Getting started with Version Cue


    Adobe® Creative Suite includes Adobe Version Cue, an integrated feature designed to help you be more productive by saving you, and others you work with, valuable time. With Version Cue, you can easily create, manage, and find different versions of your project files. For example, Version Cue creates simplified, unified access to all versions of your files. If you collaborate with others, you and your team members can share project files in a multi-user environment that protects content from being accidentally overwritten.You can also maintain descriptive comments with each version, search embedded file information to quickly locate files, work with robust file-management features while working directly within Adobe Creative Suite.

    With Version Cue, you can easily create, manage, and find different versions of your project files.

    Following are the steps you need to take before you begin working with Version Cue, and for how to use Version Cue in Creative Suite.

    Note: The Version Cue workspace is a feature of Adobe Creative Suite. If you purchased Adobe GoLive CS, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe InCopy CS, Adobe InDesign CS, or Adobe Photoshop CS separately, and don't own Adobe Creative Suite, you can use the Version Cue feature in your Adobe CS application only if an owner of Adobe Creative Suite gives you network access to their Version Cue workspace.

1. Set up the Version Cue workspace.

    You and others in your workgroup need access to a Version Cue workspace in order to work with the Version Cue feature in Creative Suite. When you fully install Adobe Creative Suite, a Version Cue workspace automatically installs on your computer. Depending upon each project's needs, you may choose to work with other Version Cue workspaces located on your colleagues' computers or on a server.

    Set up the Version Cue workspace to suit your needs for working solo or in collaboration with others.

    For projects and file versions that you don't need to share with others, or if you work on a laptop that isn't always connected to a network, it's easiest to use the Version Cue workspace located on your own computer. When you change your mind, Version Cue lets you immediately share any Version Cue project with other users. If you mostly intend to collaborate with other Creative Suite users, make sure that a Version Cue workspace is located on a computer that everyone can access on a network and that the collaborative projects are kept in that workspace. For installation instructions, see "HowToInstall" on the Adobe Creative Suite CD.

2. Turn on the Version Cue workspace.

    Before you can begin working with the Version Cue feature, you need to turn on the Version Cue workspace. Open the Adobe Version Cue preferences from Control Panel (Windows) or System Preferences (Mac OS) on the computer where the Version Cue workspace is located, and choose On from the Version Cue pop-up menu. To allow others to see and access the workspace over the network, choose This Workspace is Visible to Others from the Workspace Access menu, or, to keep it private, choose This Workspace is Private, and then click OK.

    In order to begin working with the Version Cue feature, turn on the Version Cue workspace at the system level.

3. Enable the Version Cue preference in Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe InCopy CS, Adobe InDesign CS, and Adobe Photoshop CS.

    In Illustrator CS, choose Edit > Preferences > File Handling & Clipboard (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > File Handling & Clipboard (Mac OS). Select Enable Version Cue, and click OK. In Photoshop CS, choose Edit > Preferences > File Handling (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > File Handling (Mac OS). Select Enable Version Cue Workgroup File Management, and click OK. In InDesign CS and InCopy CS, choose Edit > Preferences > File Handling (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > File Handling (Mac OS). Select Enable Version Cue, and click OK. Restart InDesign.

    Adobe GoLive CS is enabled with the Version Cue feature by default, but Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional doesn't support Version Cue.

4. Create a Version Cue project for each set of related files.

    Now you're ready to create a Version Cue project, which is used to organize related files. For example, to begin with, you can create a Version Cue project for files you want to keep private, and another project for those files you want to share with others. Using Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, or Photoshop, choose File > Open, click the Version Cue button, and then choose New Project from the Project Tools menu. In GoLive, choose File > New Site, select Version Cue Project, and use the GoLive Site Wizard to create a Version Cue project site.

5. Add files to the Version Cue project.

    To add an existing file or new file to the Version Cue project, choose File > Save As. Then in Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, or Photoshop, click Version Cue, open the Version Cue project and its Documents folder, enter comments for this version in the Version Comments text box, and click Save. In GoLive, just add the file to the Files tab in the Version Cue project site window to save the file into the Web-Content folder.

    If you have several files to add to a Version Cue project, you can add the files to the project's Documents folder inside the My Documents/Version Cue (Windows) or Documents/Version Cue (Mac OS) folder on your computer and then synchronize the project. (See Working off-line in a Version Cue project.)

6. Create file versions.

    After you've saved a file to a Version Cue project, you can begin creating versions of the file and adding comments with the Save A Version command in Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, and Photoshop. (GoLive saves a file version each time the file is checked back into the Version Cue workspace.)

    File versioning with Version Cue ensures that no one overwrites the work of anyone else in a Version Cue project, but also prevents users from locking out others who need to work on the same file. You can use versioning to seamlessly retain multiple states of a single file as you work on it, in case you need to restore the file to a previous version. You can also use versioning to quickly compare file versions with team members or with a client before selecting a final version.

7. Review all versions of a file.

    After you've created several versions of a file, you can choose File > Versions in Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, or Photoshop to view thumbnails of all versions of the file, alongside comments and dates for each, and then open, manage, or delete the versions. In GoLive, just click the Show Versions button in the Version Cue toolbar.

     After you’ve created several versions of a file, you can review any or all versions of it.

8. Collaborate on a Version Cue project.

    When you want to work with other users on one of your Version Cue projects, you can instantly give them access to the project through Adobe Creative Suite. In Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, or Photoshop, choose File > Open, click the Version Cue button, and then open the Version Cue workspace that contains the Version Cue project you want to share. Select the project in the dialog box, and then choose Share Project from the Project Tools menu.

9. Locate files by searching embedded metadata.

    Adobe Creative Suite lets users enter a wide variety of information in the File Info dialog box. This information gets embedded into a document as XMP metadata. For example, the metadata might contain a document's title, copyright, keywords, description, properties, author, and origin. Also, any comments you add to each file version are included in the file's metadata. With Version Cue you can quickly locate a file by searching the embedded metadata of all files in a Version Cue project, including Version Cue comments. You can also view a subset of metadata to quickly check the status of a file, its last comment, version date, and who is editing it.

    In Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, or Photoshop, choose File > Open, click Version Cue, open the Version Cue workspace that contains the project you want to search, and then select the project. Select the Search tab and enter any text that may be embedded in the metadata of the file you want to locate or search by filename.

     Locate files by searching metadata that has been embedded in the File Info dialog box.

10. Perform advanced tasks with the Advanced Version Cue Workspace Administration utility.

    You can choose to set up a simple collaboration where you share a Version Cue project with anyone using a Creative Suite application, or you can set up a more controlled environment in which users have to log in before accessing your project. Using the Version Cue Workgroup Administration utility, you can set up user IDs and define their project privileges, remove file locks, edit Version Cue Workspace preferences, and perform other project and workspace maintenance.

    Perform advanced tasks with the Advanced Version Cue Workspace Administration utility.

    To display the Version Cue Workspace Administration utility log-in page, open the Adobe Version Cue preferences from the Control Panel (Windows) or System Preferences (Mac OS) on the computer where the Version Cue workspace is located, and click Advanced Administration. In the Version Cue Workspace Administration login page that opens in a browser window, enter the default system administrator login information--system for login and system for password--and click Log In.