Adobe Releases Lightroom 2

Adobe has released Lightroom 2. Information Week has a summary of all the new Lightroom 2 features for anyone who did not download the beta. Eric Bernskiold has a blog post with links to learning resources for Lightroom. Go visit the Lightroom Community education center where you can chat with Dallas’s resident expert Gene McCullagh.

As with the CS3 suite, I would recommend this upgrade to anyone looking to improve their Adobe digital workflow. The improved Library support, and targeted adjustment brush in the Develop module expand both the function and creativity of Lightroom. Look for a more detailed review on this blog in the upcoming weeks.

InDesign Preference Issues

“The great thing about InDesign is that preferences live with the document.”

“The worst thing about InDesign is that preferences live with the document.”

Top on my wish list for updates to InDesign would be a “Reset to Default” option for preferences. If you weren’t aware, preferences for InDesign reside within the created document. This means you could have one document where Arial is the default font, another document that defaults to Times New Roman, and yet every new document created sets up Georgia as the font. Do not confuse preferences with workspaces–which reside with the computer NOT the document itself.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. In fact, for the freelancer or rogue designer, I would suspect InDesign preferences rarely cause an incident. It’s those of you out there handling documents from multiple sources, or collaborating with others that may have thought gremlins had possessed your document on occasion. This is especially true if someone changed a preference that was not familiar to you. A good example is “Hide Frame Edges” under the View menu. Hide the frame edges, save the document, have an inexperienced InDesign user open it, and see how long it takes for them to ask you why the Frame Tool doesn’t draw anything.

Here are some things to remember in regards to preferences:

There are three preference areas in InDesign — the Menus, Toolbar, and the Preferences Dialogue box.

Preference Area #1 - The Menu Bar
Items you may wish to setup here include Show Frame Edges & Show Text Threads (found under the View), Ruler Guides (under Layout), Show Hidden Characters (under Type).

Preference Area #2 - The Tool Bar
The Type Tool is a good item to setup. The best way to update the Type Tool is to edit the Basic Paragraph style in the Paragraph Styles Panel. If you do not use styles at all, then you can choose the Type Tool, pick the options in the Control Panel, then click on another tool in the Toolbar to save your options.

Preference Area #3 - The Preferences Dialogue box.
CMD+K (CTRL+K on Windows) will open the Preferences Dialogue. You can also select it from the InDesign menu (Edit under Windows). There are several items that can be modified here, and you may choose to test them out with a document open first just to see which settings you prefer.

New Document Preference
Are you tired of changing the unit of measurement to inches EVERY time you create a new document? Change that preference when no documents are open, and it becomes the “new document” preference.

In summary:

1. Preferences are stored with the InDesign document. Workspaces are stored on the computer.
2. Preferences changed when no documents are open affect all NEW DOCUMENTS created with InDesign.
3. Preferences can be overwritten by anyone who edits the InDesign document.
4. If your document is acting strange, it just might be a preference you don’t know about.

The UFC is the club to beat in MMA

Watching yesterday’s Affliction MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) event on pay-per-view it became very clear that the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) remains the top brand for MMA enthusiasts. Here’s a quick list of things wrong with Affliction:

1. Fights conducted in a boxing ring. Every time the fight went to the ground-against the ropes-the referee had to reposition the fighters. This broke up the momentum of the fight on many occasions.
2. Megadeth. If I wanted to go to a hair metal show, I would have bought that on pay-per-view. Seriously, the between round entertainment just made a long event even longer and less interesting.
3. Too much talk about celebrities, too little talk about the fighters. At one point, Michael Buffer actually read the names of the celebrities in attendance. Really? Does anyone care?
4. Fight commentary. See below.
5. Wasted time. See #2 & #3. A lot of the fluff surrounding this event could have been cut out reducing the time of this broadcast to less than 3 hours.

Bottom line is right now, the UFC understands their demographic better than the competition. The other MMA brands are trying to create something to appeal to a mass audience, while the UFC simply showcases a better product.

One of the best things the UFC has going for it is Joe Rogan. Do not discount the excellent commentary Joe provides during UFC bouts. A first time MMA viewer can watch a UFC event, and not only does Joe provide information about each fighter, throughout the matches he breaks down the strategy (yes I said it) that each fighter attempts to employ. It’s not just the fact that Joe knows the names of all the different wrestling holds a fighter might use, but he can tell the viewer why a fighter might use one technique over another. No other MMA brand has commentary that provides insight to MMA bouts like the UFC.

The next thing is a UFC pay-per-view or a free Spike TV event is all about MMA and the evening’s fights. No 15 minute entertainment breaks. No WWE over-the-top explosive entrances. No sideline dancers (which never get camera time anyway). When you watch a UFC fight, you’re going to see MMA action.

It’s a shame that Randy Couture is currently wrestling with the UFC over his contract. Last night Fedor Emelianenko was declared the MMA heavy weight to beat. A match between the two would bring in some dollars, but what company will promote the bout remains undecided.

Signs… everywhere there are signs

(Click the image above to open full size)

The above cartoon from Sinfest seemed appropriate this morning. All too often I find myself asking the Lord for direction, but the communication seems a bit one sided. As a business owner, older-than-average-college-student, husband, new father, it would be nice to clearly see the path God wants me to follow.

How do I discern between my pride and my passion? Am I following the road in His glory or have I not changed direction out of my own stubbornness? When do you give up on a dream in order to take up responsibility?

The past month has been quite a challenge on both a personal & professional level. The dynamic of my life is swirling in whirlpool of choices, and I would prefer not to create a lot of collateral damage with a wrong decision.

And that’s the crux of the problem. You pray, and you take it on faith that you’ll be listening when God whispers in your ear. You pray that gut feeling, or instinct, or sign you think you see is the one that God meant to show you.

But what if you’re so busy looking for the signs you miss your exit?