Adobe Plans Creative Cloud Updates

Adobe has announced a roadmap for its Adobe Creative Cloud as well as an update of its Muse design tool.

The recently released Adobe Muse, for graphic designers who want to create websites without writing code, has received a new product update that further expands on its capabilities for planning, designing and publishing original HTML pages.

Precise control

Adobe Muse now includes new built-in support for contact forms allowing users to easily add, configure, and style contact forms into their website designs and eliminating the need of having to embed HTML code from third-party online form providers.

This new feature allows designers to maintain precise control over their designs, provides more efficient support for publishing, and is the beginning of a longer-term effort to bring more extensive content management capabilities to Adobe Muse users through tighter integration with Adobe’s hosting solution, Adobe Business Catalyst, Adobe said.

Also new in this product update is the ability to link to downloadable files enabling designers to easily add and link to any type of file (.PDF, .ZIP, .dmg, .exe) for readers to download. Designers can now also add HTML5 animations created with Adobe Edge into their Adobe Muse designs.

In addition, several performance improvements are also included in this release such as improved HTML5 and CSS3 output and new auto-generated sitemaps for SEO resulting in faster load times of websites and improved visibility on search engines like Google. Adobe also announced that this version of Adobe Muse will be available in Japanese.

These new features are automatically available to stand-alone Adobe Muse subscribers as well as for Adobe Creative Cloud members at no extra charge.

Upcoming additions

Meanwhile, Scott Morris, senior marketing director for Adobe’s digital media business, said in the next six weeks Adobe will be introducing several additions to the Creative Cloud offering, including a new Adobe Edge preview update, an update of Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Single Edition, new HTML5 innovations, a Dreamweaver update and Adobe Edge will be rebranded as Edge Animate.

And for previous Creative Suite customers – Creative Suite 3 or later – who are still considering a Creative Cloud membership, they only have until August 31, 2012 to take advantage of a special $29.99 introductory promotion. After that, the regular annual membership will be $49.99 per month.

“Creative Cloud is the focal point for creative expression for creative professionals,” Morris said. “One of the core value propositions for Creative Cloud is you get all this ongoing value.”

Adobe Creative Cloud enables users to access Adobe’s creative apps, to sync, store and share data, to publish apps and websites, and to remain a step ahead – as new products and updates are available to Creative Cloud users as soon as they become available.

To benefit HTML5 developers, Adobe announced its “Create the Web Tour” to help developers learn how Adobe is helping to move the web forward and get sneaks of new HTML tools, technologies and services. The tour will kick off in San Francisco on 24 May and will then move on to London (2 October), Tokyo (9 October) and Sydney (11 October).

Morris said the tour is aimed at designers who also code, or coders who have a sense of design. Developers can register for the event at http://www.adobe.com/go/createtheweb.

Free updates

Adobe will continue to deliver free product updates to customers to support new hardware, OS, or patches and security updates. Some of the big ones on the horizon are Mac OS X Mountain Lion and Windows 8. Also, unique to Creative Cloud members are the VIP product updates that only they get.

Morris said as of the end of the second quarter of 2012, Adobe saw 90,000 downloads of Creative Cloud – which occurred in a matter of weeks because Adobe shipped Creative Cloud in May. He also said users are adopting Creative Cloud at a rate of 5,000 per week and 75 percent choose the annual subscription option over the month-to-month. The annual subscription rate is $49.99 (£31) a month for individuals ($29.99 under the promotion) or $69.99 for teams. The month-to-month subscription rate is $74.99 a month.

As of Adobe Edge Preview 7, which became available on 20 August, the product has been renamed Adobe Edge Animate. The new preview release delivers new features such as new creativity tools, usability enhancements, an updated code editor and accessibility improvements.

“Starting with this release, the name has changed from Edge to Edge Animate,” said Adobe’s Rich Lee in a blog post. “Edge has been renamed to better reflect its capabilities as a tool to create animated, interactive content.”

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