IT’S ON!

It’s high stakes Texas hold ‘em for Adobe, Microsoft and any other playuh willing to ante up… With the advent of the Adobe/Macromedia merger upon us, what a perfect moment in time to examine what ought to be happening to content creation workflows. But there should be no doubt, the showdown is ON between Adobe and Microsoft.

The leading and most telling statistic according to Pierre Van Beneden, Adobe’s Vice President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Times Online: “The combination of 600 million Adobe Acrobat users with the users of Flash mean we have an entry platform which is a unique competitor to Microsoft.” See the TimeOnline.

Microsoft Windows Vista, scheduled for release in early 2006, promises tight integration with Explorer and “Metro” (product code name for PDF look alike product). For more information, visit, Microsoft Windows Vista.

Lest we leave Quark out of contention completely, word on the street allude to upcoming Quark features that may leap ahead of Adobe-Macromedia with upcoming tools to enable QXP documents to be repurposed for standards-compliant x/HTML, XML, and flash output.

Intelligent document formats and mobile publishing are the two frontiers these titans of software publishing will by vying for and Adobe already has a foothold in the market with Acrobat and just bought the coveted Flash technology. See the Adobe Motion Design Center for just a taste of the initial synergy, see Adobe. Of course, Microsoft owns everything else BUT the marketing/communications industry so it will be interesting to watch…

Or do you? Do you just sit on the sidelines and watch these developers feed you what they think you want? When, oh when, are the buying software public going to really step up and ask for what they want, no, what they NEED in their products?

For a moment, let’s pretend we are consumers demanding products that fit our needs. Our NEEDS. Did we really need transparency? Not really. I mean, from a creative’s viewpoint, it’s obvious you (and by you, I mean the royal “you” — the creative communicator YOU) have found any number of ways to use this fabulous feature to create stunning visuals. But, the royal ME, and I mean the practical, strategic, decision-making, long-term implications ME is really wondering: Don’t we really need a common compositing engine to distribute content in a variety of forms!?!?!

Now, I realize creating a software “feature” is a smaller task than integrating multiple, seemingly disparate products into a workflow. Don’t get me wrong. But I’m asking the Designorati audience to think beyond individual features and examine how much time they spend massaging file formats into a variety of forms in order to get the message out. Not being creative but being productive, which I realize isn’t the sexy side of the job, but is often times frustrating and more often than not, UN-productive.

Let’s think of the potential, the “nirvana” workflow, because it is tantalizingly within reach. How many different ways does a human being communicate? Sound, moving pictures or video, in writing, through art in all its forms. Methodologies for delivering communications began with the printing press to morse code, the radio, the telephone, the television, computers and the internet, intelligent document distribution and hand-held devices of all kinds…

If, at the very heart of our business, we are all communicating information in all it’s forms using all available methodologies, wouldn’t WE (yes, the royal all of us) want the simplest workflow possible? Somehow, if we could composite once and distribute in any number of ways…so that we learn one common engine and then finish off that content for each distribution methodology. Doesn’t that make sense? Doesn’t that limit the burden of having to master multiple skill sets?

The short-term tactical questions regarding this merger can be summed up best, by Beth Dean, writer for Designorati: In-House, “Macromedia spent a long time getting all of their products to work together, since they scooped them up from all over the place. Studio 8 was probably the first release where you could really say Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Flash all seamlessly worked together. How long will it take Adobe to get their products to integrate with the Macromedia line that way? Especially since their web products are like apples and oranges, right down to the interfaces.” See Beth’s point of view.

Content, in all its forms, should be centralized, composited in a common engine and distributed using multiple “finishers” using a common skill set that won’t take 12 years and 3 degrees to accomplish proficiency.

With the convergence of Adobe and Macromedia we’re getting there in a very meaningful way. I can not wait to see what the next generation of suite products will look like and how Adobe will configure for the workflow(s). Of all the companies on the battlefront, Adobe has impressed me as being open to new ideas and listening to its customer base. However, for the short-term, Elizabetta Bruno, editor for Designorati: DTP expresses it best, “I can see that some people will hold off from buying the first bundles until everything is better integrated.”

When an artist wants to create, they pick up their tool of choice and create. When a writer wants to write, they type. When a photographer wants to capture a moment, he/she points and clicks. The device or the instrument becomes an extension of themselves. It doesn’t impede or encumber them. They command their instrument effortlessly.

We’re not here to keep software developers in business. In this relationship, we’re the customer. As consumers we’re here to use technology as our tool. We’re looking for ways to leverage our technology to grow our businessees. Our job is to communicate and promote thoughts, ideas, messages, brands, products, and events. We need intuitive tools that allow our jobs of creating and distributing content to flow efficiently and maybe even some day, effortlessly.