OT: Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription

[David Creamer]

I have both the TCS4 and the Adobe Creative Cloud. The Cloud offers so many
features (way beyond the Master Suite) it is hard to say no (of course, that
is Adobe's hope...). 

There are two program that overlap (Acrobat and Illustrator), but I would
use the Cloud versions to get as-they-are-released updates. Watch out for
installing Acrobat XI if you use LiveCycle Designer for forms--it is no
longer included with Acrobat. You can keep Acrobat X installed from the TCS
(you always have the option of not upgrading software from the Cloud).

Unfortunately, the TCS subscription is $69 per month if signing up for the
year; definitely not as good as bargain as the Cloud. I wish Adobe would
offer ALL the programs in the Cloud (but I guess Mac users would be upset
over not being able to use Frame and RoboHelp). I recommend getting the
maintenance plan for the TCS if your purchase method allows it. My plan
covers two years of updates--there will surely be 4.5 and 5 versions. 

David Creamer
IDEAS Training
http://www.ideastraining.com
Adobe Authorized Instructor & Certified Expert since 1995
Authorized QuarkXPress Instructor and Certified Expert since 1988



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Fellow Framers, I know that many of  you use other Adobe products in 
addition to Framemaker and I'd like to know your experience if you 
are using Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription for them. I will be 
upgrading from TechCommSuite 2 to TCS4, so the programs that come 
with TCS4 will be taken care of. However, I also use InDesign, 
Freehand, and Photoshop. For $50/month to subscribe to the annual 
plan for Adobe's Creative Cloud, it seems like a bargain to be able 
to maintain current updates to all three of those products plus a 
whole slew of others that I don't currently use. Perhaps I'm 
misunderstanding what they are offering; let me know. And I'm also 
concerned about gotchas that might make me wish I'd never committed 
to a year-long plan that covers so many of the tools that my business 
relies on. What if something goes wrong with one of them?

I'll be making my decision about this in the next week or so and 
would like to hear as many of your stories and experiences as possible.