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Classroom in A Book: Adobe Creative Suite

CS4CIB_InstructorNotes

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
143 views

Classroom in A Book: Adobe Creative Suite

CS4CIB_InstructorNotes

Uploaded by

Kost Vagoo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ADOBE  CREATIVE SUITE  4

® ®

DESIGN PREMIUM

classroom in a book ®

Instructor Notes

www.adobepress.com
Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 Design Premium Classroom in a Book®
© 2009 Adobe Systems Incorporated and its licensors. All rights reserved.
If this guide is distributed with software that includes an end user agreement, this guide, as well as the
software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the
terms of such license. Except as permitted by any such license, no part of this guide may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, record-
ing, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Please note that
the content in this guide is protected under copyright law even if it is not distributed with software that
includes an end user license agreement.
The content of this guide is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and
should not be construed as a commitment by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe Systems Incorporated
assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the informational
content contained in this guide.
Please remember that existing artwork or images that you may want to include in your project may be
protected under copyright law. The unauthorized incorporation of such material into your new work could
be a violation of the rights of the copyright owner. Please be sure to obtain any permission required from
the copyright owner.
Any references to company names in sample files are for demonstration purposes only and are not
intended to refer to any actual organization.
Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Classroom in a Book, Bridge, Device Central, Dreamweaver, Fireworks,
Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Photoshop Lightroom, PostScript, and PostScript 3 are either
registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other
countries.
Apple, Mac, and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft,
Windows, and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation registered in the U.S. and/or other
countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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California. For the latest on Adobe Press books, go to www.adobepress.com. To report errors, please send
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Printed and bound in the United States of America
Book:
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-57391-9
ISBN-10: 0-321-57391-9
Instructor notes:
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-61924-7
ISBN-10: 0-321-61927-7
Instructor notes
Introduction
The Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 Design Premium Classroom in a Book® course
presents­s­ tudents with tips, techniques, and solutions for using Adobe Creative
Suite 4 Design Premium. These Instructor Notes are intended to complement the
information in the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium Classroom in a Book.
The information is organized to follow the sequence of instruction in each lesson.
However, the notes are not intended to expand on each and every exercise but
rather to point out potential teaching opportunities not specifically covered in the
lesson or areas where students might easily be confused.

About the workbooks


It is recommended that each student in the class have a copy of the Adobe Creative
Suite 4 Design Premium Classroom in a Book. Students will use this book as you
lead them through projects. The book can also be used as a self-paced tutorial.
Before beginning a lesson, encourage students to browse through it, read any side-
bars, and refer to Help resources where appropriate.
You can buy more copies of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium Classroom
in a Book for your students, or you can refer them to a local bookseller to purchase
the book.

Course strategy and scheduling


The book contains two sections: “Part 1: Introducing the suite and its individual
components” and “Part 2: The projects”. The first part provides background on
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium as well as a tour of features. The second
part is made up of 6 lessons including exercises to help familiarize your students
with Adobe Creative Suite by practical experience with the separate applications.
The section “Getting Started” on page 1 includes instructions for installation of
Creative Suite 4 Design Premium and for copying and organizing the files that will
be used for the lessons and exercises. The chapter also contains information about
additional resources and help.
Regarding the 6 different lessons in the second part of the book; you can teach
approximately one chapter per session but—depending on the number and duration
of sessions in your class—you may wish to combine related exercises from some of
the shorter lessons, or split up some of the more involved lessons. To this end, you
should make your own assessment of the complexity of the exercises in each lesson.

