Adobe Books

This book, which highlights a fairly outdated version of Adobe Premiere Elements, is nevertheless extremely useful. After reading the reviews of newer versions of the Premiere Elements software, I decided to stick with 2.0 until I become much more adept at video editing. For a relatively small purchase price, this book will definitely be a huge help for me. Because it is: a) task oriented, b) easy to understand, c) contains intuitive links to other tasks, d) is well organized by section number, this book is highly consumable. I can't recommend it highly enough. Actually, as painful as this sounds, it may be worth toughing it out for a few weeks with the Adobe documentation that comes with the product, and then turbo-boosting your success with this book. Incidentally, the fact that the editors have bona fide video production chops versus tech writing skills was not lost on me!

If you have Adobe Premiere Elements 2 or 3 or version 4 this book is the answer to your questions. Even though it was written long ago it covers all the basic stuff to get you going. The price at Amazon is great too compared to a bookstore. It has saved me untold hours of frustration already. It's well laid out and relatively easy to follow.

Deals with many complex concepts in a concise manner. I'm a beginner to video editing and have found it a invaluable source of knowledge. So far I have been able to accomplish my editing goals using the book and the help system in Premiere elements.

This book is very well organized and easy to understand. As a newby to Premiere it was very helpful. I still refer to this book often and I think it is one of the reasons I feel proficient in Premiere today. It's only shortcoming is limited info on how to use the audio effects in Premiere

Premiere Elements 3 users, this book is for you too! Being new to video editing, I was wary of a book that was not version specific. No need to worry, this book works well with version 3. Whether you are a beginner or advanced this book has it all. The format makes this book superior to others. The inside front cover has 'Contents at a Glance' index that directs you to the section for a specific task eliminating wasted time searching or reading unneeded info.

Just pick a task and go straight to that section. Each section has a guide on what to read before you begin and other related topics, key terms, tips, and best of all step-by-step instructions with illustrations.

After reading the dry manual, it was wonderful to have an easy to read, concise, and informative book. This book takes the frustration out of video editing and puts in the fun. The authors also have online tutorials that make a good companion to the book at [...].

Had never used the product and needed a crash course and this was very helpful at the time.

This is an excellent manuscript for teaching yourself Captivate. Its even helping me review while learning the upgrade.

There arent many books on Captivate. It's too bad, because this software is very common in the education and eLearning field.
I needed to teach myself the software for my job, and this book helped a lot. It is full of practical lessons and examples. Upon completing the book, I had a very good command of the program. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to learn Captivate.

Well written with excellent instructional design. The best way to learn this powerful software quickly. I couldn't have developed my project without it.

I ordered this a couple weeks ago and just got around to using it two days ago. I wasn't in a hurry because I have viewed the videos about Captivate 2 on Lynda.com and thought this book would just be review--which it isn't. As an educator I should know the difference between just watching something done and actually doing it. In this book you do the exercises--which are clearly explained step-by-step in easy bits! I'm halfway through the book and all I can say is how thankful I am that I ordered this. I've been wanting to create interactive online material for my courses for the past five years. Now, with Captivate 2 and this book I will be able to do it.

Of the many books on Photoshop that I've purchased over the years, this one ranks at or near the top. It's a wonderfully well-written tutorial both for PS CS3 and for restoration and retouching. It's clearly written so that one understands the function of the many PS tools as well as their application. I've been restoring old family photos with Photoshop for years, but yet I learn something new every time I open Fitzgerald's book. It's a good buy for a person of almost any level of competence with Photoshop.

A very usefull book, well written and with a deep analysis of the entire subject. I learnt more from this book then any other.

I felt there could have been much more tips and tricks on restoration of old photographs.

This is easily one of the best Photoshop retouching manuals ever. As a working photographer who enjoys doing his own retouching, I am always on the look-out for any instruction or manual that will make my job easier and workflow smoother. This book has migrated from my Photoshop bookshelf to join only four other books right alongside my monitor on my desk. When I need to address some specific problem that needs to be retouched, this is the first book I reach for.
The author has laid out the chapters in such a logical way, one only needs to look up the issue and go to the section that addresses the specific topic, a huge time-saver. As with Photoshop, there are many ways to correct images and this book presents quite a few new ones, even on techniques I use every day. I especially enjoy the before/after images and I'm sure many will benefit from the step-by-step lessons the author presents in a friendly, conversational way. Also, the "Tip" and "Caution" highlights are very helpful and concise.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to work in PS3 efficiently and profitably. Truly a Photoshop Retouching Bible in every way!

