OK, so your old computer is running out of gas, you’re upgrading or changing systems, adding a new machine, or switching from a PC to a Mac, or vice versa — and you want to move over your purchased CS6 (or CS5.5 or CS5 or CS4 or CS3 or any other) Adobe software — what do you do, and how do you do it?

As we’ve covered previously here, you are generally allowed to install and activate most Adobe software on up to two computers, with the restriction that the software can not used on both systems at the same time. So right off the bat, you might be good to go with installing the software on a second computer, although you may wish to double-check the licensing agreement for your product to be sure.

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One of the most popular articles on our site is How Many Systems Can I Run Adobe CS6 On? That covers Adobe’s rules for their standard off-the-shelf retail software purchased for home or home office use. But how about for the rest of the world – for businesses, companies, studios, groups, departments, schools, and other organizations? What if you need an open license to run Creative Suite 6 (or other products) concurrently with multi-users on a number of computers on your network?

Fortunately Adobe has an answer for this that makes sense – that’s easy and saves time with reduced maintenance via simple license management across your site… Why shuffle and keep track of individual serial numbers between different machines? Why worry about whether your software needs to run on a PC or a Mac?

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We’ve mentioned Adobe TV in the past, but it just keeps getting bigger and better…  They’ve just published a large series of free new video tutorials for all Creative Suite 6 tools.

You’ll learn the basics with Getting Started overviews plus What’s New reviews by product experts, with nearly 18 hours of content covering all major CS6 applications.

And if you want to get going today, you can go ahead and download a free 30-day trial for any CS6 product for Windows or Mac – then install, run, and start your training…

If you also like learning in print, check out this nice set of free new CS6 e-books (1,022 pages).  But here’s how the video courses break out:

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With Adobe Creative Suite, if you’re just looking to set up and run CS6 on either a Windows PC or a Mac OS system, the instructions for that are easy. And in fact, as we discussed earlier, it’s relatively straightforward to install and activate the software on up to two machines of the same operating system type – in other words, either two Mac computers, or two Windows PC’s.

But in most cases, with the platform selection for Creative Suite and Acrobat products, it’s “either-or.” Either Apple or Microsoft. Either Mac or Windows. That’s the story for the retail and education versions of the software. And, if you want to change or swap platforms entirely, and move your tools from one o/s to the other, you can do that with an Adobe CS “crossgrade.”

However, there is another possibility if you want or need to have the applications available on both operating systems (Windows plus Mac OS) at the same time – and that is to get an Adobe volume license. Despite the name, anybody can buy them (not just businesses and even for just one copy), though they do offer discounts for larger purchases… and there are some additional advantages too (including the ability to order CS5 or CS5.5 instead of CS6, if that’s what you happen to need). They’re easy to get – no signature contracts are necessary and you can pay online with a credit card, and download right away.

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This is one of the most common questions we get, and the answer may pleasantly surprise you… The place to look to find the answer is the Software License Agreement, also called the EULA. This agreement governs the use of your Adobe product, and is translated into 28 languages within each document. It also covers some basics about product activation.

So, in general, how many systems can you install Adobe software on, including CS5.5 and CS6? The answer for individuals (as opposed to businesses) in most cases is two. The catch is that both computers must be used only by you and the two systems cannot be used at the same time. This policy was designed so that you could run (say) Creative Suite at home on your desktop PC, as well as while travelling with your laptop. But the types of computers and their usage has blurred so much now that you can just pick any two you own and the product should install and properly activate on both…

For example, here is the key text from the EULA for Photoshop CS6:

2.5 Portable or Home Computer Use. Subject to the important restrictions set forth in Section 2.6 [having to do with volume licensees], the primary user of the Computer on which the Software is installed … may install a second copy of the Software for his or her exclusive use on either a port­able Computer or a Computer located at his or her home, provided that the Software on the port­able or home Computer is not used at the same time as the Software on the primary Computer.

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Let’s face it, Adobe’s normal product prices can seem expensive, especially if you’re on a student’s budget. The regular prices for Creative Suite 6 range run from $399 for Dreamweaver through Photoshop Extended for $999 and up to $2,599 for the Master Collection suite, which contains every CS6 product available – nearly twenty in all. As great and powerful as this software is, it could be hard to afford these prices when you’re in school.