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 4 DESIGN PREMIUM CLASSROOM IN A BOOK  3


Some non-essential exercises—and exercises requiring Internet access, where that
is not available in class—may be best assigned as follow-up work to be completed at
home. In any case it would be helpful for your students to have an idea of the vari-
ous applications by having read the first part of the book as preparation.
The following lesson summaries may help you in structuring your course:
• Getting Started covers installation of the application software, setting up for the
lessons by copying the image files used in the exercises from the application CD
into a lessons folder, creating a work folder for files created during the lessons,
and creating a catalog file for the lesson images. The lesson files are imported
into the catalog and the issue of reconnecting missing files to the catalog is
discussed.
In the classroom situation this section is best combined with Lesson 1, so that
your students already have an established catalog containing images when they
begin to explore the interface and workspace modules.
• Part 1: Introducing the suite and its individual components provides an
overview of Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium. This section is divided into
six themes:
• Versatile work flows for multiple media
• Working faster and more creatively with images and graphics
• Creating easy animation using skills you already have
• Prototyping website designs without being a code wizard
• Designing, previewing, and testing mobile content efficiently
• Connecting to the power of the online community using Creative Pro Online
Services
Additionally, Part 1 provides a quick tour of the features of the separate
component applications.
• Part 2: The projects offer six lessons with a variety of exercises to acquaint your
students with the different applications and the interaction between them.
• Lesson 1 demonstrates the similarities in interface between Adobe Illustrator
and Adobe Photoshop by working through exciting projects like painting with
a pattern to add pizzazz to a graphic, creating design variations on their own
separate artboards within a single file, and manipulating a 3D comp. Adobe
Bridge serves as starting point for organizing the project. The files the students
prepare become assets for subsequent exercises—all based around the theme of
an imaginary movie called Double Identity. The last exercise involves the Share
My Screen feature, which enables online sharing in real time. More options for
sharing are covered in Lesson 6.

4  Instructor Notes
• Lesson 2 teaches how to use one of the many templates in InDesign to speed
up the process of designing a brochure. Again, Adobe Bridge is used to start the
lesson for file. Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop are then being used to
add text and graphics in a variety of file formats. The goal is to be able to prepare
documents for high quality print or/and add interactive elements for on-screen
viewing.
• Lesson 3 introduces the concept of planning and prototyping a website design in
Fireworks—complete with interactive links and rollover behaviors. The students
learn how to preview the pages in a standard web browser before developing the
finished website in Dreamweaver. Again, Adobe Bridge serves to help quickly
locate and preview the asset files.
Each exercise in this lesson builds on the preceding exercises. Since the lesson
is substantial, it may be a good idea to split it into two sessions: the first to
prototype the site in Adobe Fireworks, and the second part to implement the
site in Dreamweaver.
• Lesson 4 continues where Lesson 3 left off: It shows how to import the website
prototype created in Fireworks into a Flash document. This lesson is almost
certainly too involved to be completed in a single class session. (The same
applies to Lesson 5.) The students begin by creating a Flash document, and then
import the design created in Fireworks. This is followed by exercises that deal
with adding animation, defining rollover behaviors, and using ActionScript.
The students learn how to use ActionScript to control the behaviors of media
elements, and then test and publish their work.
• Lesson 5 is a stand-alone lesson, introducing Device Central and demonstrating
how the tight integration between Device Central and other Creative Suite 4
Design Premium component applications helps to streamline the mobile design
workflow. The students will be familiarized with Device Central's extensive
library of mobile device profiles, enabling them to quickly test the appearance
and behavior of mobile content on emulated devices—right on the desktop!
• Lesson 6 is another lesson that could be taught independently, as it deals with
various ways to share work and collaborate online. This lesson gives detailed
attention to Adobe Acrobat, which facilitates a range of review workflows. After
a quick introduction to different types of review, the students will learn how
to attach a PDF for an e-mail based review and how to deal with comments,
customize the appearance of document markup notes, collaborate in online
meetings, and initiate a server-based, shared review. They will also get an
overview of tracking and managing PDF reviews, and the possibilities for
protecting work.
Some of the exercises may be best assigned as homework, as your students will
need to have internet access with their own valid email and Acrobat accounts.