Having read most of the various Adobe Photoshop Help books, this book Photoshop CS3 Restoration and Retouching by Mark Fitzgerald is hands down the most organized and helpful of them all. His information is never too verbose which is a plus in a world of complex computer jargon.
Anyone, who has read books on this subject will be pleasantly surprised by the wealth of information (and how to use it) that the author has put forth.
Stephen Anderson

I found this book at the local library and kept renewing it because it was so helpful. I have elements 6 (the book is for elements 5) but this is by far the best book on elements photoshop that I have found. I have used it many times on my photos. If you are a beginner with elements like me then you will love this book! In case you are wondering, I have also purchased 3 other elements 6 photoshop books before I purchased this book. The first was 'Photoshop Elements 6 for Dummies', then 'Teach Yourself Visually Adobe Photoshop Elements 6' and last 'Photoshop Elements 6 in easy steps'. Now I can stop!

I love this book. It makes my life easier. What more could you ask for. This was just what i needed.

In one word WOW! You have to have this book, Matt explains things in simple terms and makes using PSE easy to use.

Bill

MATT KLOSKOWSKI DOES AND EXCELLENT JOB. VERY EASY TO FOLLOW! MATT'S HUMOR IS A DELIGHT. THE EXAMPLES MAKE IT EASY TO LEARN.

THE ONLY NEGATIVE IS THE BINDING ON THE BOOK. IT IS OK SO FAR. BUT I USE A BOOK HARD, I AM CAREFUL. BUT MYEXPERIENCE WITH THIS TYPE OF BINDING IS NOT GOOD. THEY SHOULD USE A SPIRAL BINDING.

This is a wonderful book. I have had it now for almost a year and use it constantly. It reads like a recipe book, which makes it extremely user friendly. I use it alone and in conjunction with "Photoshop Elements: The Missing Manual".

...this is definitely the book you'll want to buy, especially if you're on a limited "book budget". After Effects, while fundamentally not a difficult program to understand, has an enormous number of function parameters, user interface options and workflows that can cause the average Joe to question his own sanity for trying to learn AE. But, with this book as your guide and some time to tinker with the program as you are reading you can really improve your skills to a point where you're creating cool things in just a few days.

(You really need to try out the functions and examples as you go with AE; trying to learn and memorize stuff then use it later, doesn't work with this program because there are just way too many variables involved in creating motion content).

Like many Focal books, it is very well produced in terms of material quality, layout, typography and the like... and the writing is easy to understand. There are probably 10 different ways you could organize an After Effects reference book but here again I found that what was presented to me worked very well. The figure examples are plentiful where things get more complex, and the types of examples relevant to a typical AE workflow where you're doing a mix of things like animating objects to follow a pre-determined path or handling far-out text effects and background textures that seem to "move and evolve" as time passes.

If you can get through this book and not feel like you are a more capable motion graphics editor, you're doing something wrong. While I don't recommend relying on only one book to learn AE (anymore than I do with Photoshop) because ultimately you'll need a mix of books, videos and other mediums to really learn AE over time... if i had to rely on only one, this would be it for sure.

PROS: The text book is well written and easy to understand.
CONS: The companion DVD that contains the resource files for the tutorials was defective. I returned the book and the DVD for a replacement and the second DVD was also defective. The THIRD DVD finally worked.

It was recommended by my instructor and has proven to be a healthy resource for knowledge of both after effects and motion graphics. Definitely the first book I would by if you are trying to learn MG.

Well, I finally finished the book. I guess I will join the many 5 star reviewers. After reading this book, I have a great foundation of all the features AE offers. I didn't want to do too much as far as working the tons of examples the book offers this go'round, I just wanted to learn the "language". Now I will go through the book again. This time tackling the projects along with my own ideas.

I was a novice going in, and still am to an extent, but the Meyer's takes the intimidation out of you and teaches you principles where when you do speak to other seasoned artist you understand and can execute anything they do.

