Yes that's right. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 is now available for public beta testing at Adobe Labs.

And it's very cool.

For those of you who don't know, Lightroom is literally a digital photo darkroom.  Where Photoshop has many workflows - digital imaging, creative design and pre-press - Lightroom has a truly singular workflow: digital photography.

It combines many features of Bridge, Camera RAW, and digital image correction/enhancement in a very slick package. It also offers multiple output workflows: slideshow (with music, even), print (single images and packages) and web (photo galleries and direct to flickr upload).

If any of this has piqued your interest, be sure to drop by Adobe Labs for the beta, and to watch some excellent Lightroom 3 videos by Julieanne Kost

I will be presenting 'Using 3D Tools in Photoshop CS4 Extended' to the User Group and Experts community on September 16th via Adobe Connect. I'll cover the basics of how the tools work using a graphic design example, as well as a model from Google's free Warehouse 3D collection.

Here's the info you need:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

If you are a member of Adobe Groups, you can check out the details here:
http://groups.adobe.com/posts/aebfa20efe
Or just join the meeting on the 16th:
http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/techweds2009/

This is a free community event, one of the last of the summer, so stop in and soak up some 3D goodness!

Yes that's right!

Adobe has released the very long awaited patch for Fireworks CS4 for both Mac and Windows. The updater addresses some of the big issues related to text and stability.

You can download the update from http://www.adobe.com/support/fireworks/downloads_updaters.html.

After applying the update, please ensure that the version screen now shows as shown below.
 
http://blogs.adobe.com/sarthak/FwCS4_update_about.jpg

You can also read more details about what was fixed in the patch by reading the release notes.

Hey, the economy sucks and everybody's scared. What better time to work on your education, up your web skills and earn a little extra job security? There are several upcoming conference opportunities I want to bring to your attention -- as well as reasons you might want to do it at all. If you're smart about it, you can streamline costs and make it an affordable trip.

Are conferences really worth it?

For my business, conferences have been invaluable -- and I'm referring to the time before I spoke at them. Not only do you have the ability to learn about many different subjects all in one place, but the networking can also be a key reason to attend. I can trace most of the original opportunities I've had in this industry back to the very first conference I attended -- TODCon (which sadly isn't happening this year). I recently ran into some old pictures from that conference and it occurred to me just how much of my web beginnings started there. At TODCon, I met Matt Brown who was then the Community Manager at Macromedia. Matt bugged, errr, I mean encouraged me until I agreed to write an article for the DevNet Center (yes, my first, and I was petrified). I also met Angela Buraligia, Dan Short and Massimo Foti -- and those relationships led to my first paper publishing experience (Chapter One of Dreamweaver MX 2004 Magic by New Riders). Most importantly, I met Ray West who encouraged me to join the team who was starting Community MX, prodded me into my first speaking gig (a later TODCon) and has been one of my best friends and supporters. In fact, those are just the high notes of that conference. I also met people there that have remained close friends and business contacts. People who have introduced me in turn to other people who became sub-contractors and go-to folks for various solutions in my business. In my opinion, unless you know it all (haha), you can't afford not to go. You can't afford not to give yourself the opportunity for growth and connection "in this economy."

I see the value, but I can't afford it right now.

• Economize by finding a conference close enough to drive to or one where the flight costs are lower.
• Save money by finding a roommate to share hotel costs.
• Take advantage of early bird and discount pricing.
• If your boss won't pay for the whole excursion this year, perhaps she'll split the cost with you. Negotiate. Show her the value you can bring back to your job.

(And remember, everything associated with the conference you choose is likely tax-deductible.)

OK, I'm convinced. What's coming up?

