This very cool InDesign “sneak” comes fresh from the big Adobe MAX conference earlier this month…  What’s a sneak?

We’ve gone through the company and found the 11 coolest demos of technology that are at work within Adobe. These are things that are on the cutting edge of the technology. They may show up in a product, they may not. The demo may work, it may not. But this is your chance to get closer and really understand where we’re going and what we’re doing.

OK fair enough.  Here’s the set up:

“I want to show you some things we’re thinking about on the InDesign Team. As you know, it’s actually been about a year since we launched Digital Publishing Suite, and we’ve had fantastic traction in terms of getting great-looking content on tablet devices. So I have an iPad here and as you see I can turn it over and tilt it, let the accelerometer do its trick. We’re actually seeing two different layouts here – two different layouts – which creates two different files. So designers actually have to create two separate InDesign files for this one device.

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Adobe has just put out an excellent resource updated for CS5 / CS5.5 – a free printing guide in the form of a 140-page downloadable e-book. Earlier versions of this have been out for previous releases (see the older CS4 and CS3 links below), but now this is fully refreshed and upgraded for the latest versions of the products.

This very handy tome will tell you everything you ever need or wanted to know about getting great print results with your projects in Photoshop CS5 (including Extended), Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5/CS5.5, and Acrobat X Pro. All the different tools, setups, settings, options, functions, and formats – what they mean and how to best use them to achieve your goals.

Adobe describes it as, “learn the best ways of handling and preparing CS5 and CS5.5 files for print with this in-depth technical reference, designed especially for printers and production artists” – but anybody who would like a tutorial on how to print and generate the most optimal output from their designs can gain something here…

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[UPDATE (April 11th) – Adobe CS5.5 is out!]

We just got confirmation from Adobe that a “mid-cycle release” of Creative Suite 5 will be out later this year, perhaps in the coming months.

The definitive word came from a conference call on Tuesday afternoon with financial analysts, where the Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen stated:

We will continue to expand our content authoring offerings by providing a mid-cycle release to CS5.

[ Read the full transcript here ]

We’ve known for some time now (see our October piece) that a “dot release” of Creative Suite 5 would be coming and due to incorporate the new version of Acrobat X Pro – similarly to how CS2 and CS3 had mid-cycle upgrades for that exact reason…

But here Adobe has been working quite a bit harder and longer, with no “CS5.3″ at the November ship date of Acrobat X… So instead, we have clear indications of a larger upgrade in store – and here’s what’s going to be in it:

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The fine folks over at Que Publishing, who have over thirty years of experience writing good books about software and technology, have put out a free sampler edition of their new series of books on learning Adobe Creative Suite 5… This “CS5 on Demand” e-book runs 172 pages (11.3 MB to download, in PDF format) and includes five full chapters on Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, and Flash Professional.

This collection has been designed to teach CS5 through step-by-step tutorials with easy-to-follow instructions, to be rich in illustrations for those who want to learn visually, and to be complete and in-depth references for those seeking a trusted desk resource to quickly provide the answers you need.

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Yesterday at the big MAX conference, Adobe finally announced their Digital Publishing Suite – a new publishing solution that allows authors to deliver innovative digital reading experiences that attract readers and advertisers. This set of end-to-end, turnkey hosted services plus viewer technology build on the foundation of Creative Suite (including InDesign CS5) and allows publishers to use existing staff, skills, and workflows to design and deliver engaging, digital content direct to consumers, through content retailers or leading mobile marketplaces. You may have seen this already being used very successfully by magazines such as WIRED and The New Yorker.

The Digital Publishing Suite will be released in the second quarter of 2011, likely in conjunction with a CS5.5 point release update. In the meantime, Adobe Labs has made some tools available now for writers to get started and create, preview and share their content in the new format. The tools include the Digital Content Bundler and Interactive Overlay Creator, plus the Digital Publishing Plug-in for InDesign, which allows InDesign to interface with and transfer information to the Digital Content Bundler.

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Adobe MAX 2010 – the worldwide user conference – runs this week and if you aren’t in Los Angeles, the two major keynotes will be broadcast live plus all of the conference sessions will be available on demand for free… A full attendance pass with these informative technical sessions normally goes for $1,500, so this is a great deal (see a full listing of the hundreds of programs offered below).

Adobe InDesign tweets, “don’t be the last to know… if you can’t be at Adobe MAX, you can still watch the keynotes LIVE for some exciting announcements!”

One of these announcements is sure to be the arrival of the long-awaited preview release of the new Digital Publishing Suite on Adobe Labs, just out… Read all about it in the press release here.

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[UPDATE (April 11th) – Adobe CS5.5 is out!  See also when CS6 is penciled.]