I used this book after finishing up with the Meyer's fantastic "After Effects Apprentice" book. This book, "Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects", was a great way to firm up what I had learned from other sources.

Highly recommended!

Captivate is a very useful elearning, simulation/demo program that lets you do a multitude of things. This book touches on many of those topics. I work for an instructional team that works with Captivate students and we find this book to be very boring. The sample files are drab and while some of the files on the CD rom in the back of the book are useful, many of the files are bit silly - such as the sound bytes - not real world enough. It does have a decent section in the front that briefly discusses script writing with accompanied files.

I don't agree with some of the author's opinions and the choice of a sans-serif font throughout the book - makes it a difficult read.

The tech support from Iconlogic has been good. I would like to do plenty of business with this company, but would like to see a better organized book that I can easily use in class.

Overall, you won't lose by buying this book. The book and student files could be a bit more interesting.

This is a very user friendly book. The ony thing that would make it better is if it were geared for Captivate 2. After going through this book, I feel that I don't need any organized teaching sessions for the skills.

"Essentials of Macromedia (now Adobe) Captivate" is the
title of the book. The promise is maintained when you buy it,
read it and follow its step by step exercises.
If I'm right, "essentials" are the things that come first and
foremost. When you are new to a jungle, a subject or an
application you want to get the essentials as fast as you can.
If the application you want to learn is Captivate, then Kevin's
book is the buddy on your side, the one with more
experience, the one that helps you with clear instructions and
useful tips.
The exercises on the CD are well written and work. They take
you step by step through the major features of Captivate.
The language is simple. Even for those, like me, that have
English as a second language.
In a matter of days you are up and running, creating your own
multimedia instructional materials.
Then you'll probably need other books, because Kevin's
Essentials has brought you, fast and safe, to the point you
can take another leap forward, to reach Station "Advanced".
Last but not least, Kevin Siegel is a "real person" that stands
behind his product. Like other reviewers before me, I wrote
him an Email and he answered promptly.

I really think this is the best software tutorial I have ever used, and I have used quite a few in my trillion-year career as a technical writer. It has just the right level of detail. So many tutorial writers leave major concepts and steps out because they assume that you know what they know. And you don't, that's why you bought their stupid book. But this one guides you gently through all you need to know to get firmly established in using Captivate. It was a great help to me when I suddently found a Captivate project on my desk and didn't know exactly where to start. Essentials of Macromedia Captivate helped me start at the appropriate beginning point. It also provided lots of handy tips that I'm sure helped save me a ton of time that I would have spent if I had tried to figure out the software by myself. I would reiterate, as others have here, that you need to follow all the steps in the book to get the most out of it. But doing so is well worth your while.

This book is the cheapest class you may ever have, and it is a good class. As you may have noticed there are not many books written on Captivate. It's a shame because Adobe's Captivate really is great program.

I am a freelance web designer and Flash animator in the Seattle market. Last year I wanted to learn Captivate and realized there are no classes in the Puget Sound area and only 3 books on the market.

I purchased this one and it taught me the program just working on the exercises at night. The book has not typos, a nice flow and they cover most of the program. It is a productive book and you see results quickly. Since then I have added E-learning to my list of skills I offer thanks to this book and the Adobe's Captivate.

I do admit I also purchase the Visual Quick Start book. But when I need to reference something I go to Essentials first. I will look at the example in the exercise I did and it will click right away, "Oh that's how I did it".

I am a technical writer. A client asked me to update some of the instructions he sends out with his products. However, the documents were created in InDesign, and they needed to stay in that format. I had a copy of InDesign CS3 but I needed to learn the basics of how to use the program in a very short time.

I read the reviews on Amazon, and Deke's book got the most glowing reviews. Now I'm adding my own glowing review.

I bought Deke's book (and CD-ROM). After a long weekend, I was able to create a template, a workable layout, and a functional style sheet. The nice thing about Deke's training approach is that he provides all the practice files for you. Following his step-by-step instructions, I was able to add a few "extras" to the documents including running heads with variable text, anchored graphic frames, and autonumbering captions for those graphics. You might be tempted to skip the first chapter, where Deke shows you his way of setting up the interface. My advice: take the time to do it Deke's way. He knows what he's talking about, and it pays off in the long run.

