Claudia McCue

I received a note today from someone who’d upgraded to CS4, and suddenly half the controls in his Control Panel strip were missing. I thought — preferences? No, that wasn’t it. Wrong tool selected? Nope. Then it hit me: InDesign CS4 launches by default with an oversimplified Workspace called “Essentials,” which hides half the contents of the Control panel. Doh! I slapped my forehead. That was the culprit. Once he switched to the Advanced Workspace, all was well. You should do the same thing, so you’re not missing out on all those teeny little controls.

Also, you may not have noticed, but if you go to the Control panel menu, at the very bottom, there’s an option: “Customize.” You can totally customize the contents of the Control panel, controlling which field are displayed, and thus utterly befuddle the poor guy who uses your computer on night shift. Don’t do this.

At least, not yet: April Fool’s Day is coming up, you know

By the way, Photoshop CS4 also offers an “Essentials” workspace, but it’s not the dumbed-down one! In Photoshop, “Basic” is the oversimplified workspace, and “Essentials” is the usable, fully-stocked Workspace. Go figure.

I know a lot of people who have not upgraded to CS4, citing the pricing (especially in light of the current economic downturn). But here’s a warning: if you think the upgrade or purchase price is hefty now, be aware that it only gets worse after 2/28/09. Apparently, the initial price of upgrade/purchase was introductory pricing (from the Latin introductoramus, meaning “it will get worse”). For example, the $599 CS4 Premium upgrade will go up to $799. Complete details on pricing are here.

So if you’ve been on the fence about purchasing or upgrading, now is the time to take the leap, before the price increase. Keep in mind that online catalog sources, such as PCConnection (my fave), don’t discount Adobe pricing, although you can save a bit because you’re usually spared paying sales tax. That’s slightly offset by shipping costs, but you can often save a few dollars. Every little bit helps.