Discontinuing CS review?

[Wsmedia1]

Can anyone shed some light on why Adobe is discontinuing CS review? We recently bough the subscription for it and had been using it quiet frequently. We were hoping this is would be a great workflow idea for getting revisions to clients and now it is going away? I really hope that they are just pulling now to make some changes and then bring it back because it was an amazing tool.

[Guest]

I just got the email on that myself. I thought at first that they just meant discontinued if you haven't paid up yet which I was going to hit up my company to do. I thought it was quite a popular feature but I guess not. Maybe there'll be something to replace it. I'll be keeping watch.

[roliver1969]

Adobe has a long history of killing off online services. When I was showing off CS Review at work I was asked what the drawbacks were. My reply was something along the lines of "they will probably kill it off within a year or so." It was promising, but deeply flawed in many respects.

From what I can tell Adobe is always quick to kill of products/services that don't sell or work well. What I can't figure out is why they even bother with some of this stuff if they are not willing to nurture things for very long. As soon as something struggles they just kill it.

Now they are pushing the Creative Cloud, but I've lost a lot of faith in what Adobe does beyond it's core products.

[chimik]

It would be nice to get more information other than "Here's how to get your CS Review documents out before we delete them" messaging.

If they are going to include the functionality of CS Review in the Creative Cloud, that's fine with me. Just give us a little more info, I've come to rely on the proofing workflow of CS Review.

[Heleenvandersanden]

I am also a happy user of Adobe review, I invested in having all the editors of my magazine working with CS review. Now Adobe pulls the plug, with only an email to the customers how to save theis content! That's no  way to treat your professional customers! Adobe please continue Adobe review, it is a very good tool! Or: give us a good or better alternative.

[drewheriot]

We LOVE CSreview at our agency. The Adobe team did a great job. Sure it doesn't work for some clients due to their ridiculous enterprise level security. Sure it's hard to keep track of versions. Sure it doesn't email you when someone makes a comment, or you comment on their comment. But hey, it's the start of something phenomenal and we were excitedly rolling it out to all the clients that could use it. Hopefully they're doing an HTML5 equivalent with the <canvas> tag or something. If you're listening Adobe, we'd love some more info.

[lowbooo]

What's a pity !

I use it a lot... And we've just set process in my team to use it and people started using it with pleasure...

The notification message is a great example of what we definetely should not do when you announce such a thing : "we're gonna close your tool." and that's it. No reason, no explanation, no regret for loyal users etc... Quite a shame !

[montana mydesign]

I have been using CS review for a couple of years, it has worked very well and my clients love it.

I am frustrated that they are discontinuing this service -

Most likely we won't use Acrobat.com - it adds a layer of work back into the review period between indesign and acrobat - offers options that are redundant to google docs + the cost.

We will probably go back to simply using dropbox.

Please make it a subscription service!

[mmconti]

Please make it a subscription service!  I know there were some issues with client's comments not getting saved but there is a value in the service, and at the right price, it would have paid for itself.  I liked the speed of how quickly one could put a rough cut online for review and how nicely commenting was provided into a sequence for editing.  I would even buy it as a plug-in from a third party!

[Guest]

Anyone know of and alternative to CS Review????????

[Dave Merchant]

If you're OK to convert your documents to PDF, then you can run a Shared Review using Acrobat (and still host the review files on the Acrobat.com servers if you want). It'll work with embedded video and SWF content too, and it's free (provided of course you've got a copy of Acrobat Pro to start the process running, your reviewers just need Adobe Reader and there's no charge to use acrobat.com as a comment repository).

The only things you can't do with Shared Reviews is bring the comments back into your CS apps (InDesign, Prem Pro, etc.), or run the commenting process "live" with the tools on the acrobat.com website (though if you view the PDF in your browser it'll still work). PDF has a couple of advantages (such as being able to run on your own private server without any acrobat.com involvement) but the user does of course have to download the entire document before they can start commenting, unline the CS Review "page at a time" rendering system.

Despite the closure of some aspects of CS Live, the Acrobat.com core services (workspaces, PDF Shared Review hosting, ConnectNow, CreatePDF, ExportPDF, Forms Central, etc.) are carrying on as normal, with no suggestion of being closed at any time in the foreseeable future.

