Comments on “What’s the Difference on Adobe CS6 Student Editions vs. Regular?”, Page 5

Not sure Lexie, we’ve never done that so you would have to ask them… When getting it direct from Adobe, it’s straightforward – you just go through a quick validation process and then the product becomes yours permanently after downloading (or shipping). Adobe will sort it out if you have any questions or it doesn’t work for any reason.

Sure Lexie – and actually the software can be used on up to two of your computers, and can even be moved between systems if you need to for any reason.

Hi Laura, Adobe does allow crossgrades from Windows to Mac, however in order to do that you need to be running the latest release of Creative Suite…

So you couldn’t do it with your current version of CS4 (whether Student & Teacher Edition or otherwise), but you could change that platform if you upgraded to CS5.5.

There is also a way now to buy the software so that it runs on both operating systems (multi-platform).

Hope that helps.

Welcome Jane, thank you for your good question.

As far as we are aware that should work – because Adobe does not specify any requirements about the ownership of the computer the customer is running on, only on the ownership and use of the software itself.

So as long as she were the owner and sole user of the CS5.5 Education Edition, then it should be fine.

You may also find it helpful to know that she can actually install the product on up to two different computers.

Hey there Natalie, you can’t actually upgrade from an education edition to another education edition… You can only upgrade to a commercial version, or buy another education version outright.

And often, a discounted upgrade to a commercial license costs less than getting a full new education license anyway.

So probably your best bet is to go to the Adobe Store Selector and choose your country, and then “Business Store” and see how it looks. You can simply buy it online – either downloaded or shipped to your local address.

Regarding the alternative, Adobe did recently a new Volume License Store for education – meaning students, teachers, and staff – however it does not appear to be open to customers in Australia or New Zealand.

(Note: If you don’t go with the “business license” upgrade to get the Windows + Mac capability, then you’d have to think about if you want to switch platforms from one to the other entirely – in which case you could just buy the new education version for the operating system you want.)

Hope this helps!

Yes Geoff, you should be able to. Please see Jane’s comment and reply just above yours, as well as:

How Many Machines Can I Install Adobe CS5.5 On?

Greetings Sophie, we can’t give you an official answer on that but you could contact Adobe Customer Service with that question… From what we’ve heard, Adobe technical support is localized to the region the product is for.

Looking at the different Creative Suite 5 boxes we have in the office here, they all say, “Only for distribution in North America. Not for distribution anywhere else, including the EEA, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Japan, or Asia Pacific.”

No problem Jeff, homeschooled students and their teachers are fine – just carefully follow Adobe’s eligibilty requirements and you should qualify.

Yes – that’s quite easy actually, you can just move your software from one machine to another…

Enjoy the new products!

Good question aabbas. If you read Adobe’s Student Edition FAQ under “How many copies of an Adobe Student and Teacher Edition can I purchase?” they don’t actually say…

We’ve always presumed it means every 12 months rather than every calendar year, but you may want to contact them to confirm if that’s important to you.

Importantly though, note that it’s “per title” – meaning that (in any case) you could buy CS5.5 Design Standard today and CS5.5 Design Premium next week and then CS5.5 Master Collection the week after, if you wanted.

You are also still able to purchase any CS6 suite when they come out, because those will be different products.

Hope this helps!

Hi rsach – in fact students, teachers, and staff of virtually any age or level could potentially be eligible to receive the discounts of up to 80% off on these versions…

In other words, it is exactly as laid out in the article above.

For the answers to your remaining questions, please see this earlier comment exchange above with Jane.

Welcome Eliezer, if you qualify for Adobe’s Student & Teacher Editions – meaning you’re a student, educator, or staff member who meets the eligibility requirements – then there is no reason not to get those vs. the higher-priced Education versions, which are intended for all others in the academic world, including the schools themselves.

In other words, everything else is the same in terms of software capabilities, licensing, and completeness.

Indeed it can be confusing – so here’s another way of looking at the picture:

1. Adobe’s education versions cannot be upgraded from one to another. Meaning, you can buy a new academic version outright at the 80%-off price, but you can’t then upgrade that to a future academic edition at an even-further-discounted price.

2. However, a student or teacher can upgrade to a full commercial version from their education version at any time, even (or especially) when no longer in school… They will receive the regularly-discounted upgrade price available for commercial products.

3. For qualified education customers looking to buy any new product release, sometimes it’s cheaper to do #1 (purchase a new student edition outright), and sometimes #2 (upgrade your older student edition to a commercial version), depending. Obviously if you’re no longer in school, you’d always choose #2.

4. Note however that Adobe recently changed their future upgrade policy for CS6 and this looks to impact academic upgraders who’d like to do #2 from older releases. They have not to date made any announcements regarding availability of CS6 Student & Teacher editions.