Glad you asked! There are several conferences coming up in the next couple months that are not to be missed (and yes, I'll be at all of them ;)). In chronological order, here they are:

• Voices that Matter - San Franciso, CA

  Voices that Matter (VTM) is a conference put on by Pearson (parent company of Peachpit and New Riders among other imprints) in San Fransisco. It's next week - April 27-29, so you need to act on this one quickly! The two tracks in this conference pull together many of your favorite authors. The sessions allow for question time, but one of the beauties of this intimate conference is it's very easy to have lunch with one of the speaker/authors or to catch them in the hall to talk. Take advantage of these speakers -- in a good way -- they don't just write your books. Many are designers, developers and Web consultants just like you. Tap their brains while they're available to you in person!

• WebDU - Sydney, Australia

  No, I won't be at this one. My son has finals this week and I couldn't chance being on the road while he didn't get out of bed. LOL But Greg and many others will be there. I was at WebDU last year and it's a really well-run conference with great speakers. If you're on that Southern continent, make a dash for it. May 21-22 in Sydney. Lovely, not too cold, good speakers. :)

• Spring <br /> Conference - Athens, OH

  The Spring <br /> Conference (SBC) is held on the beautiful campus of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. It's a very inexpensive one day conference on June 9th. This conference includes Eric Meyer talking about (hold your breath) javascript! After watching Eric's mad CSS skills many times, I can't wait to see this!

• InControl Conference - Cincinnati, OH

  InControl is put on by AIGA Cincinnati in, you guessed it, Cincinnati, OH on June 11 & 12. There's one track each day and I have to say, they've really gone all out to pull together a great speaker line up. If you register before April 23, you'll be entered into a drawing for Adobe CS4 Master Collection. That alone could make your trip worthwhile. :) Early bird pricing is available until May 11th, saving you $100, with even more savings for AIGA members.

• Web Design World - Seattle, WA

  Web Design World brings a great group of speakers together for three days in what we hope will be a sunny time in Seattle. ;) Sign up by June 3 for a $200 discount. If you use my code - S9W12 - you'll save $395 off the standard price of the three-day Web Design World Passport - and I'll donate $100 to Habitat for Humanity. Everyone wins there. :)

So there you are. Four chances for you to bring some mad web skillz back to your business or our boss. And "in this economy" how can you afford not to?

Have you ever wondered if (or how) you can add an iframe to a Fireworks prototype? What about inserting a SWF? Or adding some jQuery functionality?

Well, I just finished reading a truly excellent article at the Adobe Developer Center, written by David Hogue and Mariano Ferrario that takes protyping with Fireworks to the next level.

The article shows you how to leverage CSS, JavaScript and HTML using Fireworks and Dreamweaver to create a highly interactive HTML prototype. There's a great synergistic result when you combine the design capabilities of Fireworks with the coding strength of Dreamweaver. 

If you're interested in prototyping, head on over to the Adobe Developer Center and check out this article.

Ahhhhhh! A huge sigh of relief and great sense of accomplishment are the two things I am feeling most at the moment. As the headline states, the very first Classroom in a Book for Fireworks is off to the presses.

I'm so freakin' excited!

The book has a total of 11 lessons, plus two supplemental lessons on the CD which accompanies the book. Just like other CiaB's, the artwork is included so people can work along with the same assets I used in the book. Some of the assets are supplied by - or inspired by  - Adobe, and some are my own, including several photos.

I think this will be it for me on the book scene for a while, but I have some other projects in the works, including some new video titles with Lynda.com . . . and of course, I'll keep writing here at my home away from home, Community MX.

I'll keep you posted on the release date.

Though Greg Rewis and my updated book, Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS4, was listed on most sites with a February 9th release date, it's available now online! Since we were so late with the last one, we thought being early with this one might make up for it. Well, that's not entirely true. I think our publisher thought we'd be just as late this time and put a later date on it. Either way, the release date snuck up on me and since I'd promised to share it I wanted to give you a quick announcement here.

Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS4 has been updated for the completely overhauled interface in Dreamweaver CS4 and as such all screen shots and verbiage relating to that is updated. The new workflows in Dreamweaver CS4 are also introduced throughout the updated book. One change in Dreamweaver greatly affected the rewrite. Removing Layout mode took away the tool we showed to collapse tables and convert a table-based site. For that reason, principles taught in chapter 3 were integrated into chapter 4 (and I personally like chapter 4 better now -- the flow was completely rewritten). Throughout each project, we changed a few of the CSS techniques (as well as adding a couple new ones) as well -- isn't there always another way to do it? :)

Lastly, we integrated any errata found in the last book as well as utilizing some good suggestions made by reviewers. One of those was to have partial project builds available throughout each chapter so that users can check their work without having to go back to the beginning if they make a mistake. I think this makes the book even easier to work with than before. As always, keep your eye on the errata page (we do wish we were perfect) as we do keep it updated. More information on both books is available at the book site. If you have any questions, feel free to use the contact form and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Happy coding!

Well, MAX San Francisco has come and gone. What an experience; 5000+ geeks attending a single event!

Seriously, it was a great event and I had the opportunity to meet and mingle with many new people. There were also a few networking opportunities as well. Both my Fireworks Mock Up labs were full, and I saw several other very interesting sessions and labs. I for one, was very impressed by the number of Fireworks sessions that were available.

Yep, the secret is out! :-)

On my return, I was informed by a very happy publisher that 28 copies of my book sold in the MAX Store during the event, which made me very happy as well.

I know I promised pics much earlier, but I've just gotten around to getting them online. So if you want to see a few shots from the event and a few from the aquariums at the California Academy of Sciences, head on over to my flickr site.

Enjoy!

Fireworks CS4 finally began to answer the problem of designing and exporting standards compliant web pages, with the inclusion of a new export feature, CSS and images. This feature was an enhanced version of the Smart CSS extension which was available for FW CS3.

Well, the shipping version of this CS4 feature still had some issues. but luckily for us, Fireworks evangelist Matt Stow worked with Adobe to improve the export script.

You will find his article and the new export assets on Adobe's web site:

 This article and the support files are definitely worth a read.

Well day 1 has come to a close (for me, anyway) and it was quite a whirlwind!  The keynote session this morning was pretty cool. There's some pretty amazing stuff happening with AIR, FLEX and Flash in terms of development projects from companies like Disney Interactive and the New York Times Company.

I thought MAX was big last year; the attendance this year is even higher! I'm told there are over 5000 people attending the event.

I ran my first Fireworks Mock Up lab this morning and it went over very well. I'm very happy to not ethat both labs are at capacity (50 people per lab). It is so awesome to see this kind of interest in Fireworks!

It's been a blast hanging with friends; Danilo Celic, Joe Lowery, Alan Musselman and Aaron Beall, Stephanie Sullivan and Greg Rewis and may others. I haven't seen some of these people for months (or longer) so it's nice to get a chance to talk face to face.

This evening, Alan and I tooled around a bit in his car, taking a few night shots of the Bay Bridge and just enjoying the local scenery.

I'll post some photos soon on Flickr and update you when they're online.

Yes, I've been meaning to put this up for quite some time but my schedule of late has made it tough to get much blog writing done. Before Adobe MAX starts, while people are deciding on their sessions, I wanted to make a quick post with more info about my sessions and other MAX happenings. Here they are in order of occurrence:

Greg Rewis (my co-author) and his fellow CS4 Web Tools evangelists will be doing a full day session on Sunday called, Designing Across Media with Adobe Creative Suite 4. This was an extremely popular session last year. The evangelists show how to use the tools in an integrated manor and really get the most out of then to benefit your web projects. Believe me, after writing a book with one of them, I can testify that they know stuff about these tools we never even thought of. ;) You must sign up for this in advance, so act quickly.

