Adobe designs all its applications' interfaces to be as similar and familiar as possible. All have similar aesthetics such as layout and color schemes. This allows Adobe users to decrease their learning curve tremendously when learning new applications in the family. Like they say, "with uniformity comes familiarity". The uniformity in the applications' interfaces allows a person to take the skills learned from one program and immediately start applying it to the next program.

This hub will discuss the similarities between the applications in the Adobe family. The family will be split into two main group: "Static Applications" and "Time Dependent Applications".

The programs in the static family are:

• Indesign
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Fireworks
  
• Dreamweaver

The programs in the time dependent family are:

• After Effects
• Premiere
• Soundbooth
• Encore
• Flash

The applications all have similar features underneath the Adobe family, but within each individual "offspring", they have a few unique characteristics.

The following sections will break down the Adobe layout in detail and show you how you can take advantage of Adobe's layout characteristics to maximize your workflow! (or at least I hope you learn 1 or 2 new things...) =)

The static programs mostly consist of a main stage in the center, tool frame to the left, panes docked to the right, and a tool specific properties bar above center stage (Figure 2).

Figure 2 and 3 show how Photoshop and Illustrator have basically the same layout. For the sake of saving space, the other programs will not be shown, but if you have those programs, feel free to open them up now and take a look at how their layouts are similar also (don't be scared!).

Dreamweaver is the black sheep of the family.  It's layout - although similar - is different than the other static family members.  It is represented in Figure 4.

The Adobe layout is comprised of "frames" that are stuck together.  This means that their is no wasted space on the screen and the frames will dynamically move and resize together unless you specifically undock a panel.

With this knowledge, you have a surprising amount of freedom with moving panels around into different frames and even stacking panels on top of eachother to create "tabs".

As mentioned before, the time dependent applications are Encore, Premiere, After Effects, Soundbooth, and Flash.  Flash actually is a mix between static program and dynamic program.

The time dependent programs are very similar to the static programs except they have a timeline panel.  Also, time dependent programs usually do not have a "center stage" that all the workflow revolves around.  The panels are more dynamic and can be rearranged in more variaties.

All the lessons you learned previously for the static programs will apply to the dynamic programs also.

The time dependent applications like Premiere, Sound Booth, After Effects, and Encore allow a large amount of freedom in rearranging panels to fit your workflow perfectly.  Just use the same techniques learned in the static programs with clicking and dragging the header bars of the panels to move them where you want.