Adobe Suite Help File pdfs

[Battle Vaughan]

Adobe makes the help files for all the Creative Suite applications available as pdf files, but sometimes they are
hard to find.

I copy them and keep them in a folder on my desktop for quick reference.

I stumbled across this link, which is a page that in turn links to each app individually. Click on "help" at the app you want, and then download the pdf from the page it links to: Creative Suite Help

[David Knaggs]

Thanks for the great link, Battle. I just downloaded the Premiere Pro pdf. Great stuff!

[Ann Bens]

Just in case you want an older version.
Help documents for Creative Suite CS5, CS5.1, CS5.5, and CS6 applications (PDF and HTML) Premiere Pro work area

[Tim Ribich]

It always seems that they do make it too hard to find the docs-- thanks for the link!

Originally Posted by Battle Vaughan

Adobe makes the help files for all the Creative Suite applications available as pdf files, but sometimes they are
hard to find.

I copy them and keep them in a folder on my desktop for quick reference.

I stumbled across this link, which is a page that in turn links to each app individually. Click on "help" at the app you want, and then download the pdf from the page it links to: Creative Suite Help

[Battle Vaughan]

Ann's link is even better, as all the pdf links are on that one page, much more convenient. Thanks, Ann!


Why Adobe doesn't make these more prominent, I don't know. They don't provide the bound books that they used to, and I for one want the information in my hands so I can study as I go. The on-line help is ok if you need a quick answer to something, but there's no substitute for something you can study at leisure.

Adobe TV tutorials are very nice, but most of the time, regardless of what I do to my Flash player, all I get is a black screen. Oddly, there's never a problem playing their advertising videos. Hmmmm.

[Tim Ribich]

Originally Posted by Battle Vaughan

Ann's link is even better, as all the pdf links are on that one page, much more convenient. Thanks, Ann!

Aha-- I glanced at that and thought it was link for older versions only. Great-- so noted.

Originally Posted by Battle Vaughan

Why Adobe doesn't make these more prominent, I don't know. They don't provide the bound books that they used to, and I for one want the information in my hands so I can study as I go.

I can relate as I still have the old set of CS2 hard copy manuals! But I have to admit even though I'm old school re. hard copy, I find myself more and more appreciating the PDFs. Hard to search all pages of a book in a few seconds and PDF bookmarks and highlight tools are a bit more handy than sticky notes.

[Ann Bens]

I find the new CS6 help a big mess.
They intergrated it with CS5(.5)
Way to much reading before getting to the stuff you are looking for.

[Battle Vaughan]

What I miss is the great 3rd-party tutorial books. I have a well-thumbed Premiere Pro Bible CS3 --- apparently the last one written --- and wish they would come out with a CS6 version.

I am one of those people who sits and reads a chapter before going to sleep, or when I have a half-hour with nothing to do. Going directly to the on-line help is fine when you are in the program, to find an answer to a specific question, but I like a more general, instructional approach.

The Adobe Classroom in a Book series is ok, but nowhere near comprehensive.

I think the answer is lynda.com (I am not affilliated with them, but have used their service, and it's pretty good.)

[Pete Bauer]

I'm in full agreement with Ann. As happy as I am with CS6 itself, I'm not satisfied with the current state of their CS6 help files. They lack page numbers, indices, and version/date information, while they do have information from older versions cluttering up the document, and not even always annotated as old stuff.

Perhaps I've done something wrong with my installation, but I can't just click "help" within the application and get local help; it always goes to Adobe web links instead, and the little "i" icon in my task bar for local content won't update my local PDFs.

And maybe this is just me and my old fashioned style, but I'd like to see links to videos and other resources -- especially when they are 3rd party rather than Adobe -- collected into traditional sidebars or highlight boxes, rather than inline with the actual user manual type instructions. All those links and videos are definitely value added but they should be a supplement to the document, not part of the core material.

[Bart Walczak]

I concur, current help system is really not that great.

[Tim Ribich]

Originally Posted by Pete Bauer

Perhaps I've done something wrong with my installation, but I can't just click "help" within the application and get local help; it always goes to Adobe web links instead, and the little "i" icon in my task bar for local content won't update my local PDFs.

While I recognize that from Adobe's perspective there's a number of advantages to providing an online help system (real-time updates, much cheaper and "greener" than printing & distributing books etc.) I agree with the uselessness of their current "Help" menu. Might just as well pop up a box that says "Go try and find what you want on the web".

I always have the latest PDF help files (for better or worse) locally (now even easier thanks to the tips here) and never click Help in their apps. Also agree with the post that mentioned Lynda.com as a useful resource. Not always a great system to look up a particular detail, but watching is sometimes better than reading.

[Charles W. Hull]

Originally Posted by Tim Ribich

I always have the latest PDF help files (for better or worse) locally (now even easier thanks to the tips here) and never click Help in their apps.

I keep all these Adobe PDF files in Dropbox so they are always easily available on any computer I run (including an iPad).