Monday, Greg Rewis and I will be doing a book signing at noon. Yes, the CS4 version of our book won't be out till December, but you can pre-order both the book and the upcoming videos. (I've done one for Pearson/Peachpit about Structure and Presentation -- along with CSS tips and tricks. Greg's upcoming video is about Behavior -- Ajax, Spry, Jquery.) Our current CS3 flavored book will be available in real time -- and we're happy to put our scribbles on it for you (or bring it from home if you already own it). If you're sticking with CS3 for a while, that's your best bet. If you'll be upgrading quickly to CS4 (or already have), come pre-order or just meet us. It's always fun to put faces and names together.

Following the book signing, at 2pm, I'll be presenting Standards-Based Solutions to Common Web Design Challenges in Moscone West 2008. This is an intermediate to advanced session and is best for people who already understand the basics of CSS. I will not be reviewing the box model, floating or positioning. We're going to get right into the down and dirty demos. Since my job entails either coding or teaching other people to code, I'll be sharing every day CSS challenges I'm presented with and techniques I commonly use to deal with them. There are many ways to make your CSS more succinct and powerful. This session is filling up fast, so you'll want to log in to the Scheduler and reserve your place soon.

On Wednesday, also at 2pm, I'll present a session called Common Mistakes Print Designers Make on the Web in Moscone West 2011. Don't let the title of this one fool you -- it's not just for print designers. This session covers the ten most common mistakes I see when people are learning to use CSS and web design. This applies, of course, to print people making the transition -- but many of these issues are universal. I promise I did many of these things myself at the beginning. We'll take a look at the common misconception or problem and then the "best practices" way to do it. This session is appropriate for beginner to intermediate levels.

If you've been to MAX before, you know it's a huge conference. Please don't be shy. Come grab me in the hall and introduce yourself. I'm really tall and hard to miss. ;) Feel free to discuss with me the challenges your business is facing. I'm always happy to help out where I can. I look forward to meeting you there!

In a few days I'll be flying down to San Francisco to attend and present at this year's Adobe MAX. Last year was my first time going to MAX and it was certainly impressive. I'm very interested to see if that "MAX fever" is maintained.

As for the work side of MAX, I'll be running the Fireworks Mock Up lab, where we will take a couple half built sample files and add the interactivity and other steps necessary to turn the files into interactive PDF documents and AIR prototypes.

I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and making some new ones (and giving out a few copies of my book). If you're attending MAX, I hope to see ya there.

There are several exciting, upcoming events I've been meaning to blog about but... life's been wild. This is my first blog post since making the move to Phoenix, Arizona, rewriting Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS4, and shooting a video for Pearson on CSS and Dreamweaver. I'll blog again when those two items have release dates. It's safe to say I've been scarce everywhere--except twitter (where I'm stefsull).

Before I miss the opportunity, I'd like to mention that the first, virtual, world-wide conference is this weekend! The <head> conference, created by my friend Aral Balkan boasts an amazing line up of speakers. It would be hard to get this many people from this many places into, well, one place. Some speakers will be speaking live from hubs (like London) and the rest of us will be coming to you live from our own offices or, since it's the weekend, our homes. :) There are three virtual conference rooms using Adobe Connect Pro (viewed directly in your browser), chat for participants to get to know each other, a room (and events) in Second Life and other creative ways to allow attendees to interact virtually. Since you can't be in all three rooms at once (just like a regular conference), you'll have a year to view any of the presentations you like from the library. The only difference is that you can't ask questions in real time. It's quite affordable and won't cost you anything for travel. Just think of all the emissions you'll save -- a truly green conference. I'll present a session Saturday, October 25, at 20:00 - 20:45 (UTC) (that's 1pm in Arizona) called Content is for Everyone. Virtually come out and be part of history in the making!

A conference "in real life" you may want to attend is Adobe MAX. MAX is one of the largest conferences of the year. But don't be afraid, there are tons of small to moderate rooms and the geeks are friendly--particularly at the parties. :) With the recent launch of CS4, you'll have the opportunity to learn a lot about the new products. There are also sessions on mobile, CSS, interaction design and other more general subjects. I'll be presenting a session on Monday, Nov 17th called, Standards-Based Solutions to Common Web Design Challenges. On Wednesday, I'll present another session called, Common Mistakes Print Designers Make on the Web. This session is particularly good for people being moved from print, into the web space, but the content is also pertinent for people starting out that need to grasp CSS and the fluidity of the web. Be sure to sign up for these soon though -- they're filling up fast.