Good book, but i was disappointed that the text depends upon the cd. If you are looking for a book to look up tools and how-to's, this may not be the book for you.

a very helpful tool for the novice. Index helps located area that is creating a logjam when your are trying to complete a piece. Essential for anyone not enrolled in classes.

This is the sort of book that you hold with one hand while running the program with the other. Well written (utilizing the CS3 software!)and entertaining, the book is laid out in an easy to understand format and the included CD makes learning clear, easy - and fun. This is a great place to start if you're new to CS3 - and there's enough depth that people familiar with the software can learn quite a bit as well!

While there are a number of quality tutorials (both written and video), Deke McClellen's teaching skills make this book a cut better than average. Chapters are organized logically with enough info to grow the novice and challenge the intermediate user. I especially appreciate McClellen's videos. They are neither too slow nor too fast and assume the viewer is starting from scratch. The book itself also serves as an excellent template or model for someone venturing into book publishing.

Blatner and Fraser have the right stuff. This book is based on what photographers need, unlike many of the Photoshop after market manuals. This is the text to use for digital photographers. Inspiring (technically) for the students and the instructor.

As an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop I think I can talk about this book with some soft of knowledge.

Well, this book is awesome. No doubts. From a certain point of view it's even embarassing: I've read things never seen elsewhere, small tips, too small even for the manuals (but sometimes really helpful), and Big concepts explained really well. Every single page of this book hides something useful. This might be not a good thing to say if you're a certified expert, but that's it.

Of course this book is not for everyone: you will get the greatest experience if you're an expert Photoshop user and you work daily with it, as it concentrated on productivity issues and professional tasks. Forget this book if you're a Photoshop enthusiast and you're just looking for pseudo-creative tips&tricks: there are no special effects recipes, no step-by-step tutorials and no bundled clipart CDs.

This is 800 pages of deep Photoshop production techniques. I think no other book, except for Dan Margulis' "Professional Photoshop", can teach such a lot of things to already-expert readers.

First off let say this. If you just beginning to used photoshop cs, this is not the book for you. This book is aimed at the experience user who not only want to know more advanced photoshop techniques but also want to know why photoshop does what it does, in other words how photoshop thinks. Its not an encyclopedia that cover every little feature methodically, instead it covers advanced concepts in themes such as Color management, image manipulation and output. Great book, very informative, like a textbook in some respects. Until you've read it, you dont' really understand photoshop.

This book gives extremely in-depth coverage to topics that cover the gamut from the basic of images and color spaces, through to image editing, filters, typography and finally output. The coverage is very in-depth. This is not a step-by-step book. The idea is to give you a fundamental understanding of the technology and then show it's application in Photoshop. The sections on building selections and using the sharpening features are particular standouts.

If you are the type of person who learns by understanding the fundamentals and not a raw process then it's a tossup between this book and Photoshop CS Artistry. The latter is a little more terse in it's style. This book is more relaxed in style so it's a little easier to follow.

This book is absolutely, no doubt, without question, surely the best book on Photoshop CS out there. It's a real pleasure to read a book by people who actually know what they're talking about. Scott Kelby's "The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers" is an exceptionally fine book if you're just starting with CS and trying to get your photographs under control and don't have time to read about the finer points, but once you've begun to get the hang of it and want not only to know "how," but "why," this is the book you absolutely have to have.

I really wish I had discovered this earlier! I received it yesterday and have already fell in love with the wide array of add-ins that are included on the cd. The book is a great tool to quickly identify the effect that I want. This is a must-have for anyone who has Photoshop Elements!

The book isn't worth much, but the plugins are great. The one click stuff is a great time saver for me, and it really does make things look more snappy without too much hassle. Well worth it for the CD full of plugins!

I love this book. I've already used alot of the layer styles already. Lots of examples. Tons of ideas.

I have had Photoshop Elements 2 for over a year, but until I got this book and CD ROM I had no idea just how creative I could be with the program. There were a lot of effects that I tried to apply to my art but did not quite get the results I desired. This book has helped me unleash my "creative genius". As graphic design student, I have found it to be the best investment I have made besides my computer components. You will find the book helpful, as well, to view the layer styles before applying them to your art. I had found at first that I spent a great deal of time applying and deleting styles and effects before finding the right one, and then I read the book (duh!). I found full-color samples of all the different presets contained on the disk scattered throughout the chapters. It is a small book, but it is very content-rich.

