Upgrading to Adobe CS3

August 20, 2008 1:16 PM

I currently own the educational version (no real difference beyond the price) of Adobe CS2 Premium Web Bundle which includes Macromedia Studio 8. I need to upgrade to CS3 for school, but I can't find the "bundle" that has the programs I need.

So the bundle I have comes with the CS2 versions Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, and Acrobat Professional, along with Dreamweaver 8, Flash Professional 8, Fireworks 8, Contribute 8, and FlashPaper 8. I'll be needing the CS3 versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Flash, and Dreamweaver, though I wouldn't mind upgrading the other programs as well.
My problem is that the CS3 web bundle doesn't have InDesign and I don't need all of the video and audio programs sold in the Premium and Master bundles. Is there some bundle similar to mine that's sold by Adobe? I paid a little over $500 for the educational version, but all of the non-educational upgrades seem to cost at least that much, and it looks like you can't upgrade to the educational version - am I missing something?

Bonus: I'll need Illustrator for the spring semester, but won't need the rest of the programs until next school year. I can maybe hold of on Illustrator as well. Is it worth holding out for CS4? I've heard the developer beta is out, but haven't heard a solid release date.

Thanks!

posted by niles to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Looks like the Design Premium package has everything you need, and there's no extra stuff except Acrobat and Fireworks. Maybe check it out? You can choose not to install the programs you don't want.
posted by curagea at 1:25 PM on August 20, 2008

Yeah, Design Premium is good, but it doesn't look like there's an option to upgrade. I really don't want to buy another full version of Creative Suite when I just bought the previous version...
posted by niles at 1:39 PM on August 20, 2008

I just checked out the non-educational page for Design Premium here. There's an Upgrade Eligibility link. Apparently, though, upgrading from CS2 costs $599, which is the same price as the educational full version... and it doesn't have a distinction between educational and non-educational.

Or you could just contact Adobe support.
posted by curagea at 2:06 PM on August 20, 2008

According to the Adobe knowledge base, you can purchase a retail upgrade for educational software, but there are no discounted upgrades. It seems your options are to pay for the retail upgrade, or to pay for the sudent-discounted full version. Despite a few minor different, you can basically have six of these, or a half-dozen of those.
posted by owtytrof at 2:15 PM on August 20, 2008

I thought CS4 was coming out in December. You might want to doublecheck this.
posted by jadepearl at 5:58 PM on August 20, 2008