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 4 DESIGN PREMIUM CLASSROOM IN A BOOK  5


New features
The most important features of the Creative Suite 4 Premium are covered in Part 1:
Introducing the suite and its individual components. The feature tour covers the
top new features for each component application.
The exercises from the lessons in the second module, Part 2: The projects, help the
students to become familiar with some of the new features:
• Lesson 1 introduces revolutionary 3D painting and compositing capabilities in
Photoshop, as well as multiple artboards and the Blob Brush tool in Illustrator.
Later in the lesson, the Share My Screen feature in Acrobat is explained.
• Lesson 2 includes exercises that cover using multiple artboards in Illustrator,
creating an interactive document, adding Page transitions to SWF and PDF files,
the advantages of processing Raw image files, and exporting to Adobe Flash
format.
• Lesson 3 showcases the big performance improvements and a new interface
design in Fireworks, introducing CSS export and PDF file export options, as well
as the new Smart Guides in InDesign.
• Lesson 4 demonstrates the tighter integration between Dreamweaver and Flash,
Dreamweaver's Live view, and Adobe AIR authoring.
• Lesson 5 covers the dynamically updated online library of device profiles for
Device Central as well as emulated performance, and automated testing.
• Lesson 6 introduces the possibilities for shared, online reviews and remote
collaboration using the new Share My Screen feature in Acrobat.

Getting Started
Before beginning Lesson 1, you should decide how to deal with the issues of soft-
ware installation and the copying of lesson files from the CIB CD to the students'
computers. You may wish to prepare Lessons folders for your students before the
first lesson begins, or work this procedure into the beginning of Lesson 1, together
with the creation of work folders and initial catalog files.

Lesson 1: Setting up Basic Assets


After the first section of the book Part 1: Introducing the suite and its individual
components, this lesson starts out with organizing the lesson files in Adobe
Bridge, and then moves to refining a logo in Adobe Illustrator and experiencing the
advanced 3D tools in Adobe Photoshop Extended. The lesson ends with a quick
glance at Share My Screen, an exciting feature that enables users to show off their

6  Instructor Notes
work live from a remote location. Lesson 6 will expand on Share My Screen and
other sharing options.
All the visual assets used in this book are linked, created as design elements for the
promotion of a fictional movie called Double Identity.

Scheduling
Before starting this lesson, it would be helpful if the students have read through the
first part of the book, which provides an excellent overview of the entire Creative
Suite 4 as well as its component applications. It also highlights the versatile work-
flows for multiple media, the commonality of interface, and new features of the
separate applications.

Goals for this lesson


The overall objective for Lesson 1 is to introduce your students introduce you to
these important skills and concepts:
• They should be able to organize media files in Adobe Bridge.
• They should understand how to refine a vector graphic in Illustrator with the
Blob Brush tool.
• They should be aware of the advantages of using Live Trace, Adobe Kuler, and
Illustrator's vast libraries.
• They should be able to apply a pattern from the library.
• They should be able to work with 3D tools in Photoshop Extended.
• They should know about the collaborative possibilites offered by Share My
Screen.

Organizing your work with Bridge


In the classroom situation it would be best to complete the Getting Started section
before you begin to organize the work in Bridge.
In setting up the Favorites folder in Bridge, your students will be able to begin
exploring the Bridge interface. Draw attention to the advantages of organizing
media files in Bridge, where you can also access and modify a file’s metadata. Using
Bridge to synchronize color management between CS4 applications is another
essential task before starting the actual work.

Creating a logo in Illustrator


It's worthwhile pointing out the strengths of Illustrator for creating vector graphics
and its advantages for producing logo designs. After that, you can begin with a gen-
eral tour of the workspace, which will help orient your students and allow them to

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 4 DESIGN PREMIUM CLASSROOM IN A BOOK  7


get accustomed to Illustrator's interface (and understand the commonalities in the
interface across the CS4 applications—beginning with Photoshop in the following
exercise). Live Trace is another important feature worth mentioning for its ability
to capture and translate the spontaneity of a sketch into digital form. If time allows,
have the students explore more with Live Trace and with the Blob Brush, which
makes an enjoyable exercise. Also it would be beneficial to have a closer look at the
four different artwork libraries—including a vast an array of patterns, symbols, but-
tons and drawings, all organized by theme.

