Illustrator User Guide?

[Gallucci Art]

Any OLD Illustrator users here? I still think having a "User Guide" printed book is the easiest and fastest way to get help. I wish Adobe would go back to printing these books. Does anyone know of something equivelent to a user guide?

Adobe could slow down the updates and print user guides once a year or once every two years, it would still help. They could even sell it and I would buy it, as it used to come with the program. 

So far, I haven't been able to find the electronic version of any such source that is as easy to use, it used to take me seconds to find a solution. Now we have to go to a forum, post, wait and see. Or look up answers, search and search. 

Thanks.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

An old unfortunately, but the most recent one:

https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/illustrator_reference.pdf

[jane-e]

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@Gallucci Art wrote:

I wish Adobe would go back to printing these books. Does anyone know of something equivelent to a user guide?

Adobe made the decision to stop publishing the PDFs that we loved. In addition to the resource from Ton, Adobe suggests that you use the online help and thinks it is equivalent:

https://helpx.adobe.com/support/illustrator.html

[Second_Alto]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Anubhav Majumder]

Hello @Second_Alto,

I hope the suggestions shared by Ton and Jan-e helped resolve the problem. You may also want to look at our online tutorials here: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/tutorials.html.

Kindly update this thread if you need further assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[jane-e]

I hope the suggestions shared by Ton and Jan-e (sic) helped resolve the problem. You may also want to look at our online tutorials here: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/tutorials.html. Kindly update this thread if you need further assistance. We'd be happy to help.

By @Anubhav Majumder

No, the PDF from 2019 that Ton linked to and the online help that I said Adobe "thinks is equivalent" do not resolve the problem, Anubhav. An updated PDF with details and nuances and not just elementary introductions to topics is what we are looking for. 

Jane

[david misconish]

Unfortunately, the online tutorial you shared is sorely lacking.

I find this hard to take as a serious response to the needs and desires of
your paying customers.

Don't you have anything else to offer?

Thank you,
Dave

[Met1]

"...sorely lacking."

In what way?

"...your paying customers."

This is a user to user forum, not Adobe corporate.

Be more specific and maybe someone here can help...

[Monika Gause]

Don't you have anything else to offer?Thank you,Dave
By @david misconish

The full documentation can be found online as well.

There don't seem to be a lot of requests on User Voice. I could only find this one. You might want to enrich it with your demands. And I would be as precise as possible: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/446...

User Guide: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/user-guide.html

[Kurt Gold]

There are authors that try to compensate that gap with some instruction books.

Often it is a kind of funny business, because year after year weighty tomes are published for each new version of Illustrator, although a small booklet would be sufficient to explain some new features that were introduced in the most recent versions of Illustrator.

[Monika Gause]

There are authors that try to compensate that gap with some instruction books.

Often it is a kind of funny business, because year after year weighty tomes are published for each new version of Illustrator, although a small booklet would be sufficient to explain some new features that were introduced in the most recent versions of Illustrator.

By @Kurt Gold

And then all new users of Illustrator (who are the target audience for instruction books) would need to buy all the previous editions of those books in order to learn the complete application. And also they would need to go through all the editions in order to follow up which old chapter became outdated with the current version, because there is a better workflow available.

[Gallucci Art]

Adobe doesn't need to update as often as they do. Many of the changes aren't even necessary. It's like the developers need to keep exta busy now throwing too many updates at us as fast as they can, complete waste of time and money.

[Gallucci Art]

Ok, but in the old days, Adobe had it figured out, because when a new version came up, a new user book accompanied it. Not sure up to what version before the subscription method was introduced, but the update system for both the software and user guide worked up to around CS6. With all the knowledge behind Adobe, I would like to think they could figure it out again. This response comes way after the original post. I have noticed a "User Guide" in the "Help" section, don't remember seeing it before. Thanks for your input. 

[Kurt Gold]

I don't think they would need to buy all of the tomes, Monika.

A basic and elaborate manual from time to time and some booklets beyond the basics when new features are introduced would be sufficient, as far as I can see.

[Monika Gause]

A basic and elaborate manual from time to time

By @Kurt Gold

That's pretty much what is happening to most instruction books apart from the "Classroom in a book". That one has to be updated with every version, since it's the offical workbook for certified Adobe training centers. Other instruction books get a full update when an edition is sold.

[Kurt Gold]

I do understand and know that, Monika.

It is a dubious business nonetheless, in my eyes.

[david misconish]

I myself am an OLD(School) Illustrator user and I agree that the lack of issuing any type of user guide is at best discourteous. Unfortunately, they seem quite happy to *Offload* (i.e. burden and/or inconvenience) the task to their *community*. It seems like they used to consider us customers (or even clients) who deserved professional, well-organized, easy-to-use, comprehensive instructions and guides. Hmmm,.. whatever happened to supporting those who put/keep you in business? I guess in the software business that's progress? 

It's even worse when you consider that we live in a time when it would be magnitudes easier than ever to produce, share and update truly useful and robust supporting content- Instead they offer tutorials that are so basic, they're practically useless.

just my 2¢

[Gallucci Art]

well said! Thank you. I hope Adobe reads your response.

[jane-e]

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@Gallucci Art wrote:
well said! Thank you. I hope Adobe reads your response.

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This is a user-to-user forum. You can tell Adobe here https://illustrator.uservoice.com/ where the product developers will see it.

~ Jane

[david misconish]

Thanks Jane– I'll give it a shot. Even if it doesn't make a difference it'll be interesting to see how they try to position their lack of action/support.

[david misconish]

I agree. Why would they choose to provide just a few (weak/low-level) videos?

[david misconish]

I agree with your sentiment.

It would be oh so very easy to create, update and support if the "old school book version" was an online searchable resource. Once created it would be even easier to update and maintain. A small (inside Adobe) team could pound that out in a very short time and receive high accolades for it. It baffles me why they wouldn't want or be willing to put forth such a tiny effort to support those who pay them handsomely month after month for their, under-explained/barely supported tools.

[Met1]

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/user-guide.html is just the front page, there's a plethora of tutorials and online help...