Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended Upgrade [Mac] :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Not a single install/upgrade problem here.

2008-07-13
I am ordering another copy for my group at work and just felt the need to balance some folks' bad experiences here. Mine has been excellent, no trouble at all. Adobe does allow you to install it on 2 computers - actually, you can install on any number but can have activated only two at a time. This has worked well for me on our 5 Macs, starting from CS2 (I skipped CS1). These Macs range from PowerBooks through PowerMac G5s through Intel MacBook Pro. Never a problem with installation or upgrade.

As far as the product itself is concerned, I found CS3 to be a really worthy upgrade. It runs faster than CS2 on same machines - even including G4/G5, not just because it now runs natively on Intel. The Bridge interface has improved significantly. A bunch of other improvements while keeping the interface very consistent even with your old PS 7 and earlier, so there is no downtime looking where the buttons are now...
CS1 was the upgrade to skip, but CS3 I recommend.

The Extended version was very welcome for what we do in our biomedical microscopy research. Now we can make measurements in Photoshop directly, with some nice features to tally up and export those measurements.

Sorry, no time for longer review now, but I'll try to answer any comments here. I am not an Adobe employee :)

Load and evaluate the demo before purchasing!

2008-04-23
I recently installed Photoshop CS3 Extended on a Mac G5 2 Ghz x 2 machine with 2 GB of memory.

1) The machine has slowed to a crawl using Adobe products. To me, at least, who expects productivity and not wasted time, this is not acceptable. It is not just slow, it is painfully slow.
2) There must be some sort of interaction between Acrobat Reader and this product. After I installed PS CS3 E, everytime I wanted to look at a pdf file, Adobe would attempt to update - I would get the "enter password" box from the updater. Often a couple of times. This was extremely annoying to say the least. I want to look at a document, not continually update Adobe products.
3) I finally uninstalled Adobe Reader and reinstalled it. It wanted to update but it couldn't? Just a total pain. I finally ended up updating all Adobe products - several hundred megabytes of update. Still had problems updating. Get the point? Now after hours, maybe everything is working?

Software is to use; to increase productivity. Software that is incompetently designed and implemented which therefore adversely influences productivity is, well, counterproductive. Another reviewer commented on receiving support from someone on the other side of the planet. I suspect that ousourcing IS the cause of the poor software. I remember a friend of mine comment upon outsourcing - it did not work and they had to return to the states.

Also, if you cannot install this on a notebook without purchasing a second license, what a ripoff. I have a windows notebook so I don't know. All in all, just an IV from your wallet to Adobe's bank account.

This product is barely usable on this machine. This Mac is scheduled for the dumpster as it is and no more Macs.

Upgrading worked fine

2008-03-23
I almost didn't purchase this after reading the Amazon reviews but I decided to give it a shot because even if it didn't work I could still sell this for close to what I paid. I have been running Photoshop 7.0 for many years now but unfortunately 7.0 is not compatible with OS X leopard. I had an educational version that was bought as a suite with Acrobat, Illustrator and Golive. I was hoping Adobe's website was accurate when it said I could use this to upgrade. Thankfully it worked flawlessly. Not only did it install just fine but it also allowed me to install the software without having Photoshop 7.0 loaded on my new laptop. It just asked me for the CD Key from my 7.0 version.

I am giving this 4 stars because I absolutely can't stand the fact that I have to re-authorize the software every time I want to switch between my laptop and home computer. It can't be that effective because out of the dozen or so people I know who have CS3 not one of them has actually paid for it. It just burdens us honest people willing to cough up the cash.

Concerns about Adobe

2007-09-02
I have not upgraded yet from CS2 to CS3 and was just checking out the pricing on amazon and read the reviewer who said Adobe would not let him install his Photoshop software on two computers at the same time. This is in direct contradiction to what I've been told previously by Adobe and that is that Photoshop can be installed (and used) on both your desktop and laptop.

I called Adobe customer service and the person who answered was not equipped to answer this simple question about the software so she transfered me to Adobe SALES who told me that I can do this. When I tried to ask how and explain that my concern came from reading a review that said Adobe did not allow it he told me I would have to talk to Customer Service.

So Sales says this can be done, Customer Service cannot communicate.

Upgrading is a TOTAL NIGHTMARE...

2007-07-19
I have been very excited about upgrading to the new Photoshop -- well, until now...

As a college-level educator, I wanted to buy the new Photoshop so that I could help my students with their assignments. I had the Creative Suite CS2 edition on my computer and wanted to upgrade my Photoshop portion to CS3. I called Adobe's sales department on two different occasions to see if this type of an upgrade was possible. Their response was that everything was good-to-go. In other words, you shouldn't have any problems upgrading. Also, just to be on the safe side, I checked their website, carefully read the requirements for upgrading, etc -- and they all say that upgrading is possible. "If you have a copy of the Photoshop software installed on your computer, you qualify!", they say...

Unfortunately, it's NOT TRUE... Here's what I found out:

1) Academic editions do not qualify for upgrading -- and no, they will not upgrade them either, even if you beg and plead... "I've spent 339 dollars on this product from Amazon, which I cannot return - and you say that I cannot use it, even though I have Photoshop CS2 legitimately installed on my machine?"

2) Also, to my surprise, I found out that Adobe insists that once you buy the suite edition, you have to STAY with the suite -- even if you hear that the new version is considerably buggy and constantly crashes. This is the reason why I wanted to only buy Photoshop. However, Adobe does not allow for this to happen.

As you can probably tell, I'm quite frustrated, as I have spent several hours on their technical support line battling with them over what my options are -- even though their sales department told me I was "good to go"... They finally worked things out for me, but it was NOT FUN.

P.S. - If you love a good challenge, call their technical support line -- their tech people are from India. This should say plenty about how easy it is to get someone who understands your problem.

Adobe Installer PAIN

2007-07-08
- Marketing Information: Ideal for film, video, and multimedia professionals and graphic and web designers using 3D and motion, as well as professionals in engineering and science, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended software delivers everything in Photoshop CS3 and more. Render and incorporate 3D images into your 2D composites. Stop time with easy editing of motion graphics on video layers. And probe your images with measurement, analysis, and visualization tools. Product Information - Software Sub Type: Graphics/Designing - Software Name: Photoshop CS3 Extended - Upgrade - Features and Benefits: Edit 3D and Motion-based Images: - 3D Image Editing: - 3D compositing and texture editing - Integration with Adobe Acrobat 8 software - Enhanced Vanishing Point with 3D support - Video and Animation Design: - Movie Paint - Smooth animation workflow - Broad video format support, including QuickTime - Video layers Analyze Images with Precision: - Measurement, Counting, and Edit-tracking Tools: - 2D and 3D measurement tools - Scale Marker - Count tool - History palette and Edit History log - Support for Manufacturing, Medical, and Scientific Workflows: - Image Stacks - DICOM support - MATLAB support Work More Productively: - Efficient and Flexible Work Environment: - Streamlined interface and palette management - Faster, more flexible asset management with Adobe Bridge CS3 - Custom menus, shortcuts, and workspaces - Streamlined Workflow: - Better raw-ima