Adobe Education Leaders

I recently designed a website for a history grant that our center received. The site plan included a 780 pixel by 150 pixel Flash banner that would rotate five images.
Normally I would have built the banner using Flash. However, I had just received a copy of Adobe Captivate 3 and wanted to take it for a test run.

Captivate is used for creating rapid e-learning solutions such as simulations, scenario-based training, and quizzes. But Captivate can also be used to create Flash animations in…well…a FLASH!
This is how it is done…

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Adobe recently released Photoshop Elements 6 and Premiere Elements 4. Both products offer hot new features that are sure to excite both students and teachers. What I like most about the Elements packages are how easy it is to create exciting projects.

Photoshop Elements 6 has an amazing new feature that allows you to combine the best sections of multiple images into a single great photo. Ever try taking a group shot of children? It is darn near impossible to capture every kid at his or her best. Not anymore! Use the new blending feature in Photoshop Elements 6 to merge the best parts of photographs into the perfect group photo.
Taking digital photographs is fun, but creating an interactive project with digital pictures is a blast. With Elements 6 you can create cinematic slideshows, interactive web galleries, and photo books.
Video is the new big thing! Students and teachers can now more easily create professional quality videos filled with special effects, audio, transitions, and pre-made themes. Simply capture your footage, edit your video, throw in some great transitions, insert a theme, and add a title…now you are ready to publish!
Speaking of publishing…Premiere Elements 4 now comes with a “Sharing Center” that makes it easy for students to publish their videos. Students can burn to DVD and even optimize their videos for YouTube sharing.
Learn more by visiting the following resources:
1.Adobe Idea Gallery
2.Photoshop Elements Techniques has prepared a handful of great videos demonstrating the new features of both products.

The new school year is upon us. The year will bring new students, new experiences, and new memories. Of course you will want to preserve your memories using a digital camera.
The way digital cameras name photographs has always bugged me. DC45000.jpg offers little clue to what event was being photographed. Renaming the photo to something like soccer-001.jpg offers a more descriptive name that will also prove more helpful down the road when you want to find the photos. Of course you can use the camera to set up the file name, but have your tried navigating your camera’s preferences to do this? What a pain!
I often take multiple pictures of a single event (say…a soccer game) and the Adobe Bridge helps me easily and quickly batch rename the files.
Here’s how:
1. Open Adobe Bridge
2. Navigate to the folder that contains the images that you wish to batch rename

3. You can select all of the images (Edit > Select All) or you can be more selective by Ctrl + Clicking (CMD + Click -Mac) on specific images.
4. After you select the images that you want to include in the batch rename select Tools > Batch Rename. You can also right click (CMD + Click) on any of the selected files and choose Batch Rename.

5. The Batch Rename dialogue box will open.
6. Select your Destination Folder. I almost always use the Rename in same folder option.
7. Create a filename. I like to use a text field followed by either a date or sequenced number (or both). You can add or subtract filename choices by clicking the plus or minus buttons. Look at the bottom of the dialogue for an example of how the new filename will look.
8. The following example will create a file name that looks something like this: July_4th_2006_001.jpg

9. Don’t worry about the Options section of the dialogue. I have never had to use any of these options.
10. Click the Rename button.
11. Done! That was easy. Now…get to renaming.