CreativeTechs Tips

Interested in Adobe Creative Suite? This is a weekly newsletter for creative professionals who use Macs (but Windows users are welcome too). If you're new here, you may want to subscribe via RSS or Email or Twitter for a mix of new tips each week. Thanks for visiting!

As the economy tightens, we’ve seen a lot of design firms expressing a stronger interest in how to improve their studio’s online marketing efforts. Of particular interest, we hear a lot of designers asking how to help their web site (or their client sites) rank better in Google search results.

If that’s of interest to you, start with the source. Google has published a free 22-page PDF guide that lists some of the best practices you should use to improve your site’s search results:

Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Search engine optimization (SEO) is often about making small changes to parts of your website. Individually, those changes might not seem like much, but when combined, they can have a significant impact on your site’s search results. Read the Full Tip »

Lots of new books are coming that dig into Creative Suite 4. But if you’re looking for something fast and free to whet your appetite, download a copy of the 70-page CS4 Superguide at PhotoshopCafe.com:

Link: CS4 Superguide

Note: You’ll need to subscribe to their mailing list for a download link.

And, for an updated collection of new and upcoming books about CS4, check out Amazon’s new CS4 Books page:

Link: Amazon CS4 Books

This is a short 3-minute segment taken from the live webinar Prepress with PDFs on August 27, 2008. This webinar discussed how Adobe PDF files can be used in graphic design prepress workflows. The full version of this online training goes in depth on how to make sure your PDFs will print properly when they arrive at your print vendor.

This short 5-minute clip comes from CreativeTechs’ Creating Interactive PDFs webinar on August 13, 2008. In this workshop, Seattle trainer Jason Hoppe explorers the many ways designers can add interactive elements to their client’s PDFs. Including electronic forms, embedded movies, and many other interactive tricks. [View all Upcoming Webinars]

Note: The sound is a poor recording of a live phone call. We’re working on a better way to capture sound in future webinar conference calls.

Read the Full Tip »

Longtime readers of this tips newsletter may notice we collect clever folding templates. So when we stumbled on the Letterfu website, we knew it would eventually show up as a creative tip. (Past paper folding tips include pocketMod guides, or our collection of paper Mac templates.)

Basically you print a Letterfu design on a sheet of paper, write your letter on the back, fold it up, stamp it, and send it. The letter becomes its own envelope. It holds itself closed, secured by the stamp - so it doesn’t even need any glue. You use the entire sheet of paper, so there’s no cutting.

Read the Full Tip »

Here is another tiny booklet in our collection of Mac-focused PocketMod guides. This one is loosely based on a form Apple provides on their Mac 101 website.

One of the big problems we at CreativeTechs run into while supporting creative pros is helping our clients keep track of all those crucial details: Passwords, network settings, mail server addresses, email addresses, hardware specifications, serial numbers, etc. Thus we give you the Mac Memory Book:

My Mac Memory Book! (PocketMod Edition)

This topic is less exciting than our first guide, My Mac Won’t Start — and a scrap of folded paper does not replace the need for good organization. But if you’ll fill this guide out for each computer in your office, and keep it handy, this information will come in useful time and time again.

Read the Full Tip »

Few situations are more frustrating than struggling with a computer that won’t start. Especially with client deadlines looming. That’s the idea behind this tiny troubleshooting guide:

My Mac Won’t Start! (PocketMod Edition)

Print out this guide, fold it together, and keep it handy. Designed with the clever PocketMod template (read Discover PocketMod. The low-tech PDA.), you can tape this tiny booklet to the side of your Mac in case you ever need it. It lists several of the most common fixes for a Mac that will not start up properly.

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The PocketMod website lets you create tiny 8-page booklets that fold together from a single letter size sheet of paper. You can print one on your laser printer, fold it together, and carry it around, well, in your pocket.

The hardest part is deciphering the cryptic folding instructions.

Read the Full Tip »