Working with 3D images in Photoshop


This exercise gives just a hint of the possibilities of working with the 3D tools in
Photoshop Extended in the context of changing the perspective of a car to fit a pre-
designed image. If time provides, it would be interesting to check out the other 3D
tool, the Orbit tool, to manipulate the position of the camera instead of the object.

Sharing your design explorations via Share My Screen


In Lesson 6 the students will become familiar with more ways of sharing work.
Acrobat's Share My Screen feature is an exciting one to start out with. In the class-
room situation, however, some of the sharing options can only be experienced when
the students have access to the internet, have valid email addresses, and have signed
up for a free Acrobat.com account. If those requirements are better met outside of
the classroom, this section may be best assigned as follow-up work to be completed
at home. Whether in class or from home, students can form groups of 2 - 3 people
(3 is the maximum for the My Screen feature) and collaborate live.

Questions
1 When does it make sense to use of ConnectNow with the Share My Screen
feature?
2 What kinds of libraries does Illustrator offer?
3 What are the advantages of working with multiple artboards?

Answers
1 Using ConnectNow with the Share My Screen feature is ideal when you wish
to collaborate remotely with others in real time. Sharing your screen has the
advantage that there's no need for the other participants to have the same
software, fonts, or even a copy of the file being reviewed. When you'd like to
provide training or demonstrate software actions, the immediacy of real-time
interaction with others is especially helpful. In addition, you have control over
both the content and pace of your presentation. You can even transfer the

8  Instructor Notes
control of your desktop to another attendee, which comes in very handy for truly
meaningful collaboration.
2 Illustrator offers four large libraries: The Brush Libraries, the Graphic Style
Libraries, the Swatch Libraries, and the Symbol Libraries.
3 In Illustrator you can create a single file containing up to 100 artboards of
varying sizes and display them any way you want — overlapping, side by side, or
stacked. This is very intuitive when working on a series of design variations or
separate design iterations intended for different applications. Artboards can be
saved, exported, and printed independently or together.

 Note:  You can use the Review Q&A at the end of the chapter to help you identify extra teaching
opportunities and discussion points.

Lesson 2: Creating a Brochure


Using InDesign templates as a base, this lesson teaches how to efficiently cre-
ate a brochure that can either be printed or presented as a rich interactive media
document. Your students will experience a combination of features from InDesign,
Illustrator, and Photoshop. This lesson also briefly outlines how to edit a video as
part of creating the interactive document.

Scheduling
For all lessons it is preferable that the students should have already read the first
section of the book—Part 1: Introducing the suite and its individual compo-
nents. The exercises in Lesson 1 are related to, but not essential for, the completion
of those in Lesson 2.
Lesson 2 is fairly involved, which is why it may be a good idea to split it into two
sessions. While the first session concentrates on the printed brochure including
the selection of a template and making numerous adjustments to customize the
template to suit the project at hand, the second session can expand on designing for
on-screen applications, with the attendant interactive possibilities.

Goals for this lesson


The objectives for Lesson 2 are to expose your students to the basic print workflow,
as well as the possibilities of using the same assets, layout and controls to create an
interactive electronic document
• Your students should be comfortable using Bridge to preview and select files.
• They should be able to create a new document in InDesign.

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 4 DESIGN PREMIUM CLASSROOM IN A BOOK  9


• They should understand how to work with multiple artboards in Illustrator files,
and layer comps in Photoshop files.
• They should be able to make basic corrections to Raw images.
• They should know how to import and style text.
• Students should be aware of transparency and be able to work with it.
• They should be able to add hyperlinks and page transitions.
• Students should know how to edit movie files in Photoshop.
• They should be able to export to PDF and Flash format.

Using Bridge to select an InDesign template


As in Lesson 1, where the students began by organizing their files in Bridge, this
exercise encourages them to use Bridge to find files quickly before starting a project.

Modifying an InDesign document


This exercise helps to students to become familiar with the InDesign workspace.
By choosing a template they're able to view the page layout, place Illustrator and
Photoshop files and reposition frames. Finally, your students will learn how to apply
paragraph styles to imported text, and how to wrap text around frames.

