When you purchase any Creative Suite 5, you will get a complimentary 1 year subscription to CS Live. CS Live is a way to collaborate with others on the web, speed up website compatibility testing, find out news on products, and much more. This is a new online addition to Adobe online services offered to its customers. Purchase subscriptions are not presently available. CS Live is comprised of the following programs:

Adobe BrowserLab Preview dynamic web pages and local content with multiple viewing, diagnostic, and comparison tools. BrowserLab provides an easier, faster solution for cross-browser testing. This is used in conjunction with Dreamweaver CS5.

Adobe CS Review Create and share reviews online and get feedback on design projects all from within your Creative Suite desktop application. It can be found in the following CS5 programs: Photoshop, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, and InDesign.

Acrobat.com Streamline your work with extended teams by using online services for web conferencing, file sharing, and collaborative document authoring.

Adobe Story (beta) Accelerate media creation by streamlining the flow of script data into your video productions. It is found in Premiere Pro CS5. After Effects CS5 under the file menu allows the user to click on "Go to Adobe Story".

SiteCatalyst® NetAverages™ Take advantage of the latest Internet usage trends on browsers, operating systems, and more to help optimize design for web and mobile screens. While it is useful for web developers, it also is useful if you are just interested in knowing trends.

CS Live can be used from within CS 5 registered products, from trial versions, or you can access it online without having the products. According to Adobe: "CS Live is also available as a web access subscription without enhanced efficiency and convenience of using the services within your CS5 workflow. Sign up before April 30, 2011, and get 12 months of complimentary access".. [https://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/cslive/get/?tree=0.] Using it from within a program is ideal, though.

The first requirement is to obtain an Adobe ID.

Next, you want to sign up for CS Live. You can do this when you register a product or upon installation; when installing a trial version; or, as I stated above, just as a 12 month complimentary service from Adobe.

You can access CS Live Services in different ways. Here I am accessing it from the top toolbar of one of the Creative Suite programs by clicking on "CS Live." This screen capture was taken from Dreamweaver CS5. Notice how I can access services other than I would use in Dreamweaver.

The very first screen below shows various options for using CS Live. When you look at the first screen capture, you will notice that it applies to all programs that support CS Live. (It is the same screen I accessed when I clicked on "CS Live." There are many ways to access these services.) We will start the discussion with CS Live as it appears in Photoshop CS5. Part of this discussion will also involve Acrobat.com since it is tied in with CS Review.

Here I am describing CS Review which utilizes Acrobat.com. I Clicked on File> Create New Review to access this screen. Initially, a few screens came up asking me a few questions. Below is the first actual review screen. To make comments I have to click on the underlined words starting with My Workspace>.................

Once I click on the underlined words in blue, the actual screens come up in Acrobat.com. This is where the discussion can start pertaining to this image.

Below is a condensed screen shot of Acrobat.com with the image.

If I return to the Acrobat.com screen at a later date, I can access the comments for this CS Review.

Acrobat.com is used for many purposes. It can be used for web conferencing, file sharing, and collaborative authoring. It, also, can be used in conjunction with other programs as I demonstrated when discussing CS Review.

These screen shots should show how easy and useful it is to use CS Review. Also, think of the time saver. All I have to do is tell a colleague what files I want them to look at on Acrobat.com. Now let's backtrack to Acrobat.com. The first screen give me the option of creating a workspace to share. That is what I would have done to share the image and have others comment on it.

It is so easy to do. First, I would click on Share Workspace. This is on the top toolbar when I create a shared space. After, I would type in the names of the people who I wanted to share the space. Think of how much easier all this is using Acrobat.com and CS Review rather than sending e-mails back and forth and keeping track of the order of the comments. CS Review can be used from within the following CS5 programs: Photoshop, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, InDesign, and Adobe Premiere Pro. The last program listed won't have this capability upon initial shipping. As of version 5.01, it still did not have this capability.

