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I’ve been using Acrobat XI for years and I will continue to do so until it sparks an actual fire in my computer. But it’s frustrating that I’m basically an outlaw now for running an old, but perfectly working, piece of software.
How does running Acrobat Pro XI make you an outlaw? I assume it is a standalone version or an un-updated CC version. Either one is completely legit.
I only use Acrobat XI, I find DC completely unusable. The GUI is needlessly simplified and makes it hard to find the tools I want to use.
Luckily I can still use it (pre CC)
When DC first came out, I couldn’t find *anything* and wondered why Adobe felt the need to change things. (Shades of Office 2007!) I had to search tools by name, but after a while, I was able to remember where things are. Now, I can tolerate the interface.
Interestingly, once you get past the initial interface, most of the dialog boxes are the same as previous versions.
You can keep using Acrobat XI as long as it runs. It’s not been supported by Adobe since 2013 (it supports applications for five years and you’re well past that time), So you’ll be on your own when it fails.
I would suggest not upgrading the OS–that’s the biggest killer of old(er) software.
On behalf of Adobe …
FYI, versions of Acrobat prior to Acrobat DC and versions of InDesign prior to the CC versions will neither install nor execute under MacOS 10.15 to be released later this year.
For those of you attempting to “try” Acrobat DC under so-called “beta test” versions of MacOS 10.15, don’t waste your time. Although Acrobat DC has always been a 64-bit application under MacOS, there is some 32-bit enabler and licensing code in the product which will be replaced prior to the full public release of MacOS 10.15.
In general we strongly discourage use of any “beta test” operating system releases with Adobe applications and do not provide any support for same. It goes without saying that you should NEVER use “beta test” operating system or application software for production work of any type.
– Dov
It would have been very helpful if this poll supplied a capability of responders providing specifics of the “major problems” that they encounter. (For example, my InDesign plug-ins haven’t yet been updated for the latest InDesign CC version.) This would have been useful feedback for us.
– Dov
True, for us it is, as always, an economic reason, we need 5.5 because we have a very useful plugin (Smartstream from HP), updating is too expensive, so we use 5.5. mainly for personalizing work (it is much more powerful than the standard Data Merge from ID itself). There are some pretty specific plugins, some of them are not updated anymore or just too expensive. Personally I really hate the subscription system, as more and more plugins and other applications are switching to it. The issue for us is, there is no choice, if we do not upgrade, we lose access to the files. That is we use CS6 mainly, but have a subscription for CC too, because for some work we have to open native files. For instance personalizing with 5.5. forces us to use IDML, to use the native file. Of course we use PDF most of the times. Another issue for us, is for example our web-store system, this needs CC2017 files, and it is recently updated. These complex applications can not always keep up. I work more than 30 years in graphic design, and never have I had so much different Indesign versions on my system…
Totally agree Walter – well said.
I think it’s disgusting that Adobe can control designers so rigidly. And yes, they have majorly impacted my workflow. Why remove older apps that we have been subscribing to? Everyone does not have the newest computers which we need to run their newest programs. I for one, have lost out and worked harder because the web apps they so proudly touted when they introduced them, were then removed. GoLive, now Muse, what next? I have rebuilt my clients’ sites for free twice already. It’s not their fault that I have to use slippery-slope apps. And of course, to use their programs now, we have to subscribe to the whole mess even though we only need maybe five of them, because it’s more expensive to choose only what we need. And of course they can raise the subscription price to whatever they choose, since we are stuck with them if we want to continue to work.
I wasn’t happy to see some programs disappear either, but I think _disgusting_ is a bit strong. Adobe does not control what software you purchase–there are alternatives to virtually every application that Adobe sells. In fact, there are even free open-source programs too. I thought it interesting that you mention GoLive and Muse (both of which I miss too)–everything they create can be done with a simple text processor.