Whether virtually at <head> Conference or in real life at Adobe MAX, be sure to come up and say hello!

At 12:01 this morning, Adobe publicly announced the upcoming release of Creative Suite 4. Some very cool new features have been added to all our favorite software applications. Fireworks CS4 is - IMO - the most significant upgrade in a long while. And other apps like Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Flash are also chock full of new goodies.

For more details, be sure to stay tuned here at CMX, and also make sure to drop by Adobe's web site for a breakdown of the Suite packages.

TODCon will be here very soon. Yep, I'm counting the days. OK that's not the secret.

It'll be great to hook up with some CMX friends and regular TODCon attendees and speakers. Well, that's no secret either.

I've written the last three CMXtraneous blog posts! That's more of a shock than a surprise, though. 

I'm pretty stoked about the Fireworks public beta. The Fireworks engineering team has done a phenominal job. It's to the point now where I don't like going back to CS3. Yeah, not really a secret there either, the way I've been blabbing all week long about it.

The secret is my second TODCon session. It will be a live demo of the new features in the Fireworks Public beta! We'll look at some of the cool features you've read about in my recent articles as well as Kim Cavanaugh's piece on the Path panel. Based on what you've read and heard this week, I hope you pull up a chair for my session.

Alan Musselman from Adobe will also be presenting a session on Fireworks. He'll no doubt have some very awesome and cool stuff to share as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. I'll be the guy with the loud shirt and - new this year - a limp (sprained my ankle and pulled a tendon a couple weeks ago YEOUCH). Feel free to have pity on me and buy me a martini or at least help me to the gift shop for a new fashion statement. ;-)

Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3, the book I co-wrote with Greg Rewis, is finally out. Yes, I know, it was long overdue. I took a picture of it when I finally got to see it at Greg's house (no, my copies haven't arrived yet), so if you'll excuse the exhausted, traipsing around Phoenix all day look on my face, you can see me with the book on Flickr.

Greg and I didn't want to create the same CSS or Dreamweaver book that others have written. Those books are published, are very useful, and if that's what you need buy the appropriate book. Our goal instead was to show how to create standards-based, accessible web layouts using Dreamweaver. It's a myth that you have to hand code to be a real web developer. Is it best to know how to semantically mark up your page? Yes, absolutely. This is a craft and you should know as much as you can about it. Can you hand code within the Dreamweaver environment? Of course you can -- I do it all the time. Do you have to? Absolutely not. There are tools within Dreamweaver that make your work faster, and more effective whether you're working in code or design view. If you haven't looked at Dreamweaver since about MX or so, it's come a long way baby!

Chapter 1 is an overall review of important CSS principles that you must understand to create sturdy CSS-based layouts. The project in chapter 3 takes a lovely, nested table-based layout and transforms it to a CSS layout. Each of the remaining four chapters are a full project based on the CSS layouts I wrote for Dreamweaver CS3 - Fixed, Liquid, Elastic and Hybrid. Chapter 6 also uses Spry 1.6 (an upgrade from Adobe Labs for the Spry 1.4 version that ships with Dreamweaver CS3) and takes you through the process of using HTML data sets to create an accessible Ajax gallery -- unobtrusive javascript and all. We hope the projects will feel like we're working with you as your personal trainer.

The book is full of CSS tips and techniques. It also teaches a variety of ways to use Dreamweaver CS3. Both Fireworks and Photoshop comps are used and the integration of those programs with Dreamweaver is illustrated.