Fortunately, Adobe offers deep discounts for education customers – up to 80% off.  So the price for Dreamweaver becomes almost a third of what it was, $149 – while for the Master Collection it drops by over two-thirds, to $799. For some products the price cut is even larger – for example, Photoshop CS6 Extended (the top-of-the-line version) goes from $999 to $249. The top-selling CS6 Design & Web Premium suite becomes $449 instead of $1,899. And Flash Builder 4.6 falls from $249 to free – yes, FREE for students and educators…

In addition, it’s not just the Creative Suite products that are available with the savings. You can also get Lightroom 4, Acrobat X, and Photoshop or Premiere Elements 10. For example, Lightroom 4 for student photographers costs $79 instead of the normal price of $149.

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[UPDATE (May 7th) – Creative Suite 6 is now shipping!]

This morning Adobe opened an official “grace period” for free upgrades to Creative Suite 6 for anyone who purchases the current Creative Suite software version today (full or upgrade), and for the next six weeks. This is a “first” for the company – formalizing and announcing a complimentary upgrade offer in advance – and means that if you buy CS5.5 or CS5 now (depending on the application), you will receive a free upgrade to CS6 when it comes out, which can save you significant money…

This news follows on the heels of the release of the free public Photoshop CS6 beta version last week (download here) – and opens the door for owners of older versions of Creative Suite such as CS4, CS3, and even CS2 with a clear upgrade path to CS6 at today’s current prices. Adobe puts this plainly in the Offer FAQ:

“If you upgrade to or purchase CS5.5 today, you’ll be paying the current price, plus you’ll get CS6 at no additional cost.   If you wait until CS6 ships, you’ll pay the price to upgrade to CS6, which may be higher.”

This Upgrade Assurance promotion is valid largely worldwide* for all commercial, education, government, and volume customers, and is good for individual applications as well as suites. It includes most current CS products (but not all – Acrobat, Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder, Con­tribute, and OnLocation individual products are excluded – although suites containing them are covered).  The free upgrades are definitely included for all new orders of Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS5, and CS5.5 versions for all the rest.

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Adobe Lightroom 4 is only days old, yet it’s quickly getting rave reviews across the net…

PC Magazine gives it 4½ stars and their Editors’ Choice Award for photo workflow software, writing: “For anyone who’s serious about digital photography, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is now a more essential tool than ever – this is the app you need.”

Digital Photography Review also has great things to say: “Lightroom 4 is a substantial upgrade … offers an impressive list of features … on image quality, the Lightroom team has kept its eye on the prize … consistently getting pleasing results in fewer steps … works impres­sively well on a range of images … you can get superior results compared to previous versions … video users will also be pleased … welcome surprise price drop … compelling reasons to upgrade.”

And there is already a wealth of free learning resources available… Here are some good ones:

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Content Aware Fill is one of the major features added in Adobe Photoshop CS5, and is said to be one of its greatest new timesavers. CAF allows you to move or delete parts of your image and Photoshop will automatically and intelligently fill in the space left behind. We’ve written about it before with the quote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguish­able from magic.” [Arthur C. Clarke]

And in our shop here we save hours every month from using Content Aware Fill as well as other CS5 advancements like Puppet Warp and the improved edge/masking tools.

Yet we still see some people claiming that Content Aware Fill “doesn’t work,” “doesn’t give results like in the demo video,” “doesn’t use the right back­ground,” or is just hype, smoke-and-mirrors, or a “gimmick.”

It’s true that it doesn’t always work and of course has its limitations. You can’t synthesize brand new material or hidden content that doesn’t exist in some related form elsewhere in the image. And often it will require some retouching afterwards to get the final result you want.

But usually it will get you most of the way there very quickly – if you know the most effective ways to use the feature. The best is when it “just works” without doing anything special, and this happens often enough too…

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Adobe’s Creative Suite 5.5 has been out since May, and has generally been well-reviewed and even lauded as a must-have release…  Nevertheless, some folks are still looking for or require older versions of the software, like CS5.0 or CS4.  Why?

Two common reasons are the higher system requirements – 64-bit for some components of CS5 like After Effects & Premiere Pro, as well as cases where the rest of a customer’s site is still running an older version and would like to add a new setup with the same compatibility. And occasionally some folks say they prefer the earlier, simpler versions over newer ones with more features.

The challenge is, once a new release comes out, Adobe no longer officially sells the older version (with one exception). So if you need a prior release, what do you do?

If you want the trial version to use for 30 days, that’s easy – Adobe actually keeps most older original trials still available for download on their servers – including all of CS4 and CS5, plus earlier releases of Acrobat, Lightroom, Elements, etc… You can find those trials all linked for download here.

But how about when you want to actually buy CS4 or CS5?

If you ask Adobe, they’ll usually tell you to check their official list of authorized resellers & retailers to see if someone still has the version you want in stock. The problem is it’s inconvenient to search as often those stocks are thin or sold out, and no longer available.

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