This is a resource that was recommended to me by a fellow designer at one of my previous jobs. Initially I just signed up for their email newsletter devoted to Mac-based “Quicktips” about Adobe Creative Suite. It is comprised of random features and time-saving tips in CS3 and CS4 that they thought were cool and wanted to share.

For example: in Photoshop, when using the Eyedropper tool, you can click and drag it off of your document to sample color from anywhere on your screen. Did you know about that? Probably, but it sure as hell slipped by me (and I have used it dozens of times since I found out about it).

Another example: you can use the Option key (⌥) in combination with your arrow keys to quickly adjust kerning, tracking and leading. Try it!

The idea is that Adobe’s Creative Suite applications are so densely packed with features that it is easy for some of them to slip by unnoticed. View the tips blog or sign up for the newsletter here.

Recently, the Quicktips have tapered off as they have devoted more and more energy into pushing their free online seminars (henceforth to be known as “webinars”). I sat through one and enjoyed it, so I figured I would give them a plug on my site. I viewed the Illustrator CS4 course. I’m still using CS3, but most of what they covered applied. I am pretty experienced with Illustrator, so most of it was review, but every week something came up that was useful to me. Either something new, or some way to do a common task that was more efficient than the way I had been doing it. So all in all, the 10-week webinar was worth my time. You can learn more about the webinars that they offer here. If you are interested in brushing up or learning a new application entirely, this is a good (free) way to go about it.