Preparing for printing


Although this section touches only briefly on the printing process, it would be a
good idea to spend some time explaining the challenges and solutions for produc-
ing the best print results. Some of the most important issues are mentioned, such as
working with transparency, checking the resolution of linked images, performing a
preflight check, and exporting to the appropriately sized PDF. You could extend this
section by discussing the different inks and color management systems, paper qual-
ity, and printing processes.

Adding interactive elements


When adapting the brochure as an interactive on-screen document, your students
will add animated page transitions, embed and edit video files, and learn to create
hyperlinks to other pages, to separate documents, or to web pages on the Internet.

Questions
1 What can you do if you can't seem to find certain menu items?
2 What is the white balance in a Raw format image?

10  Instructor Notes


3 How can you define your a preflight profile, and what parameters can you
specify?

Answers
1 InDesign lets you customize the visibility of menu items. Selecting a predefined
workspace may result in some menu items being hidden. If you can’t find the
item you’re looking for in a particular menu, choose Show All Menu Items at the
bottom of the menu, if available.
2 White balance reflects the composition of the color components in the light
source when an image was captured. The White Point is used as a calibration
benchmark to correctly interpret and render the color information recorded by
the camera's sensors.
3 To define a preflight profile, you need to choose Define Profile from the Preflight
panel menu or from the Preflight menu at the bottom of the document window.
Then, click the New Preflight Profile icon, enter a name for the profile, and then
click to select any combination of the following preflight settings: Links, Color,
Text, Images and Objects, or Document. Click OK to close the dialog box and
save all changes. Click OK to close the dialog box and save all changes.

 Note:  You can use the Review Q&A at the end of the chapter to help you identify extra teaching
opportunities and discussion points.

Lesson 3: Prototyping and building a Website


In this lesson students will use Fireworks to quickly prototype a website design, and
then utilize the same data to implement the site in Dreamweaver. Again, it is prefer-
able that students have read the first section of the book—Part 1: Introducing the
suite and its individual components—especially as many of your students may be
new to Fireworks.
Since this is a rather complex lesson, it's advisable to divide it into two (or even
three) parts: The first session—or perhaps two—can cover the creation of a pro-
totype in Fireworks, with a separate session used to transfer this data to build the
website in Dreamweaver.

Scheduling
There are various approaches to building a website. Some may prefer to begin with
designing separate elements and assets, while others start with the overall layout
of the website. In this sense, the lesson doesn't necessarily require your students to
have already completed the previous lessons. However, Lessons 1, 2, and 3 do pro-
vide a good basis, in preparing related asset material for our hypothetical movie.

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 4 DESIGN PREMIUM CLASSROOM IN A BOOK  11


Goals for this lesson
The objectives for Lesson 3 are to familiarize your students with Fireworks, and its
tight integration with Dreamweaver.
• Your students should become adept in basics of prototyping a website in
Fireworks.
• They should be able to place, scale, and adjust images in the layout, and work
with layers.
• They should be able to add a navigation bar.
• The students should understand how to use master pages.
• They should know how to view and present the protoype.
• They should be able to transfer their work to implement a basic website in
Dreamweaver.
• The students should have a working understanding of how to set up a page
framework with CSS, and then incorporate pages from Fireworks.
• They should understand the concept of round-trip editing between Fireworks
and Dreamweaver.

Planning a website
Stress the importance of the careful planning of a website. Prototyping the concept
in Fireworks for client approval of the basic site design makes the whole process of
creating a website so much more efficient. This section ends with previewing files
in Bridge, which is a good way to further familiarize the students with the use of
Bridge as the central hub in CS4.

Creating a prototype website in Fireworks


The prototype website to be created is simplified and consists of only 2 pages.
This way the students can concentrate on learning Fireworks without being over-
whelmed. However, a lot of material has been packed into this section, from basic
layout set-up to placing images, organizing objects in the Layers panel and working
with layer comps.
In a second session your students will add a navigation bar, work with the master
page and define hotspots and links. They will then preview the web pages, share
layers between pages, and create rollover behaviors. Finally, they will prepare the
prototype website for presentation to a client.

