Lightroom 2.0 will not export to Photoshop CS3

Julian, I like your suggestion about the stickies. I agree that would be a great way of summarizing the problems and solutions without having to paw through hundreds of messages. I'll see if I can poke the right people and get that done.

Thanks,

-kevin

Ah but that is the primary site where LR Engineers notify users of new versions and inform us on there thinking about issues. The information there may not be what you are looking for, but as far as LR, the App, is concerned that is the place and what info you will get.

Previously you could glean more info from George Jardine's Podcasts, often interviewing the Engineers. But he is no longer with Adobe and therefor not doing anymore such Podcasts, which really is too bad. I miss his involvement.

Don

Well, that's the blog for the LR team from the LR project manager, who as you can see does answer many of the comments placed on the blog from customers.

Dear Lee Jay,

I went to the site you suggested. It was educational for Lightroom. Adobe excels at education and tutorial information which make their products extremely attractive for the paying customer. An A++++ for Adobe's educational and tutorial services.

Unfortunately the site you suggested is not a communicational source, only educational. A subtle difference perhaps but one causing much customer upset at this moment and in the future if not greatly improved.

For me much clearer and easier to find communication is needed.

> Please educate me as to THE PRIMARY WAY ADOBE COMMUNICATES TO ITS USERS.

For Lightroom, I'd suggest here:

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/

Alisdair

I saw the tech note referenced from the FAQ some time during my fun times going through this thread, I think it must have been mentioned somewhere somewhere in there. It is relatively old in terms of this discussion and does not reflect more recent and accurate info which is contained in this thread, so I did not count it as representing the current situation. It contains suggested remedies that don't work and does not contain the ace remedy that does work.

My point, once again, is to make a "real time" summary of the situation that is maintained to reflect the ongoing discussion and back room work at Adobe, and which is easily findable by people in need. I think Ian Lyons' FAQ topic and associated tech note are a good stab at it, but aren't integrated or maintained enough to be accurate or findable by many people.

No-one from the beginning has doubted that Adobe will work it out eventually, what is asked for is to make it easy for people who install their new Lightroom and find out they can't make it work properly to navigate their way to the current explanation/situation, reassure themselves it is not a problem of their own making, and devise their own best strategy to deal with the problem.

Thanks for the link Alasdair - very helpful.

I don't think I would say we are complaining though - we are giving very relevant feedback. If a company doesn't get feedback from it's customers, it has no idea of their experiences which can be a one-way ticket to irrelevancy (although I am sure Adobe is so large that it will take a long time to get there, I am also sure they do not want to leave some gaping wound to drip customers over to other brands either). I am sure all of us have better things to do than plot out carefully and thoughtfully as I think we have been doing where we feel the customer service could be improved. We want it to work - for us and for them. If we wanted to complain we would just vent spleen without practical suggestions. As a rule I am not a complainer - it is not how I like to live my life. I do however think that companies have no hope of getting it right if people don't give constructive feedback - I don't think anyone has been unconstructive (is that a word?) in this forum; I think there has been some very helpful information, and if I were running a company I would see it as invaluable, and saving me a fortune in market research. A while ago a market research company phoned me to ask about my experiences with Adobe - well here they get it for free and in much more detail - invaluable stuff I would have thought.

Yes I feel like a bit of an idiot for not finding the post you mentioned, but I think I am not alone in that - which brings us back to my previous post where I said that people can find it difficult to find their way into the loop with such a large company. So if that is not happening then that is a good thing for them to know. For me the problem was the fact that once I had found a forum where Adobe people were discussing this problem, I thought I had found the only place which dealt with this issue - esp as none of the Adobe people mentioned on this forum that such a post exists. Once you have found a long-winded explanation of your problem, you may not realise that if you look further you will find a more succint one. All they had to do was to post as you have done the link.

It is a helpful and succinct post and I am grateful for you pointing it out to us.

I have to say that I think that Adobe are very helpful...
There seems to be a mixture of responses on here (from users), from those who are helpful to those who just want to complain...

As recently as yesterday there are people complaining that they have to read through all the messages to get a summary, and why can't Adobe pin a note to the top to save that effort...

well of course, it is fun to read through the messages - that is what forums are about :)

but no, really - have those people not looked into the pinned FAQ at the top of the Lightroom Forum - where such a note was pinned in August, with a link to the appropriate Tech. note... what do people want!

I for one will trust that Adobe will sort it out - they are pretty good at doing so...

Alasdair

Sorry Wolf - I had thought from your wording that you were an Adobe employee. Much obliged for your help - we are fortunate that there are wonderful users on here that can help us when Adobe disappears.

[Edit: Wolf I just saw your post and see you are not with Adobe, have left post below as before for simplicity. JR]

Wolf and others - I gather you are an Adobe person, although this is not stated and is one of the unnecessary sources of confusion on these forums. I did not state that "Adobe does not respond to customers with information", I said that Adobe has not yet offered an effective way of dealing with this sort of problem, and they should. I did acknowledge that Kevin's input was valued and useful, but the fact remains that the levels of customer frustration and bedevilment are much higher than necessary, so Adobe's responses are obviously not adequate in some way.

In short, if Adobe spent less time defending themselves and more time looking at WHY people were upset and reading the insightful inputs of people here, they would see a way of improving the customer experience and thus Adobe's reputation and sales. Being defensive completely ruins the chances of Adobe gaining anything from a situation from which they have plenty to gain. As Karina pointed out - and very nicely put - customer service is about listening and acting in a systematic and coordinated way, not working out how to put down the messengers. If Adobe had any decent systems operating at all, then:

1) all this discussion would now be in front of people high enough to make decisions (this I think is the main problem, it seems to be an organisation without effective internal communications or quality systems of the type we are discussing, so most of the sometimes informative rants on these forums (and in other concentrations of Adobe frustration) never get to be seen by the people that should see them).

2) Realising that there is a problem with Adobe as now operating -- in that its people either...(a) are too close to problems to see them clearly or (b) do not have management reporting structures that allow informed correction to take place, or (c) are plain incompetent (which I doubt)) -- they would be offering contracts to people like us in an instant. People with systems experience, a critical eye, and an external viewpoint.

Shooting the messenger is the least useful but most predictable response and it appears just about every time. Organisations have the advantage over individuals of not being so prone to reacting emotionally to 'attacks' like those that have appeared here, but it requires insight and organisational cohesiveness to do so and thus to respond effectively.

I am not wasting so much time writing all this just because it makes me feel good (it doesn't), but because I am really tired of being disappointed in Adobe's approach to software and support. It has cost me personally a lot of time and from what I can see the same applies to others. It is rare to see forums containing so much negative sentiment. This could be so easily fixed.