Category: Adobe Creative Suite

Flash Builder 4.6 Won’t Start

I recently updated to CS6 and everything was working great until one day I tried to open Flash Builder and it wouldn’t open. It would pull up the Splash screen for a few seconds and then silently die. I’ve had something similar to this happen in the past and it was usually due to a file in the workspace getting corrupted and was an easy fix. You simply renamed or moved the workspace folder, launched Flash Builder so that it created a new workspace folder and then replaced the files in the new folder with the old one. This time however that didn’t work. So after a couple of hours of trying everything I could think of from uninstalling and re-installing to attempting to pull out all of the hair that I wish I had, I finally came across the answer. I read online that people were having problems getting Acrobat X to open. So I tried to open it on my machine and sure enough it wouldn’t open. After reading further online I discovered that other people had fixed this problem by opening Photoshop, deactivating, then re-opening Photoshop and activating again. So I did that and both Acrobat X and Flash Builder 4.6 launched like normal. With Adobe CS6 they have gone to a new activation model that requires you to put in the license key along with your Adobe ID. My guess is that there is an issue where after the trial period has ended (even though you activated it) it deactivates. Not sure but deactivating and re-activating solved it for me. So if Flash Builder or Acrobat won’t open, give this solution a try.

PS
I am using a PC with Windows 7 and am not sure if this problem exists on Mac.

Apple vs Adobe

Last week I heard the news that Apple is looking to only accept apps that were created using their software. This means that the new feature in Flash CS5 that allows you to publish apps for the iPhone might not be an acceptable method for making apps. I think that this is a big mistake by Apple and a slap in the face to Adobe. Coming from someone that has taken many an Art and Multimedia class at the university I feel that it is fair to say that Adobe was one of the key factors that kept Apple desktops alive. When no one was buying Apple desktops Art departments in schools all across the country still were. For some reason many an art department thought that Macs were better when it came to creating art. The article that I read was from Lee Brimelow. You can read it here: http://theflashblog.com/?p=1888 I am really curious to see what others are thinking. Please comment and let me know.

The Top 5 Reasons to upgrade to CS5

So since the unveiling of CS5 last week I have been doing a little research and have come up with the top five reasons to upgrade to Adobe CS5.

  1. CS5 now includes Flash Builder (formally Flex Builder)
  2. You can now create a Flash project that can be coded in Flash Builder
  3. You can use Flash to create apps for the iPhone and iPad
  4. Content Aware Fill in Photoshop
  5. Content Aware Fill in Photoshop

If you haven’t seen Content Aware Fill in Photoshop CS5 you need to. Go to John Nack’s blog and check it out. Here is a link: http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/03/caf_in_ps.html

Adobe Creative Suite Tools Not Showing Up Right

This is one that I found a while back, and just recently was reminded of it again. The other day I saw a forum post stating that Flash won’t display the path I’m drawing with the pencil tool. I had something similar to this happen with the eraser tool in Fireworks. It too wouldn’t display right and was flickering. The system I was using was running was Windows Vista and I had the Appearance set to Aero and that was what was causing the issue. Just by setting it to the Basic mode (Without the transparency) that fixed it. This also is the case for Windows 7. This is kind of a random issue and appears to affect multiple Creative Suite programs. So far I have heard of it affecting Flash, Fireworks and Illustrator. I was getting the issue with CS3 and when I upgraded to CS4 it no longer happened in Fireworks at least. I also have Windows 7 and CS4 and have noticed that it still is an issue in Flash with the pencil tool. The line you draw with the tool doesn’t show up until you let up on the mouse button. If you happen to run across this weird issue and want to find a solution try changing the Appearance Settings.