Three Places to Find Help Online
Over the course of my education in Graphic Design, I have had to turn to sources on the internet to help solve my problems. Whether it’s a problem I’ve never encountered before or something simple that I’ve forgotten how to do, I’ve found that the answers are out there if you know where to look. Chances are that someone has had the exact same problem as you.
Generally speaking, if you’ve run into an issue with one of your design programs, the first option you’ll get from Google will be Adobe Community or the Adobe Help Center. The Adobe Help Center is a subsection of Adobe’s main website with the answers to frequently asked questions from users. I personally have not had much luck with the Help Center, I would rather use Adobe Community if necessary.
https://community.adobe.com/
Adobe Community is Adobe’s official forum for users to interact with one another. This is where I would go to if I had a problem because I would get answers from real people who use the same software. This space has a lot more room for nuanced situations than the FAQ section of the Help Center. There are people in the forums who work with Adobe or have been around long enough to be considered Community Experts. These people will have a special tagline underneath their username. Their posts can be upvoted or downvoted by other users. If the proposed solution solves the problem, the correct post will be highlighted green. There are posts going back years and some that were posted yesterday. If you have a specific question about an Adobe program, the Community forum is a great resource to find the answers to your problem.
If you are looking for some resources to learn a new skill in one of your programs or in need of some visual tutorials, I would highly recommend checking out the wide range of videos Youtube has to offer.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6lrxMZggMaN1u2V9N2-zrQ
For example, this is a Youtube channel called “Photoshop Tutorials” that features exactly what the name suggests: nearly 150 Photoshop video tutorials for designers of all skill range. These videos teach users to use basic Photoshop tools to create fun and exciting effects for the user’s projects. This channel has open comments to all users, a like and dislike system, and the seal of approval from the official Photoshop Youtube channel. This channel has not posted any new videos for several years, but people are still getting good use out of these tutorials. The channel still has over 1 million subscribers who benefit from these short, easy to follow tutorials. I would try out one of these tutorials next time I want to do a neat effect in Photoshop.
Finally, and to my surprise the website that has been most helpful with a lot of design issues I’ve faced is Reddit. Reddit is a social media website that hosts a massive variety of smaller “communities” within itself. There is a designated Subreddit for all three of the major Adobe programs I use, and I have gotten extremely useful information here that I could not find anywhere else. Just last week I was having an issue with Indesign and the official Adobe websites were of no help. I found what I needed on the Indesign Subreddit in seconds, and learned a neat new trick too.
https://www.reddit.com/r/indesign/
People can come and post their questions and have them answered by other users. Anyone can leave a comment and upvote or downvote other comments. People on Reddit are generally a lot less formal than the people on official platforms, and you may see disagreements on solutions in the comments. I’ve found that trying different suggestions from Reddit in a trial-and-error process is often the most effective way to get a problem solved. They might not always be nice about it, but if there’s a viable solution to your issue, chances are that someone on Reddit has the answer.