Sharon Steuer is back with the results of her research and testing of the cloud backup solutions she first reported on from Macworld.

The following content is excerpted from The Adobe Illustrator CS6 WOW! Book by Sharon Steuer. Copyright © 2013. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and Peachpit Press.

While searching through my archives for art pieces to show in my new course for lynda.com, Artistic Painting with Illustrator: Natural Media Brushes, I found this “watercolor” image created with transparent calligraphic brushes back in Adobe Illustrator 10, in 2002.

A Brief History of Macworld

Even for those of us old enough to have lived through it, it’s very hard to imagine life before the modern internet. In those times (from the 1984 launch of the Macintosh to just a few years ago), the way most of us put our hands on new products and communicated with each other was to attend trade shows. And for much of this era, the most important show for those of us in the graphic arts was Macworld Expo.

We’ve all done it. We’ve all been so involved in the creative process that we don’t realize what a disorganized mess we’re making of our layers, our studio, our dining room table. When we come up for air, the task of organizing seems almost monumental. We try to talk ourselves into skipping it. We’ll do it later or, if think we can get away with it, not at all. But nothing puts the brakes on a creative journey faster than not being able to find quickly what you need to work with.

Excerpted from The Adobe Illustrator CS5 Wow! Book by Sharon Steuer. Copyright © 2011. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and Peachpit Press.

To receive a 35% discount on this book plus free shipping in the continental U.S., go to the Peachpit Press Online Store and enter the discount code CS5WOW during the checkout process.