Our hope is that the techniques taught in the book will make your beautiful designs more solid as well as making you more comfortable with the program used by so many web departments. I use Dreamweaver every day and even I learned some new Dreamweaver tips from Greg! Here's what one reader had to say:

"The first chapter alone was worth it to me. I have a lot of CSS books, tutorial sites, etc. Maybe I'm more familiar after working with it for a while, but for me, this book is as clear as a bell, informative as a book ought to be, and motivational as a hand grenade... made me want to jump up and run like hell... to Dreamweaver to try stuff out."

C. Lindauer

Some of you may have also heard a rumor about the other partnership that came out of writing this book. And to that I say, yes, it's true. Greg and I were engaged (via Twitter) in early March. You can think of the book as our baby. ;)

Keep your eyes peeled for the April issue of Adobe Edge because yours truly is making a guest appearance.

Here at CMX as well as in my teaching, I've been focusing recently on using Fireworks to create click-through prototypes, and establishing best practices for one's FW workflow. With the evolution of Fireworks, it's much easier to create these interactive mock ups quickly, allowing more immediate client feedback/approval of a site's design and flow. The beauty of this process is many changes are made early in the design stage, rather than during the coding process.

As designs get more complex, it becomes even more important to set up some best practices for workflow. This helps in case you have to revisit the design weeks or months down the road. It is also very helpful if you have to pass on the design to someone else.

My article on Adobe Edge will focus on the creation of a click-through mock up from a finalized multi-page Fireworks PNG file.

If you've not heard of Adobe Edge before, here's the low-down:

Adobe Edge is a free electronic newsletter that comes out every couple months. It features content for web designers and developers, covering stuff going on at Adobe and the web in general. While the focus is about Adobe and what it's doing to make web-life easier, the magazine also covers things happening outside "the mothership."

For example,  February 2008's issues has this list of contents:

• Adobe Media Player: Understanding the structure of the RSS feed
• BlazeDS and what it means for the developer community
• The edge of Flash
• Comparing Adobe Flex and Ajax development models
• Project profile: Virtual life on the International Space Station
• Quick tips for integrating Adobe Creative Suite 3 products
• Open source at Adobe

You can either check out the Edge every couple months, or subscribe to it online. I hope you get a chance to read the article and find it useful.

Coming up in the next couple months, I'll be at several conferences where I'd love to meet you! This week, Austin beckons! At South by Southwest Interactive, I'll be doing three panels. On Saturday, What Women Need to Succeed will explore women in technology--what it takes to make your mark and succeed in the tech world we love. Are women really different? On Sunday, I'll do a panel with Greg Rewis of Adobe on Responsible Web Design. And finally, on Monday afternoon, we'll discuss where WaSP has been and where it's going in Don't Break the Web.

On April 14th, I'll be presenting a three hour session at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in Las Vegas, In-Depth: Using New Media with Adobe Dreamweaver.

On April 25th, In the great city of New Orleans (right before the first weekend of the Jazz Fest!), An Event Apart will take place. Jeffery Zeldman and Eric Meyer invite you to come join us. I'll be presenting Design Challenges, Standards Solutions. Practical, real-world solutions to common problems. If you mention my code -AEASULL- you'll get a $50 discount. Go for it, it will be a great conference! And plan to stay for JazzFest on the weekend.

On May 5-7, Web Design World Chicago will be in the Windy city. I'm presenting two CSS/Dreamweaver session there: CSS-Based Layouts with Dreamweaver CS3 and CSS Problem Solving with Dreamweaver CS3. You can receive $300 off the price by using the code - SPSUL - when you register!

May 18 & 19, I'll present two sessions at HOW Design Conference. A three hour session, Styling With CSS in DW CS3 will be on Sunday. And Common Mistakes Print Designers Make on the Web will be on Monday followed by a book signing. Yes, Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3 will be released -- finally -- on April 11th! w00t! (Be sure to sign up soon since the early bird discount only lasts till March 28th!)

In Orlando in June, TODCon returns, but we'll talk about that more soon. Come see me, introduce yourself, enjoy all the speakers at the above conferences. Meet you there!