Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 Premium Expert Reviews

Get Robert Stack on the phone! In what could be the greatest tech unsolved mystery since the disappearance of Intel's Tejas, someone has kidnapped Premiere Elements 5.0 and 6.0! Just kidding. There's no crime here unless you believe that it's flat ...

Top-notch menus and titling ; SmartTags and SmartSound features

Problems burning to Blu-ray ; subpar encoding performance

Changes to the program include AVCHD editing support, which we welcome, and the addition of wizard-like features, some good, some so-so. InstantMovie, for example, allows you to easily turn a bunch of clips into a movie, parsing the best clips and ...

I liked the features and workflow in the last version of Premiere Elements, but the lack of AVCHD support and the inability to burn HD video onto DVD±R media cost it an Editors' Choice award. The latest version, Premiere Elements 7 ($99.99 list) has ...

Smart Tagging. Supports 99 tracks. InstantMovie creation. Great chroma-key functionality. Updated content from the Web (for a fee). Easy access to online backup

Not the most intuitive editor. SmartSound integration is anemic. Limited DVD authoring configurability

Adobe has addressed the deficits that held back its consumer video editor (such as the lack of AVCHD support). Those improvements, plus new time-saving features and online backup, make Premiere Elements 7 a shoo-in for our Editors' Choice award.

The newest version of Elements is Webbier than ever--with online backup and syncing, Internet-refreshed tutorials, and downloadable content--but to get a usable amount of storage space, you'll have to pay $50 a year.

Web-based tutorials viewable from within the app ; Neat automatic syncing/backup feature

Interface text is very small on high-res monitors ; Only 5GB of free space on Photoshop.com

The upgrades to Premiere Elements 7 didn't strike me as very compelling. I like the addition of downloadable walkthroughs and templates, the Smart Tags, and the ability to sync files without thinking about it. But the interface needs some ...

It's been a long time since the Mac has seen Premiere - how does it look now that it's all grown up?

Chock-full of pro features. Tight integration with other Adobe apps saves time. Competitive price. Includes excellent DVD-authoring software. A true alternative to Final Cut Pro for many projects

Doesn't work with PowerPC Macs. Doesn't work with some video formats. Dynamic Link only works if you buy Premiere as part of a CS3 suite.

. Premiere will miss out on many pro-level video projects until it accepts more video formats. Still, it has plenty of great stuff to offer, and it really sings for anyone who works a lot in other Adobe software.

Adobe's main goal with Flash for CS3 was tighter integration with Photoshop and Illustrator--the company hit that one out of the park. But when it comes to improvements in hand-drawn animation tools, CS3's a bunt at best.

Excellent integration with Photoshop and Illustrator ; revamped Pen tool ; ActionScript 3 ; enhanced Flash Video Encoder and skinning

Minor interface difficulties ; inadequate two-monitor support ; hand-drawn animation support not improved

Most Flash users are also Photoshop and Illustrator users, so Flash CS3 Professional's greatly enhanced integration with those existing Adobe apps is reason enough to upgrade. If only Adobe had spent more time on the hand-drawn animation tools...