Like most of us, Adobe is in the business of making money (just on a larger scale). If we have an under performing client, we will eventually drop them; if Adobe has an under performing program (or a better option is available), they will drop the program.
of course they don’t control what software we purchase, but once we do, we are committed. why can’t they just leave the programs they feel are under-performing and not support them instead of eliminating them? i work for a lot of clients who have complicated indesign files like menus with lots of parts, and when we make changes, we use the previous file as a base. at some point, the indesign version that was the originator, is no longer a working app, so the file has to be completely rebuilt. i sincerely doubt that a simple text editor can do what muse does. i love that app.i have started to turn down web designs. and i don’t like wordpress. all the sites look alike.
btw, i remember when you were mr Quark!
But what does “dropping” mean in this context? I understand ending support; I have been working with CS4 long enough that I don’t really expect to need any, other than if the program itself somehow becomes corrupted (not sure how that could happen, or what I would do if it happened to a current version—ask for a new copy, I guess!), but in the context of a subscription. . . . The simple solution would be to let it sit there accessible for those legacy users who are still active, or for those who need to load an old file to update it (I can open CS3 files with my CS4, and possibly earlier, not sure just how far back), but on the Internet, more so than on an individual computer, thee older software may be a security risk, and the individual user has no say over what level of risk is acceptable based on that individual’s use and requirements.
Again, I want to OWN, not RENT, my copy of the program in which I am working.
I remember that too! Quark was once mighty but they (Quark)became complacent to the extreme and a tad arrogant too, knowing they had a great program and Pagemaker (and ID early days at least) were awful program. Times change and Indesign evolved to be fantastic. (Big thanks to Colin for that!)But somewhere along the line Adobe got greedy and now they have us locked in to the system.I absolutely love the trinity of InDesign, Photoshop and illustrator, but I think the days of never seeing a crash or problems are long gone. Ive looked at the new Quark and after using InDesign for so long it just seems – well – not nice – unfortunately. I personally think Adobe should put more energy into making InDesign etc awesome again – or maybe the money is in elsewhere! My Ramble is over!
Phil, try the Affinity seamless trilogy; Photo, Designer, and Publisher. Affinity Publisher is only a few weeks old, but useful for uncomplicated publications. Can’t yet open ID files. The other two are seasoned performers. Publisher is worth watching. All three are very reasonable outright buys, so no money-grubbing subscriptions.
Quark is not that complacent anymore. In fact, they just released their new version (2019).
Actually, I started with PageMaker, was pushed into Quark but never liked it. Was not thrilled when Adobe bought Aldus, but did continue my own work with various InDesign upgrades, and still use CS4, as I am not in a professional production environment so can do my own work without upgrading. I avoid as many recurring costs as possible—would rather save up to make bigger purchases on my own timeline.
Oh yea…”Money-Grubbing subscriptions.” Those things that suck us dry while we try so very hard to please our clients who don’t have a clue, and who think we all just use a computer with some kind of free software that they could do it with themselves if they just “had the time!” No mention of vision or talent or patience. ugh!
agreed; completely predatory (yes, I know software developers have ongoing costs, but that is what new version releases are for; it is not up to the customers to even out the vendor’s income stream!)
@Sally G:
To be quite clear and legally precise, you have never “owned” your software (at least the typical computer applications) but rather, you owned (1) the media on which it was distributed or the file(s) downloaded and (2) a license to use the software.
You may prefer the “perpetual license” model better than that of “subscriptions” and I won’t argue either way on this, but it isn’t “ownership” versus “rental.”
I agree with that, and the cost of software and hardware are tax deductible expenses if you can use those. The reality of our businesses is that we’re in a continuum of technological development, and those tools we use (computers, software) are obsolete at some point. Those who don’t share files with others, and use only a few programs, can only remove themselves from the continuum temporarily but not subscribing or upgrading. Planning for obsolescence is part of doing business.
I did not mean to rant about the ‘perpetual’ or ‘subscription’ model. I do understand the need of a company to assure themselves of continued use and earnings. Certainly CS6 is in many ways almost the ‘perfect’ tool for most desk top publishers. I am though disappointed in the way Adobe has changed in their approach, not so long ago they were the ‘anti-quark’, when InDesign appeared we were happy to leave XPress and their awful policies (Dongles anyone?).