12  Instructor Notes


Building a website in Dreamweaver
This exercise is demonstrates the tight integration between Fireworks and
Dreamweaver, as your students export the elements directly from one application to
the other. Students will first create a new site in Dreamweaver, and then insert the
Fireworks HTML pages. They'll also experience the workflow for roundtrip editing
between those two programs. In the final section, they'll make an edit to the design
in Dreamweaver.

Questions
1 If you need to change the setup of the document you're working on in Fireworks,
where can you adjust it?
2 What is a gradient mask?
3 What is a rich symbol?

Answers
1 In Fireworks, you can adjust the setup options for the document at any time
using the Property panel.
2 Compared to a path mask, which uses a path outline to block the view of
some portion of the underlying object, a gradient mask is more akin to a filter
or a screen. Consequently, objects show through in areas where the mask is
transparent or partially transparent.
3 A rich symbol is an editable design and interface component that can be used
and reused for website designs, interface prototypes, or any other graphic
composition.

 Note:  You can use the Review Q&A at the end of the chapter to help you identify extra teaching
opportunities and discussion points.

Lesson 4: Creating interactive


Flash documents
This lesson builds on Lesson 3, where the students prototyped and implemented
the basic website in Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Next comes the fun part—adding
animation and interactivity with Flash. The assets for this lesson, as for those
preceding, were prepared to highlight the features and capabilities of the respective
CS4 software—for Flash these include nesting movie clips, creating motion tweens,
adding ActionScript, animating symbols, defining button behavior, and triggering
behaviors by events.

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 4 DESIGN PREMIUM CLASSROOM IN A BOOK  13


For a better understanding of the workflows and software involved, it will be helpful
if the student has already read the first section of the book Part 1: Introducing the
suite and its individual components.

Scheduling
Although this chapter could be taught as a free-standing lesson, it would be better
for the student to have already completed the previous lessons—especially Lesson
3, where students prototyped the website. This provides a logical basis for Lesson 4,
where they will add interactive elements.
Lesson 4 is another complex session that may be better presented in two parts: the
first part ending with the animation of symbols, and the second part covering the
remainder of the lesson.

Goals for this lesson


The objectives for Lesson 4 are to introduce your students to the possibilities of add-
ing excitement to their projects by making them interactive.
• Your students should be able to create a basic Flash document.
• They should know how to import work created in Fireworks.
• They should understand how to add simple animation and define rollover
behaviors.
• They should have an idea how to use ActionScript.
• Students should be aware of Air application.

About Flash
After quickly explaining the general workflow for developing a Flash project, the
students have the opportunity to study a more complex sample document, before
beginning work on a simplified version in the exercises.

Creating a Flash document


Students will begin by placing images, and nesting movie clips inside movie clips.
Subsequent exercises work with timelines, motion tweens, ActionScript, and sym-
bols. In a second session, students can continue with exercises dealing with but-
ton and movie clip behavior, event-triggered behaviors, and copying library assets
between documents.

Publishing a Flash document


The exercises in this section teach students how to export SWF files, publish a proj-
ect for playback in a web browser, and how to edit between Dreamweaver and Flash.

14  Instructor Notes


Students will then publish their project for playback in a web browser. Finally, they
will learn about Adobe AIR, a cross-platform runtime environment enabling Air
applications to run on the desktop without the need for a web browser.

Questions
1 Can you describe the four behavior states for a button and name the frames?
2 What is an Alpha value, which can be specified from the Style menu under Color
effect?
3 Name at least two formats supported by Flash for publishing an animation.

