instructions on selecting or searching text, enlarging or reducing, printing . . .



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jammerbirdi



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PostPosted: 04/18/05 4:39 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Yeah I've got a REAL emotional connection to Macromedia products. I got hold of a Dreamweaver beta before 1.0 was even released back in what 1998, actually did pay $300 for it when it was released, and have kept up with every version since. I hope they keep Macromedia as a seperate division and don't just swallow up their product line. Adobe products have such a tendency toward feature overkill and redundancy and are often a great drag on system resources.

I use Photoshop all the time, from early version to CS, but Macromedia stuff has been some of the smartest software any company has produced and to me the 3+ billion it cost Adobe to acquire it sounds like a bargain.


Smoovie



Joined: 17 Nov 2004
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PostPosted: 04/18/05 5:18 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

jammerbirdi wrote:
Yeah I've got a REAL emotional connection to Macromedia products. I got hold of a Dreamweaver beta before 1.0 was even released back in what 1998, actually did pay $300 for it when it was released, and have kept up with every version since. I hope they keep Macromedia as a seperate division and don't just swallow up their product line. Adobe products have such a tendency toward feature overkill and redundancy and are often a great drag on system resources.

I use Photoshop all the time, from early version to CS, but Macromedia stuff has been some of the smartest software any company has produced and to me the 3+ billion it cost Adobe to acquire it sounds like a bargain.


I hope they keep it a separate division, too... I use all of Macromedia products. Macromedia Studio, rules...



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sambista



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PostPosted: 04/18/05 5:50 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

jammerbirdi wrote:
but Macromedia stuff has been some of the smartest software any company has produced and to me the 3+ billion it cost Adobe to acquire it sounds like a bargain.


yeah, they snagged a very large corner with that. i see pdf's giving way to a hybrid document that leans more toward the leaner, practical flashpaper (unless they weight it down as you say, jammer). and down the road we'll see essentially multi-layered documents with moving (flash) elements inside. in the mainstream.

oh, and guess who's poised to handle those attachments? google's gmail, of course.

awesome!



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sambista



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PostPosted: 04/20/05 9:37 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

i just read one commentary that said dreamweaver was on its way out, then another piece that said dreamweaver would reign supreme! but this is a funny line:

"Adobe may attempt to integrate features from competing programs and I've already seen some proposed new names -- GoDream, PhotoWorks, or, my favorite name for a hybrid web/print design super-program: Sortaworks."

http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/04/19/adobeanalysis/index.php



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