[Jim_Simon]

The only things you can't do with Shared Reviews is bring the comments back into your CS apps

But that right there is the whole point of using the service.  It'll be a genuine loss to us users if Adobe doesn't replace CS Review with something else that can bring the comments into the app.

[WPA_Jr]

Sounds like the opinions are pretty uniform -  would sure be nice ot hear from someone from Adobe on this to  clarify.....

[Oda Cristofolini]

Its really a bad news.

Please make it a subscription service CS Review, as it is. This is amazing tool.

[Prokreacja.com s.c.]

Don;t close it down, pls. It is such a great tool and all my clients love it. You haven't given it enough time and attention. So many people had no idea it existed at all but once they statr using it - there's no going back!

[WPA_Jr]

I  concur - we  use tis  daily and it works much better than dropbox as it is  in-line workflow -   Has anyone gotten any real information from anyone at  Adobe on what the deal is?

[Dave Merchant]

Adobe's statements are available on the CS Review homepage and FAQ. These forums do not provide a direct line of communication to the product team, for that please use the email address within the application itself (click help > feedback).

[nyumeddei]

I still can't believe they have not drafted a better response to the lame announcement that contradicts prior announcements that CS Review was going to be a subscription service. Going back to dropbox is a terrible option. CS Review finally provided the ability to get comments down to timepoints that were easy to navigate back in the editing process. It improved our workflow immensely, especially since our customers are the type who dont know how to describe issues well and are well versed in file types. I called them the day of this announcement and was put on a wild goose chase through customer service that ended with being disconnected.

We will pay for this service.

update:  here is the feedback address, hopefully their team has not been dismantled: csreview_feedback@adobe.com

[WPA_Jr]

I would encourage everyone that agrees with this to also flood the "help" submission of  the CS review site . Does anyone have a contact in adobe? 

I would like to hear the  logic of  what they are going to do and  why they  can not offer a  continuation of this service based on demand?    CS review is a great way for them to differentiate the platform from  FCP  etc. ......

[Dave Merchant]

Adobe have stated their position on the FAQ, to the extent they are able to. This is a commercial market, and explaining why something has been dropped or what else may be in development would give their competitors valuable information.

If you email the help address they will simply repeat what's on the FAQ (assuming you get an answer at all). There may be an additional statement in due course, but these forums aren't the place to look for it.

[WPA_Jr]

@ Dave Merchant  - so  do you have a solution if this  forum is not the place to communicate and the application  Help function is not the place... what do you  suggest we  do   to  get  some response based on the questions at hand?  I  have had a different experience on the  forum as  knowledgable Adobe personnel have  contacted me via the forum to address issues.

[Dave Merchant]

These are user-to-user forums, so while there are some Adobe staff posting here on a voluntary basis who will assist with technical product queries, they will not make policy announcements here or in personal messages. All official statements are posted to the product page (in this case to the CS Review homepage). Suggestions to "flood" the support email address are totally counter-productive.

I appreciate that customers using CS Review want to know why the free version is being discontinued and if there will ever be a replacement service, but those who could answer are not allowed to. Of course Adobe are aware of our concerns, but as a company with shareholders they have to be very careful about what and when they make public.

[Heleenvandersanden]

I've just posted this e-mail to csreview_feedback@adobe.com and I hope they will answer our questions regarding CS Review on their own Forum.

Dear feedback team,

Please give me and your other customers feedback. We're not pleased by the way you treat us in the case of stopping the CS review service, and giving us no alternative or information.

I would like to receive your answer and I'm sure it will be much apreciated if you also answer the questions from your Own Customers on the forum of your Own Company: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4263901#4263901

Regards

Heleen Van der Sanden

[EditorPete]

Just started using this great reviewing process. Bummer Adobe doesn't see the future for it. I totally think it wasn't marketed or made aware to enough of their users. I too think it would put Adobe way ahead of Avid or Apple in this respect. They have nothing to compare to this app. Heck, this app alone should sell more copies of PP, in my opinion. My clients and I sure will be sad if there is no alternative from Adobe.