Answers
1 The first frame is displayed in the normal state, the second frame on a mouse-
over event, the third frame when the button is clicked, and in the fourth frame
you can define the area that should react to the mouse events—which could be
smaller or larger than the button itself. The four frames are labeled Up, Over,
Down, and Hit respectably.
2 The Alpha value affects the opacity of the image. Leave the Alpha value at 100%,
or fully opaque. By defining a color effect and then setting a property keyframe
you can later create a color effect tween by changing the corresponding value in
the first keyframe. Remember: Pixels that are partly transparent in the original
image remain partly transparent even with an Alpha value of 100%.
3 You can export your animation in SWF file format for playback using the Flash
Player, create a complete web page for playback in a standard web browser, or
publish as a standalone AIR application for playback on your desktops.

 Note:  You can use the Review Q&A at the end of the chapter to help you identify extra teaching
opportunities and discussion points.

Lesson 5: Communicating through


Mobile Devices
This lesson provides a basic introduction to Device Central and demonstrates its
tight integration with the rest of the Creative Suite—represented by Photoshop
for the purposes of the exercises. Still using the visual assets from the hypothetical
film noir, Double Identity, the students will experience the ease with which mobile
content can be created and tested.

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 4 DESIGN PREMIUM CLASSROOM IN A BOOK  15


Scheduling
Lesson 5 does not build directly on previous lessons or rely on skills acquired in
those lessons—you could treat this lesson as a stand-alone subject and place it
whenever it best fits your class curriculum. The exercises in this lesson do build on
each other, beginning with getting familiar with the library, selecting a device for
emulation and testing, making modifications and refinements, and finally publishing
the content. The only activity which might be taught separately is the last exercise
on testing a mobile website containing video.

Goals for this lesson


The objective for Lesson 5 is to expose the students to Device Central, which facili-
tates the creation and testing of mobile content.
• Your students should become familiar with the interface of Device Central, be
able to access the device profile library, and select an appropriate profile.
• They should be comfortable organizing device profiles.
• Students should know how to import an image from Photoshop and optimize its
content for mobile devices.
• They should be able to preview and test content in Device Central, and make any
necessary adjustments.
• Students should be able to create test snapshots.
• They should be aware of the efficiency of using automated testing.
• They should know how to publish an image created on their emulated mobile
device.
• When previewing the mobile website including videos, the students should
understand that Design Central can handle more challenging design tasks than
just static images.

Designing for mobile devices


During this brief introduction to mobile devices, it might be a good idea to also talk
about the sidebar on page 275, “Creating images for mobile devices” to help your
students understand about how to best create content for the mobile devices.

Using Device Central


Once the main window of Device Central opens (after specifying the Preferences)
you could begin with a general tour of Device Central's interface, which will help to
get your students familiar with this probably less-known application. Point out the
different libraries, before focusing on the differences in specifications for the various
device profiles.

16  Instructor Notes


Previewing and optimizing mobile content
Even though your students might already be aware of the relationship between
image quality and file size, it's worthwhile demonstrating the different results of the
Save for Web and Devices dialog box. For those students using the image of the car
for this exercise, the results created in the Emulator tab are probably better with less
reflections, as the image is darker to start with.

Refining your Photoshop artwork


If time allows, the Adjustment panel offers a wide variety of control—it’s important
that students are aware of all of the options available. As for the other exercises,
you could have students try testing several devices at the same time, using the
Automated testing panel described in a side-bar in this section.

Publishing mobile content


As your students will need to use a mobile phone to publish their work from Device
Central, this exercise could be an ideal follow-up assignment for students to com-
plete at home.

Previewing a mobile Flash Lite website


More than just previewing a mobile website with different pages and videos, this
exercise should give the students an idea of what's more out there to be created with
Device Central and other applications of the Creative Suite.

Questions
1 Which feature of Device Central could hugely increase your productivity when
ensuring a design will work on a range of mobile profiles?
2 Which different environments does the Emulator tab simulate to test the
performance of various media types?
3 In which library does your selected profile need to be in order to be used when
creating a new document?

Answers
1 When it comes to testing mobile content on several devices, the Automated
Testing panel enables you to quickly record, save, edit, and share test sequences.
When the testing is complete, the Log panel displays a detailed list of snapshots
captured and errors detected, so that problems or bugs can be identified easily.
2 In the Display panel of the Emulator tab you can choose the following
environments from the Reflections menu: None, Indoor, Outdoor, and Sunshine.