I had used Photoshop 7 in the graphic design lab at school , but I could not afford to buy it. This book and PSE 2 together cost less than $100, and I have no problem duplicating lessons and completing projects at home that are supposed to be done using PS 7.

When Adobe introduced Photoshop Elements it had a low-end program for newcomers to digital photography. It based the cut-down Elements program on its expensive and complex main Photoshop program. However, when you buy Elements you are actually installing quite a lot of the main program (even though no menu commands exist to use new features), and people have been finding ways to exploit the advanced features of Photoshop that Adobe thought would be too complex for Elements users.

Several web sites and two books supply software to advance the capabilities of Elements. One book lets you use some of the professional-level features of the main program, and the other provides some wild effects. That book is the One-Click Wow book I'm reviewing here (the other one is Richard Lynch's The Hidden Powers of Photoshop Elements).

Years ago I wrote a book on Photoshop version 3, and even without enhancements Photoshop Elements 3 is close to being equal to it. The effects in One-Click Wow can be done in several steps in the Main Photoshop program, and in fact that's how they're produced. Unfortunately the effects are of the "take it or leave it" variety - there's no way of altering them - but luckily Jack Davis has produced effects that will appeal to most people.

Because this is a "cheat" and not an officialy approved set of program extensions, you have to manually copy the extensions from the CD to your hard drive. If Elements is running you need to reboot, and then you'll find them listed in the menus for Layer Effects and other places.

One set of extensions work on photographs, and as well as those allowing you to change the appearance of the whole photograph there are other effects that let you add frames or edges. There's a whole series of effects that allows you to change a photograph so that it looks like a painting.

The major set of effects works on graphics and type. They'll change your designs and words to look like chrome or many kinds of natural materials, as well as plenty that look like neon signs. In fact there are several hundred effects, as well as extra brushes and patterns.

It's easiest to see this product not so much as a book, but more like a software add-on with an instruction manual that gives examples of almost every effect - in full color. There's even a multi-page tutorial in using the effects which should explain all you need to know about how to use them.

Davis has been producing the Photoshop Wow books of effects since the beginning of the main program, so the effects here will make a major difference to your pictures. What I've also noticed is the way Davis crops his pictures which is a tutorial in itself - he crops very tightly and you can see the improvement.

So if you can see a copy of this book before you buy it, take a look because what you see is what you're going to get. For most people it's a no-brainer buy, especially since even if you had the main Photoshop program you'd have to do numerous activities on your pictures to equal what you get here.

For the price, it's an amazing bargain for the extra powers you get. I have both this and The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements, and the two of them make Elements a much more powerful and worthwhile program.

This book is amazing. I have some experience with Flash video and video production techniques, but I felt like I had a lot of gaps in my knowledge. This book covers everything I need to know, and the included code is priceless. If you want a robust Flash player, with auto-detect, auto-update, etc., but don't care to learn the ins and outs of Actionscript, just use what's provided. You'll have Player up and running in minutes.

I ended up sharing the book with our Video Production team, too. They used a lot of the instruction about good compression, proper aspect ratios, and creating alpha channels for FLVs.

Rob Reinhardt is the master of Video deployed in Flash. I was so happy to see he finally has written a book that captures his knowledge, experience, and excellent teaching skills. Rob is clear, concise and you can be guaranteed that he has tested, used and deployed all the techniques he demonstrates.
Bravo!!!!!

this book is a decent hands-on approach to creating video players using AS3 & AS2. Two of the missing things that I think are necessary are creating custom volume controls and handling full-screen mode.

There's nobody more prolific and comprehensive in the world of Flash video delivery than Reinhardt. Considering the enormity of topics and goals addressed in this book, he's really outdone himself this time. Essential for anyone interested in serious deployment of Flash video.

My company bought other Flash Video books, but this book had the ActionScript 3.0 code I was looking for. The DVD included with the book rocks--I've always wanted to test HD footage in Flash, but didn't want to spend too much time looking for huge files on the Internet. The DVD has lots of HD content to use as sample content.