webqem blog

Adobe has released version 8 of its Photoshop Elements image-editing software and Premiere Elements video-editing software. The bundle offers the most complete photo and video solution by integrating two powerful, yet easy-to-use, products.

With this release, Adobe gives users a completely enhanced ‘Organizer’, which serves as a feature-rich media hub for user’s photos and videos. From the Organizer, user can easily launch directly into Photoshop Elements 8 to create extraordinary photos or Premiere Elements 8 to effortlessly make movies with new, automated features.

Photoshop Elements comes in both Windows and Mac versions, however Premiere Elements is windows only. These new pieces of software are a step down from their Photoshop & Premiere Pro CS4 versions, but still offer lots for your money. For more information please visit the software page of our website.

This is your last chance to see CS4 live and in the flesh in 2009. Tips, Tricks and Techniques to help you get more from your software and help the fight against cancer all at the same time. Learn from Industry Experts how to become more proficient and get more from you suite. All of the time, marketing and facilities have been donated for this event.

When:  Sept 30th, from 9.00am to 4.00pm

Where: Zenith Centre, Railway St, Chatswood NSW 2067

Agenda:

• 8.45am – Registration
• 9.00am – 10.00am – The Fast & The Furious with After Effects, Illustrator and Photoshop
• 10.00am – 1.00pm – The Workflow Shoot out – InDesign, Photoshop, Flash & Illustrator 12 workflow techniques to get the best from your CS4
• Part 1 10.00am – 11.00am – Coffee break – Part 2 11.20am – 1.00pm
• Lunch break 1.00 – 1.30pm
• 1.30 – 2.15pm – Wired for Sound – Become an audio aficionado with Soundbooth
• 2.15 – 4.00pm – Flash Forward – Leverage the social power of Flash to stretch your brand

Tickets are $100 and are fully tax deductible as donation to the Cancer Council.

To register for the event go to the registration page and fill out the form.

Leading kitchen retailer – Australian Kitchen Industries (AKI), is prospering from the power of Adobe Connect Pro. In recent years, AKI has significantly grown and prospered into a large franchise. With this growth, communicating with, and training it’s geographically dispersed network of franchisees had become particularly difficult and more costly. To streamline training and communications company-wide, AKI found a cost-effective, powerful solution: Adobe Presenter and Adobe Connect Pro software.

Since implementing Connect Pro, AKI have noticeably benefited from the high-impact web conferencing and ease of access that eLearning provides. Over 400 people across the company are now using Connect Pro to conduct online meetings and training. The solution has been so successful that it, amazingly, paid for itself within the first seven months. The team from webqem were instrumental in implementing this solution, which involved: software procurement, installation, hosting & training. A full report is available online.

The number of people in the world using Adobe Connect Pro is set for a massive increase in users as Adobe has secured a huge US$9.5 million with the U.S. Marines Corps. The Marine Corps cited several factors for choosing the awesome Connect Pro: stringent standards for security, availability & quality, and the solution is “Joint Interoperability & Test Command Certified” – so troops can connect quickly across any Department of Defense network (who already have Connect Pro). Connect, being based on the Flash platform, which is on 98% of internet-enable  desktops, was, as always, a major selling point..

This deal was great news for our Connect Pro team at webqem, as it demonstrates the quality and high-value placed on one of our top solutions that we specialize in. We can only hope more of the armed forces choose Connect Pro as their preferred solution and expand the Connect user base. A full report on this is available online.

Adobe provides a great online resource that is Adobe TV. This website has come back better than ever with its recent relaunch. Launched at the end of  August, the redesigned Adobe TV is now faster and features customization, improved navigation, sharing options, and a more accurate search.

You can watch a full range of programs, from entertainment to instruction to tips & tricks, with videos covering almost every piece of Adobe software – from the Creative Suites, to ColdFusion and Flex, to Photoshop & InDesign. So whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced user, Adobe TV has a video that will cater for your needs. You can check out Adobe TV online, you will be pleasantly surprised at the number of great videos available.

There are some useful eSeminars coming up for users of Adobe’s video software: CS4 Production Premium, Encore, Premiere Pro, Photoshop or After Effects. A variety of topics are offered to suit user’s ability, whether beginner, intermediate or advanced – there is an eSeminar for you. Have a look at the topics listed below, find one that tickles your fancy, then go to the registration page & secure your free spot in the eSeminar.

September eSeminar Video topics:

• RED Camera workflow with CS4 Production Premium. 4th Sept.

• Encore – Authoring to BluRay and Flash using custom designed templates. 11th Sept.

• Using video with Photoshop CS4. 18th Sept.

• Audio tool for video production – including speech to text workflow. 25th Sept.

Adobe have just released a significant update for the their Presenter 7 software moving it up to version 7.0.5. It is the third update to Presenter 7. This update addresses a number of issues, and provides a number of enhancements across the entire product. Some of the areas this update addresses include: PowerPoint conversion, audio editing, inserting flash and video content, and quizzing, just to name a few.

If you own Presenter 7 software, we highly recommend that you upgrade your software as there are about 50 resolved issues and more than 10 enhancements. Updating is really easy, all you need to do is go into the Presenter software and go to the automatic product update system (Adobe Presenter help-> updates). Otherwise you can visit the Adobe Presenter product update page, which has a file ready for download and installation – its only 4.4MB so you will have it in no time.

A full list of resolved issues and enhancements are available online.

It has been more than 2 years now since Adobe ColdFusion 8 was released. Now, it seems like ColdFusion 9 is just around the corner, as Adobe has made a download of the Beta available for download for the public.

ColdFusion 9 will allow developers to utilize a whole heap of better tools; from greater integration with the Adobe® Flash® Platform, to a complete system of integrated tools, frameworks, to content and video that runs consistently across operating systems and devices. As a result of these great new features, developers and IT professionals have an easier path for creating rich user interfaces for their enterprise applications and to integrate across their existing technologies – which is pretty cool!

The webqem team is very excited to finally get their hands on the beta. Click here for the full report from Adobe (the download is at the bottom of the article).

Building studies and virtual classrooms? You would not think they go together. However, a keen teacher from Armidale TAFE in NSW, has managed to successfully put the two together with the use of Adobe’s Connect Pro. Graeme Wilton regularly uses Connect Pro to teach his teach his Certificate IV in Building Studies course to a range of distance education students in North-West NSW. His students “absolutely love it”.  He says that “It’s added an enthusiasm that I haven’t seen for a while, but I must say that part of that would come from me because I’m a little ‘g-ed’ up about the whole thing too,” he laughs.

This is another Connect Pro success story that the webqem team was instrumental in – Good work team! You can read the full report here.