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 4 DESIGN PREMIUM CLASSROOM IN A BOOK  17


3 The device profile needs to be part to the local library. If the profiles that you
want to use aren’t already in your local library, you’ll first need to locate them in
the online library and add them to the local library.

 Note:  You can use the Review Q&A at the end of the chapter to help you identify extra teaching
opportunities and discussion points.

Lesson 6: Submitting work for review


This lesson introduces different kinds of online sharing and collaboration. In Lesson
1 your students have already had some exposure to the Share My Screen feature in
Acrobat. Now students can get to know more about email-based reviews—including
how to add comments, mark up documents, and customize notes. Additionally
they'll learn in more detail how to set up an online meeting using ConnectNow and
Share My Screen. Since the classroom situation does not always allow for internet
access so that students can set up their free Acrobat.com accounts, some of these
exercise might be better assigned as follow-up work to be completed at home.

Scheduling
Lesson 6 is another “stand-alone” lesson. The exercises build upon each other,
progressing from the more simple process of attaching PDF files for an email review
to the more complex skills of review tracking and management, and setting up an
online review.

Goals for this lesson


The overall objective for Lesson 6 is to expose your students to different options for
online sharing and collaboration.
• They should know the difference between an email-based review, a shared
review, and an online, real-time review.
• They should be able to attach a PDF for e-mail based review.
• They should know how to add and reply to comments.
• They should be able to mark up documents and personalize the appearance of
notes.
• They should have an idea how to initiate and collaborate in an online meeting.
• They should be able to track and manage and track a PDF review.
• They should be aware of the different ways to protect work.

18  Instructor Notes


Collaborating in an email-based review
After a short introduction to the three different kind of reviews (the email-based
review, the shared review, and the online, real-time review), you students will
begin with attaching a PDF to an email. For the classroom situation, the process of
conducting the review will be simplified so that students can become familiar with
the relevant features and tools in Acrobat, despite the fact that they might not have
access to a shared server or a remote partner to participate in the review.

Managing reviews
Here again the classroom situation may possibly be one without Internet access, or
where students cannot access separate Acrobat.com accounts or use valid email
accounts making it impossible to experience a full managed review that includes
the receipt and tracking of comments. However, your students can still explore the
Tracker, and understand how to initiate a shared review, and the simpler approval
workflow. Once more, these exercises might be better completed, or repeated at
home.

Collaborating in online meetings


This exercise steps through the workflow for an online meeting using ConnectNow
with the Share My Screen feature. Again, should the classroom situation not allow
for full Internet access the exercises can be completed at home.

 Note:  Up to three people, including the host, can attend a ConnectNow meeting.

Questions
1 Name five things to do in case you encounter difficulties setting up or attending
an online meeting.
2 What is ConnectNow?
3 What are the advantages of the real-time online meeting?

Answers
1 Following this check list might help avoid such problems:
• Ensure that you are connected to the Internet.
• Check that your software and hardware meet the system requirements.
For a complete list, see www.adobe.com/go/acrobatconnect_systemreqs.
• Disable any pop-up blocker software.
• Clear the browser cache.
• Try connecting from another computer.

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 4 DESIGN PREMIUM CLASSROOM IN A BOOK  19


• Ensure that you have entered the correct URL.
• Try joining the meeting as a registered user or as guest.
• Confirm that you are using the correct password.
2 Adobe ConnectNow is a personal web-conference tool that you can use to
conduct real-time meetings—sharing a document or your entire desktop, and
using live chat, online whiteboards, and other collaborative features. As an
attendee you join the meeting by logging in to a web-based meeting space from
your own computer.
3 Such online meetings offer the advantage that everybody has exactly the
same view of the document being discussed—which is set up by the person
conducting the meeting. The initiator has complete control of what the clients or
colleagues are seeing while walking them through the project.

 Note:  You can use the Review Q&A at the end of the chapter to help you identify extra teaching
opportunities and discussion points.

20  Instructor Notes

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