I’m a Web Developer from Melbourne Australia. I run a small business here called Big Friendly Apes. I’ve often struggled when explaining my occupation to people (“oh, I kinda make websites and stuff...”, or, “you know, I do web stuff... some design, some programming... you know - stuff”). I guess though, after 3 or so years producing media that has been published online 95% of the time, it is time to accept my vocational title and also the blank stares and tactful changes of subject that come with being this kind of nerd.

That said, it’s nice to be this kind of nerd. It is especially nice when someone like Adobe comes along and releases a new version of the software we all use. Will it fix that issue I’ve always had with Flash? Can Photoshop make me any better at photography? Can it zoom to infinite resolution like they can on CSI? (Can you clean up those pixels for me?) Have they put a tabbed interface in something else now? Specifically, the answers to these questions are: Mostly yes, probably not, never in a million years, and yes of course.

However, you’re probably not reading this because you wanted to know any of that stuff, so here, for your general enjoyment, I will review various applications from the CS4 collection that relate specifically to my workflow as a developer of the internets:

• Flash CS4
• Photoshop CS4
• Illustrator CS4
• Dreamweaver CS4.

Read on!