Currently it is almost the other way round, and that is a shame. Adobe is now their own competitor, a lot of firms don’t need to update, but are forced to, when they need new computers. Affinity is nice and all, but it can not simply replace Indesign, although competition is welcome.
I am disappointed in the current versions, they don’t really add that much new stuff, as we are in the business of ‘normal’ printing and also sign and packaging. Indesign (and the other applications) have far too large panels and the ‘cloud’ functions are needless for our work. Acrobat is really bad, the GUI is awful, why not give users option what they want and need?
Another major point is the way we ‘foreigners’ (non-US) are treated, we have to pay a lot more for the same programs, every time I bring this up, Americans tend to say ‘charge your clients’, ‘if you can not pay that, change your business’, ‘laws are different everywhere’ and such. Here, in The Netherlands, the graphic industry is going to very tough times, clients will simply leave if we charge too much, but we still have to spend money on paper, ink, materials, maintenance, energy and such. Software really is very low on the list. And using CC I have to explain to my boss that if we stop paying, we can not access our own files anymore? It feels wrong.
>And using CC I have to explain to my boss that if we stop paying, we can not access our own files anymore? It feels wrong.
You don’t lose the ability to view your files if you have made a PDF. Any output you made from the InDesign file (print, EPUB, HTML) still works. But you can immediately re-edit “your own files” by paying for a one-month license for the CC application you need to use.
Just trying to make it clear. It’s the editing ability that you’re paying for.
No matter how you word it, Adobe and other subscription services have designers wound around their fingers. Granted we don’t “own” the software to re-sell it, but we’ve paid to have use of it to do our work. Why would we even make the files in the first place if we might never need to edit them some time in the future. Seriously?
If you feel that way, you certain have other alternatives—QuarkXPress or Affinity Publisher for starters.
Well Steve, so can you, but I see that you’re not happy either. Why the “If you feel that way?” It appears that you do too.
Beevil,
You’ve misinterpreted my feelings altogether. As an InDesign user and teacher, I have been perfectly happy with all the features I have available through InDesign CC—including a chance to learn, work with, and teach other applications in Creative Cloud, as well as all the great features that tie them together—Typekit fonts, CC Libraries and much more.
But I understand that it’s not appropriate for everyone—especially those who don’t have the same needs as I do.
I’m just responding to your statement, “Adobe and other subscription services have designers wound around their fingers.” I don’t believe that that’s true.
back to sally and her “what if”:
“I (sally) have been working with CS4 long enough that I don’t really expect to need any (support), other than if the program itself somehow becomes corrupted (not sure how that could happen, or what I would do if it happened to a current version—ask for a new copy, I guess!)”
sally, i can tell you that WILL happen. i had one of my (6) computers crash with one of my most active clients’ files. i had been working on their files with CS6. we reinstalled the OS and restored files with time machine and proceeded to try reinstalling my CS6 apps. NOT POSSIBLE.
adobe said that we had been using a pirated copy. however, we bought this creative suite 6 from who we thought was a legitimate reseller, and had used it for years. now suddenly the rug is pulled out. so, ok, i give up…whatever. “groveling to dear adobe”, may i purchase another set of CS6 from you and go on with our lives?”
sorry, but no can do. no longer available. adobe must have burned all the CS6 suites because we can not buy them anymore.
well, go ahead and try to open your files on another computer that has the CC installed but has different fonts installed. what a waste of time, effort and patience!!
over the last 30 years, with all the ups and downs of software and hardware, i have LOST, not gained patience.
adobe, please understand we are not trying to rip YOU off, we are trying to continue to run our small businesses who have relied on, and trusted you for years. you are now ignoring (nay, thumbing your nose at us). you are saying, “put up or shut up” (or shut down). maybe we all should. then where would you be?
@Beevil Turner:
If you are getting messages about “non-genuine” software wrt/ CS6 and you registered this software with Adobe, please contact me offline with the particulars and I will work with support to get you up and going with that software.
There have been a few similar cases like this that I heard of and we have been able to rectify the problem for those users. There was nothing intentional, but apparently some glitch in the activation mechanism.
