Years ago, when my brother got me to use his computer for drawing, after several hours of frustration, I threw my hands in the air and said "I have an easier way... it's called a pencil." If you ever tried to use Illustrator and have experienced the same frustration, Total Training is for you. The host, Deke McClelland, an award-winning author, explains how the software works and shows you with the work-along project that comes with the program. Since nobody learns how to ride a bike by watching somebody else, this approach works well.

Deke is an Adobe Certified Expert, a member of the PhotoshopWorld Instructor Dream Team, a featured speaker for Geek Cruises, Mac Mania and Photoshop Fling events, a regular speaker for The InDesign Conference, and a regular contributor to Photoshop User magazine. One of the advantages of having Deke present the lessons, is that we gain from his experience, his insight is honed from writing over 50 titles. He reveals hidden secrets and keyboard shortcuts. Things like: when using the Star or Polygon Tool you can add or subtract points/sides by pressing the Up Arrow while holding down the mouse. (You can subtract points or sides by pressing the Down Arrow key). You can move a shape on the fly by holding down the Spacebar. Because this was made with a pre-release version of Ill CS, one of his insights is incorrect. "Paste in Front" and "Paste in Back" were changed back to what they were in version 10: Command-F and Command-B, not as this DVD says. That is not his fault, but his puns and cheap jokes are terrible, if I could get him to stop, this program would really rock.

I had no performance issues with the Total Training video or Illustrator CS, if I could only get QuarkXPress to work as well.

I recommend this program for learning Illustrator CS with few reservations. It has over 15 hours of video with project files which include the Bonus Disk for a total of 5 DVDs. The Bonus Disk contains more in depth discussions on Selecting Points & Path, Gradients, Color Management, Area Text, Free Distortions, Liquify & Envelope, Brushes and Opacity Mask. Please note that the Bonus Disks are a carry over from TT Illustrator 10.

I do have some gripes. While this program is advertised for beginners through advanced users, it would be better if it were broken up that way. If it were organized as Beginner, Intermediate, and Advance disks, the advanced user could skip things he already knows. A series with only the changes and new features explained would help the professionals/advanced users get up to speed much quicker and not become bored or impatient with the course. With a new version coming, Illustrator CS2 (12) was just announced to begin shipping in May, I do not want to start at the beginning just to learn the new features. This course does not address printing issues and THERE ARE printing issues with transparency, Gradient and the Gradient Mesh Tool. Some printers require that you as Version 8 to flatten the file and get rid of transparency altogether. (The saving down brings up another point: you EXPORT CS files down to Legacy files to save them as a previous version of Illustrator. That does not include version 4-7, you can export to Illustrator 10, 9, 8 and 3) You need a printer that has a Postscript 3 RIP to print Illustrator files with Transparency.

While it cannot replace the documentation that comes with Illustrator or Adobe Classroom in a Book for Illustrator, with Deke's insights and knowledge of secret features, I highly recommend this DVD series especially for beginners.

Pros:

• Over 15 hours of video with project files
• Deke McClelland's knowledge and insights
• I learned hidden features and better, quicker shortcuts
• Teaching by the work-along method

Cons:

• Deke' jokes and puns
• No information on Save for Web feature. (Disk four does have a video on Flash Animation)
• Basic skill and advance skill should be separated to keep advance user from getting bored.
• Need more information about getting good output for printers and professionals.