Last week Adobe held a private briefing for partners under non-disclosure agreement, where they gave “an overview of the upcoming Creative Suite release”… While we can’t speak to what transpired within the presentation, the invitation itself is publicly available.

Given that the next release of Adobe Acrobat is due out within a matter of weeks (see why and when, or get a chance to win a free upgrade to Acrobat 10 Pro), and given the two year age of Acrobat 9, it’s likely Adobe would be refreshing CS5 with the addition of the new Acrobat X. When Acrobat moved from version 7 to version 8, Adobe subsequently updated the Creative Suite and issued CS2.3 – and then once again when Acrobat revisioned from 8 to 9, Adobe incorporated the new version into CS3.3 in 2008. Acrobat 9 is still what we have today in CS5 – but since it’s obviously way too early for CS6, it seems a safe bet we’ll be seeing a point release (CS 5.3?) that would incorporate the new Acrobat 10.

But from reading the briefing invitation, it looks like there will be more in store for this next release than “just” integrating the new version Acrobat X Pro. It says, “… an overview of the upcoming CS release with a focus on InDesign and ePublishing…” Adobe has been hard at work on a new Digital Publishing Platform (you may have seen or read about the tablet editions of WIRED or The New Yorker magazines) that ties in with InDesign, and is (over)due to be made available on Adobe Labs. It seems logical that this would also be part of a CS5 point release, as it is a major deal for magazine and print publishers to deliver their content to the iPad, iPhone, Android, and other mobile devices, and has been quite successful thus far… But since the publishing tools haven’t yet been released in beta form on the Labs, it could be a while longer before the final version of this new technology is ready for the world at large.

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Over the next six weeks Adobe is launching a new series of in-depth online seminars to learn the best and get the most out of some top CS5 products, including InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and Flash Professional…

The presentations are 90-minute live “deep dives” with Adobe product experts where you can get firsthand detailed information on the new features of these releases, see demonstrations, and get direct answers to your questions. All sessions are from 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM ET on upcoming Tuesdays, and will be presented in English:

Deep Dive: Adobe Illustrator CS5
Tuesday, July 13, 11:30am – 1:00pm US/Eastern
Complimentary Registration

Deep Dive: Adobe InDesign CS5
Tuesday, July 27, 11:30am – 1:00pm US/Eastern
Complimentary Registration

Deep Dive: Adobe Flash Professional CS5
Tuesday, August 10, 11:30am – 1:00pm US/Eastern
Complimentary Registration

Deep Dive: Adobe Premiere Pro CS5
Tuesday, August 24, 11:30am – 1:00pm US/Eastern
Complimentary Registration

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Back at the TED Conference in February, Adobe unveiled a prototype of a new digital magazine solution running on a tablet computer… The demo was built on the cross-platform (and Flash-based) Adobe AIR environment and illustrated the possibilities for magazine publishers to reach readers in new ways. The concept enabled — in digital form — the immersive content experience maga­zines are known for, and allowed new interactive features to stimulate reader engagement. The idea was that with the upcoming release of Creative Suite 5, publishers could use the new InDesign CS5 to create the rich media content for the new format, and then run the reader applications across a variety of device types because Adobe AIR is portable – including the iPhone and iPad through the new Packager for iPhone capa­bility included in Flash Professional CS5…

But then in early April, just before CS5 was launched, Apple made some changes to their SDK license restricting the technologies that developers can use for their products, including Adobe Flash software… So without Flash-derived apps being approved in Apple’s App Store, would that mean the end of Adobe’s new magazine publishing initiative on Apple devices?

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Yes, CS5 is out! It looks like a phenomenal release, and we have full coverage – including new products, pricing, configurations, system reqs, videos, “what’s new” feature lists, and more:

• Creative Suite 5 Product Overview  
• CS5 Full Product Configuration Matrix
• CS5 Complete System Requirements
• CS5 Pricing for Commercial and Education
• What’s New in Photoshop CS5  
• What’s New in Dreamweaver CS5  
• What’s New in Illustrator CS5  
• What’s New in InDesign CS5  
• What’s New in Flash Pro CS5  
• All About New Flash Catalyst CS5  
• What’s New in Contribute CS5
• What’s New in Premiere Pro CS5  
• What’s New in After Effects CS5  

ALL CS5 products are immediately available for purchase and instant download, with free shipping on all Adobe orders over €500/£350 in Europe and the U.K. (no coupon or promo code is required)…

On Adobe’s site: If you’re considering upgrading from your current software, here’s a helpful upgrade guide. Also new is an excellent FAQ covering purchasing policies and key product changes… The online documentation for all CS5 products also just went up.

Lastly and importantly, the CS5 free trial downloads and Student and Teacher Editions
(up to 80% off) are also now available!

[UPDATE (May 13th) – Adobe CS5 is now shipping and downloadable in 16 languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Polish, Russian, and Korean.]