– Dov
hello dov,
i have had the same problems as beevil and would be ever so grateful if i could again run the cs6 on my old computer that crashed. i had built all of one of my client’s files in the cs6 that adobe will not reauthorize. i moved the files over to another computer with time machine. i have CC running on that one, but it is a really big problem to change out fonts on the older files that i need to build on nearly every day. even reinstalling the fonts from my id package doesn’t seem to work. can you really help? i purchased the cs6 design & web premium disk on line (somewhere-i don’t remember) in 2014. i was taking classes at the time and it is an education edition. i did register it with adobe and it worked until my crash a couple months ago. i have the serial number on the package which i am pretty sure was the registration number too?
Pat,
Contact me offline will full particulars of your CS6 product including (1) the actual product you purchased (such as “CS6 Design and Web Premium – Education”, (2) the serial number for that product and whether you registered it or not – if the product was not registered with Adobe, probably not much that we can do to help here, (3) your full contact information including Adobe ID. I’ll pass that along to my contacts in support and they can research what the situation is. As previously noted, with the upcoming MacOS update to 10.15, forget about the CS6 version of InDesign; it will not run on that OS version.
– Dov
I just realized the other day I wasn’t able to use the 2019 versions of CC with my four year old Mac OS (10.11), and I had postponed upgrading my OS simply to not have to update my font management application. Now everything is updated and working perfectly. Happily all of my fears of messing with the font management are resolved.
My sense is that these arguments come down to two things:
There are a lot of people who are still successfully and happily running CS2, CS3, and other early versions of InDesign on old computers. That’s fine! Just like there are people who still use their Encyclopedia Brittanica from 1980. But they better keep really good backups of their OS and install disks in case something goes wrong.
The problem is mainly: you can open PSD and EPS/AI in other, even free, applications. No such thing for indd files… Maybe at some stage idml in Affinity I hope.
QuarkXPress can import IDML files. Older versions might need the Markzware plugin.
I believe the open-source Scribus can import IDML also, but I have not tested it.
back to David-“If a textbook publisher had a new version of a textbook every year or two, they aren’t going to keep selling the textbook from 6 years ago.?
David, there are used bookstores where you can buy old and/or out-of-print books. I am sure there are un-sold older texts.
I also am sure that in some Adobe warehouse, there are copies of CS6 suites that never were shipped.
Why won’t they sell them? Because they want everyone on subscription, that’s why!
There is another reason: providing support when the software will not run on newer operating systems. Regardless of how many disclaimers Adobe puts up, you know a lot of users will call after upgrading the OS or getting a new computer. That’s why they stopped making many of the older Cloud versions available too.
I have all my CS installers archived (CS-CS6) but no computers that would properly run them. I do wish, however, I archived the older CC version installers. For the occasional client that wants training on an older CC version that I can’t access anymore (usually a government agency), I just ask them to provide the instructor computer and software.
Right, as David C pointed out: If Adobe were to sell it, people would expect support. But there are used copies of InDesign or the Creative Suite available. They’re not common anymore, but I’ve seen them at Half Price Books, on eBay, etc.
Granted you do need to be careful when buying used software: https://prodesigntools.com/dont-buy-adobe-software-on-ebay-craigslist-or-amazon-marketplace.html
Please, enough with the conspiracy theories. There is no Adobe warehouse in which there are copies of CS6 suites that never were shipped. In fact, Adobe never even had a warehouse. FWIW, all production and shipment of shrink-wrapped Adobe software was and still is handled by fulfillment companies. There was really never any significant physical inventory of any of these products. Usually months before any new release, our fulfillment companies stopped production of the soon-to-be-obsolete versions. The other factor to remember is that even prior to the CC versions of the products, the vast majority of Adobe users were on volume licenses that were not shipped in shrink-wrapped boxes from warehouses!
– Dov
well if anyone out there has an unused copy of indesign cs6 they would like to sell, i am up for it. or even a used one, if the key is transferable. i don’t need support, just need to make my life easier when building on an older file.
Please don’t turn threads on InDesignSecrets.com into another eBay website!!