PhotoShop, Illustrator, Flash resources

I got a couple of emails about resources to learn more about Adobe's PhotoShop, Illustrator and Flash.

Probably the first thing to do is check out is your community's colleges. I'm lucky in that Miami Dade Community College (MDCC) has a healthy roster of classes for the Adobe suite. But MDCC is the second largest college in the U.S. (over 125,000 students,* go figure). In suburban NJ and Palm Beach county, I know the Adobe offerings were quite scanty.

Books
Once software companies got out of the business of duplicating installation diskettes, they also made a significant step away from providing software documentation and tutorials. What was an end-user to do after they checked the FAQs and posted queries on the infinite number of forums, but to go to a bookstore and buy a book written by a independent party.

Sitting on my shelf are three well worn thick books called The Adobe PhotoShop CS3 Professional Bible, The Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Bible, and you guessed it The Adobe Illustrator CS3 Professional Bible. I literally bought the first because it was the thickest book on the subject; I felt so overwhelmed that I felt that only a thick book could alleviate the problem.

These books read like the old documentation sent with the software that had a 3-ring small-sized notebook with tabs. I find answers there, it's well worth the hefty expense. And yes, I'll be using my Christmas stocking money on the CS4 editions when they come out.

My suggestion to you is to go to a bookstore (the bigger the more computer books they'll have) and browse. Find your own 'bible' on the subject.

My apologies to the trees, I find most customer support search engines bordering on useless.

Organization
Beyond books, there have sprung up some other resources. The foremost is the National Assocation of PhotoShop Professionals (NAPP). Whether or not this organization is non-profit or not is beyond the scope of this blog. I can say that the NAPP has a wealth of training opportunities both online and in-person for the entire Adobe suite. The membership is $99 a year (less if you sign up for more than one year). With the membership you'll get discounts on everything they do, so you'll save more than $99 during the year.

The NAPP's online community is great, but NAPP also does training roadtrips. In a town near where ever you live, you can take one day classes that will take you through an application or even an application within an application (they offer PhotoShop for photographers, website developers, etc.). The classes are cheap $79 with your membership discount. It's definitely not one-on-one, nose to the plasma monitor training. You'll be sitting in a large ballroom with over 300 others watching the instructor bang away in the selected application. I've been to three and all three were worth the cost.

But the thing not to miss, if you can afford it, is PhotoShop World. A three day event (2009 in late March in Boston) that covers everything. There are like 6 simultaneous sessions going on, multiple times a day, for three days. Evening sessions to boot! If you get antsy, there's the tradeshow floor to browse. I went to PhotoShop World in Orlando last year and can't say enough. I felt my expertise went up notches across the Adobe suite.

Publications
Adobe does put out an interesting magazine called Layers I read it cover to cover. It comes out every other month. Adobe isn't so swift with the subscriptions, however. I called today because I hadn't seen an issue in months. They'll send me back copies which is nice but I had to call and go through Adobe onhold micro environment to get the back issues.

*the largest school is some online one, I believe it's called Phoenix.