5. You’re right that the only education version offered is Photoshop CS5 Extended – however all Extended products can later be upgraded to Photoshop standard versions (current price is $199).

Hope that helps clear it all up! Feel free to ask further questions if not.

Well, close – that’s half right! The first half of what you said is perfect.

For the second half, teachers that teach through several successive releases (e.g., CS4, CS5, and CS6) can just purchase a full new Photoshop Extended Student & Teacher Edition for each new version, at $199 apiece!

(That’s 80% off the regular price that everyone else pays, and 43% off the normal Extended upgrade price.)

Hey there Nick, please see the four comments just above yours for a review of the complete rules on Adobe Student Edition upgrades – thanks.

If you want to change your platform from a PC to a Mac (or vice versa), that is a separate question regardless of whether you have a student edition or any other version…

There are two ways to change your operating system with Adobe software:

1. Do a “crossgrade” from one platform to the other, which sets up a permanent switch for you between the two operating systems. This is free if you are running Adobe’s most recent version of the software (even educational), otherwise it requires upgrading to the latest commercial release.

2. Upgrade what you’ve got to a volume (“business”) license – this will allow you to run CS5.5 on both platforms, Windows and Mac OS. It usually costs a little less to upgrade to a volume license than to a regular commercial version.

A third option would just be to buy the Student Edition for the new platform if you still qualify for Adobe’s discounted education pricing.

For some people there is also the possibility of using virtualization or multi-boot programs to run a complete Windows environment separately on their Mac computers, which doesn’t involve Adobe at all.

Great questions Daj, thanks for asking… Please see this series of 4 questions and 4 answers, and that should help – thanks!

Hey there, all your examples would be no problem at all, with any Adobe product including the student edition… You’d need to deactivate the software before you move it or reformat your disk drive – and then you’d be fine. Just follow our instructions here:

How to Move Your Adobe Software Between Systems or Reinstallations

Greetings Stephanie, sorry for your difficulties. One nuance about Adobe’s education editions is the validation process, which takes place after the purchase… So it sounds like they are raising an issue over when you are validating it (with an expired ID) versus about when the product was actually purchased.

Since you’re no longer a student right now, and if you’ve exhausted all other options on pleading your case with Adobe Customer Service, then it sounds like your only real choice with what you bought may be to submit it for a full refund (which you should have no problem receiving back) – and then see what your next step might be for the coming period…

Note for future reference that all Adobe Student & Teacher Editions have to be purchased in the name of the current student who will solely be using them, although they can be paid for by someone else like a parent, because oftentimes students don’t own credit cards.

Also, there are other documents that can accepted as proof of eligibility, besides a student or school ID – although that may be too late for your case now.

Hope this helps!

Hi Josh, that’s a smart question – and you’ll find the answer in the comment response to Jane just above.

Yes Garrett, there is a way that you can buy or upgrade Adobe Creative Suite so that you can run CS5 on both Windows and Mac OS flexibly.

And yes, once you own it you can easily go from that to just running two installations on the same operating system again.

Hope that answers it for you!

Welcome Hunter, although it’s true that you cannot upgrade from one student edition to another, all owners of education versions (even if no longer qualified as students or teachers) can upgrade what they have to a full commercial version of Creative Suite at Adobe’s discounted upgrade price – which can be less than the price for a new education version anyway…

In other words, all owners of a Student & Teacher Edition (including CS5) can upgrade to CS5.5 for a far, far lower cost than buying the product all over again.

The only qualification is that the version you are coming from must be CS3 or later currently to get the low upgrade pricing to CS5.5…  And Adobe has said recently that anybody who wants to upgrade to CS6 in the future must be running CS5 or later at the time when CS6 is released.

Hello Chris, good news – yes, for the most part Adobe’s project and data files are cross-platform, with a few caveats depending on the application… But generally speaking you should be okay.

Hey there Kris,

If you’re not an enrolled student now, then you wouldn’t be eligible to validate it now…

So in order to qualify, you have to either be a current student, or already have the tuition bill for your future studies.

If neither of those, then you could hold the software and wait until September, but there may be a new CS version out by then. Instead you might want to return the product – and you should be okay if you purchased it recently: see Adobe’s Refund & Return Policy.

In the meantime, you could download and run the free trial version, which works the same as the full release for 30 days. And there are plenty of free CS5.5 tutorials to get you started.

Hope this information helps you out!

Hello again Kris, if you have a currently valid school ID, then you should be fine for the validation process. If not for some reason, then you can always return it as mentioned earlier.

And as far as subject material or language of the courses you are taking, that doesn’t matter – Adobe only cares if you are a real enrolled student, teacher, or education staff member – at almost any level of institution.

Good luck!