Bridge & Version Cue

Well. WE USED to here in the studio, but it was kind of a disaster. Bridge first off is great as a standalone app, but if you're SERIOUSLY into digital photography then it wouldn't cut the mustard when you're dealing with RAW files etc. Its a great file browser but on a 2ghz G5 with 2 gb of RAM its VERY sticky and slow. Now I've used the CS3 Bridge and its no different so I REALLY think that as an alternative to the finder, it sucks. We ONLY use it right now to browse RAW files from Photographers, rate and choose thumbs, but that's about it.

We even tried out Adobe Stock Photos and THAT was a disaster too, thank god they discontinued it. You could have ONLY used ASP through bridge and while it was GREAT to get all your photos in one place and finding photos was easy. . . BUYING them was a WHOLE OTHER story!

Version Cue
This is a GREAT idea that was sold to us 'wrongly.' I was under the impression that it DIDN'T NEED a dedicated server to set it up. Each individual artist could create their own projects and then everyone would share it and it would be GREAT to revert back to previous versions so that life would be easier. Not so. What happened was an artist would finish a 12 page indesign document, be saving versions after a couple of days and then one day. . . BAM she would open the file and the document would have reverted to the FIRST time she ever created it. . .i.e a BLANK file. and no matter HOW hard we tried, it used to screw up our files. At one point our IT 'people' did something to our machines one night without telling me and ALL our projects got screwed. We LOST an entire pitch and the CD was NOT happy. While it wasn't a 'version cue' specific fault, it shows that if IT doesn't understand what it is and how it works, you're screwed.

We stopped using it because we don't have a dedicated server to run Version Cue successfully. Its a pity, because its a POWERFUL resource, but not well explained and a LITTLE complex for what it tries to do. (u need a degree in IT I guess to make sure its running smoothly) I don't know how the CS3 version runs, BUT I know the CS2 version does NOT run on intel macs so. . .

I would LOVE to get it working again as its a GREAT idea, and if you have a BIG department it helps with workflow.

I'm not even sure I know what Version Cue is for, even though its been around for years.

I do use Bridge now and again when I need to browse through files that don't preview in the finder.

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i've never heard of anyone successfully implementing version cue (although i'm sure someone has).

i use bridge regularly to view thumbnails (since you can see thumbnails of RAW, PSD, AI, etc) and i want to start using it more for other things. i've started using it at work to do some organizational things i do at home in lightroom, like going through photoshoots and tagging keepers, revision, or rejections.

Good post, Mara. Was wondering the same too. I was/am going to take a look at bridge as it could help in a few key areas.

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
— Frank Zappa

Doesn't sound like you'd really need these apps if you're a one-person shop. You could just as easily use Extensis Portfolio to archive and organize your images/files.

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Powerpoint is not a design application

I don't use them. As a matter of fact, I don't even install them. I have heard other horror stories like the above one, although some people find it very useful. For me, I just don't see the need.

Bridge is Adobe's "replacement" for the finder. You use it to browse files ONLY. It doesn't (as far as I know) do what Portfolio does. and its snail pace slow and buggy. If you're a PHOTOGRAPHER: Apeture is the way to go. I have heard.

Without a dedicated server. Its useless.

HOWEVER the idea of 'rolling back' to a previous version as a time saver (for ultra-picky clients) is plus. I just wish they would have implemented something better! or less painful to deploy. Its BASICALLY using a web interface to interact with your 'projects' to admin them.

There are TONS of stuff I could tell you about Version Cues plus and minuses. . . but you could ACTUALLY turn it on right now (if you have it installed) and try it on a test project!

Now, isn't "rolling back" a feature of Time Machine? I run Leopard, but have yet to make use of Time Machine.

I don't however, use them anymore and wouldn't again by choice.

Can be very usefull.

Let's say you wan't to create a pdf presentation of some photographs for your client. You can use under the tools menu > Photoshop and do it from within Bridge, or create a contact sheet and so on.

If you want to place a document in InDesign and you don't know which document it was... You can scroll through any file and his pages in the preview window, and so on.

At the same time the Bridge stores settings that are shared within the suite. You colormanagement, your pdf-settings and so on.

In combination with InDesign you can drag files you want to place in InDesign from the Bridge to your InDesign document and it is the same function as the Place command (it creates a link to the original file)

And it is a visible browser through your computer.

So it isn't unnessary, you simply have to get accostumed to use it, or not...

In our office environment, we have a production management program that we use: "PMP", so I think that pretty much axes the use of Version Cue. PMP automates a lot of things for us, like creating PDF and EPS files when we're finished with a document and that sort of thing, as well as keeps track of the time we've spent on files, who's been using them, what their current status is and so on and so forth. While the implementation of PMP at first was an absolute nightmare, we've been using it about a year and a half now and I've had to go to a separate office to work "old skool" on some ads because they don't have PMP at that office, and I really do see the value of having so much stuff automated for us.

We have a ticketing system in place where we assign ads "Insertion Order numbers", "pick up" ads to run again and assign new IO numbers to ads that we're picking up but changing and that sort of thing. That's how we keep a backlog of old versions of ads. And all the old ads are stored within the dedicated PMP server.

But that's for a fairly large amount of ads pushing in and out. Not sure how practical PMP would be for a freelance business or small design firm. I guess it all really depends on the volume of designs you work on.

We don't use Bridge here at all. I think we've all determined it's just a different version of the Finder.

At home I don't use either, but my freelance work at home is very minimal so I have a pretty basic filing system set up for that kind of work. And, again, I feel Finder does the same thing as Bridge, and the nice thing is, is I'm not having to open another application to look at my files. I might take a little tutorial of Bridge one day, though, to see if it could be of any value to me, but right now, I don't feel it's needed.

It's a Baseview/Mediaspan product:

http://baseview.com/Article.asp?id=193247&c=2

I'd be pretty wary about installing it, though - our IT team was having nightmares for weeks when we first launched the program... but it IS working pretty nicely now. (I may curse our stream of good luck by saying that though... lol).

As I understand it, if we have problems with the server/software that our IT staff can't quite figure out, they do contact Baseview/Mediaspan for additional technical support. For the most part though, it's all internally maintained, much like installing Adobe Photoshop on your machine - you might have a couple weird bugs occur that you try to work out on your own, but there are some that are just too much so you have to contact their Tech Support for assistance.

They definitely cater their products to newspapers and other like publications.

Funny, I came here looking for others frustrated with PMP, actually found a co-worker talking about it.

As far as the others go. I would argue that Bridge is much better than Finder for certain tasks, and very worth exploring. It is however worse at others.

For photography though, Lightroom is probably the best by far. With Aperture right behind it.

I've never used Version Cue, so I can't really comment on it.