Adobe BrowserLab can be accessed from within Dreamweaver CS5.This online service allows users to test the compatibility of their web page in different browsers. You activate it by clicking on Preview. If you cannot find this panel or if it has been closed accidently, go to: Windows>Extensions and you can reselect it.

The browsers you can test for compatibility of your page are:

Below is a review page I tested previously. Here I tested it in Firefox 3.0. This is very handy for I can use it from within the program. You can use BowserLab to test programs locally or from a server.

You can test images side by side in different browsers or you can even use an Onion Skin mode. It is interesting to see how the browsers present the page differently.

What is Adobe SiteCatalystNet Averages? It is "an online service that provides insight into current Internet usage trends. It helps reduce guesswork in the creative process by providing anonymous, nonpersonal aggregate Internet data such as browser type, operating system, mobile device profiles, and screen resolution." [From: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/cslive/faq/?tree1=0#netaverages] When I load SiteCatalystNet Averages, this is the screen that I get. For more information, you can, also, go to this site. http://www.omniture.com/en/products/online_analytics/sitecatalyst

You can access the individual components to see more specific breakdowns of information. You can build or modify your website knowing internet usage trends; thus, you can configure your site to maximize access.

You can set alerts in SiteCatalyst NetAverages to let you know when certain usages have changed.

Adobe Story is in beta form. As you have seen above I can access it from different programs, but it basically applies to Adobe Premier Pro CS5. Using Adobe Story you will be able to streamline the flow of script data in your video production. This will accelerate your workflow. I do not do much in video so I have not reviewed Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 nor have I used Adobe Story. In Premiere Pro CS5, you can access it from the File menu or you can access it from any program using the CS Live button on the top toolbar. Here is a sample of the first screen in a sample project.

With Adobe Story you can write and edit scripts offline and online from any location. Adobe Story puts everything in one place. You can import an Adobe Story script into OnLocation. Adobe Story captures script elements as Metadata which can be used in various programs.

Adobe TV has a video explaining all the CS Live services.

If you haven't made use of the CS Live online services, I suggest that you do. I do not work in a collaborative environment. However, I have found these sharing online services very useful. Acrobat.com has been around for a while and I have used it to share documents. I have also used the new Adobe CS Review. Adobe BowserLab side by side depiction of a page in two browsers was an eye opener because I did not realize how the spacing differed using different browsers. In addition, Adobe SiteCatalystNet Average is very interesting and useful, especially in conjunction with Adobe BrowserLab and, of course, Dreamweaver. I am glad Adobe is going in this direction and will be looking toward the future to see how these online services develop.

I thought I would add this information as an addition to the review even though it doesn't exactly deal with CS Live. Most Adobe CS5 programs allow you to share your screen using Adobe ConnectNow. Both Flash Pro CS5 and InCopy CS5 (even though it is not part of the Master Collection) allow access on the top toolbar to CS Live online services.

The requirements for CS Live are:

Windows

  • 1GHz or faster processor
  • Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 3, Window Vista® with Service Pack 1, or Windows 7
  • 512MB of RAM
  • SVGA 1024x768 display
  • Windows XP: Internet Explorer 6.x or 7.x or Firefox 3.x; Windows Vista: Internet Explorer 7.x or 8.x or Firefox 3.x; Windows 7: Internet Explorer 8.x or Firefox 3.x
  • 512Kbps or faster Internet connection required
  • Browser SSL support and JavaScript support must be enabled
  • Adobe® Flash® Player 10.0.22.87 software required

Mac OS

  • 1GHz or faster processor
  • Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6
  • 512MB of RAM
  • SVGA 1024x768 display
  • Mac OS X v10.5: Safari 4.x, Safari 3.x, or Firefox 3.x; Mac OS X v10.6: Safari 4.x or Firefox 3.x
  • 512Kbps or faster Internet connection required
  • Browser SSL support and JavaScript support must be enabled
  • Adobe Flash Player 10.0.22.87 software required

The programs comprising CS Live come in a number of languages.

For information on Adobe products, go to: http://www.adobe.com.