Dear Adobe Creative Suite:

For the most part, you make our lives easier. We’ve never taken you for granted, but your supposed “self-improvement” to “CS5″ has left us wondering if you even care about us at all. Back in your “CS3″ phase, we thought things were going pretty well. Then, we decided to spend some time apart during your half-hearted “CS4″ period. And now… well, you just feel like a stranger, CS.

Of course, there are things about the “new you” that we’re happy to see, like linking Smart Objects and masks in Photoshop. Or, the addition of Smart Guides in InDesign.

But overall, I think our relationship isn’t what it once was. If you want us in your life, here are some things we need you to work on. Some things on this list have been a long time coming; the rest are aspects of the new you that we don’t much care for.

InDesign

[Still waiting] When placing an image, we should be able to navigate to the folder that the working document is in (not the last folder linked to, which is most likely a totally different project).

[New you] Locking an object used to fix its location, while allowing basic changes. Now, locked objects are completely unselectable and uneditable. This behavior matches Illustrator now, but we were hoping for the other way around.

[New you] When ripping PDFs, the process is hidden inside the wacky new Background Panel.

[Still waiting] Also when ripping a PDF, we’d like to set Initial View and Author options. (Instead, we have to open every PDF in Acrobat to make those changes).

[Still waiting] Placed images in InDesign don’t update automatically, but they do in Illustrator (we prefer Illustrator’s method).

[New you] We find ourselves accidentally moving images within an image box now — usually without realizing it. (This one is really irritating, CS.)

[Still waiting] We rarely want to crop images inside an image box. Instead, we’d like a checkbox that functions to never (ever) distort or crop this image. Ever!

[Still waiting] We could use column widths of different sizes.

[Still waiting] When converting text to outline, borders or fills on text boxes are unceremoniously deleted.

[Still waiting] Also when converting text to outline, grouped text boxes are ignored. They have to be ungrouped and outlined individually.

[New you] Overset text is really difficult to find now. The trick before was to just zoom out on the document (clearly highlighting the overset icon). Now, the overset text has to be found manually.

[Still waiting] Scaling multiple text boxes to a specific size (rather than by percentage) doesn’t resize the text — just the boxes.

Photoshop

[New you] Scrolling is really slow (especially compared to scrolling in InDesign, which is now hyper-sensitive).

[Still waiting] OK, seriously… swatches should be attached to a document (as they are in Illustrator and InDesign).

And within a document, global colors would really simplify things (as the do so effectively in Illustrator and InDesign.

Illustrator

[Still waiting] Type handling should work just as it does in InDesign — which includes align text vertically inside text boxes, among many, many other necessities.

[Still waiting] When deleting swatches in Illustrator, we’d like to see the Replace With dialog box from InDesign.

[Still waiting] Layers can’t be grouped, and sub-layering isn’t a workable substitue.

Acrobat

[Still waiting] Batch Process (which we run on every PDF we make to set Initial View and Author options) is buried two levels deep in the menu, can’t be set to a shortcut key, and opens a separate window. In short, it’s a tedious chore of every working day of our lives.

[Still waiting] Vector rectangles with just four points (like an ‘l’ or the bottom of an ‘i’) render as larger shapes than they actually are. This has been an issue for years, and if we don’t catch it, it often confuses our clients. The workaround is to just add more points to the shape, but seriously.

Miscellaneous

[Still waiting] Keyboard shortcuts for kerning are inconsistent across the Suite.

[Still waiting] Rotation direction is inconsistent across the Suite.

[Still waiting] It would save us a few clicks to be able to switch units of measurement within a palette (or really, anywhere outside of the Preferences).

Listen, CS, we’ve been together long enough that I think I can tell it like it is — I owe you that. The truth is that we’d be walking out the door if there were anyone else that could compare to you. Despite your flaws, you’re the best there is.

We’re in this for the long haul, and we make sacrifices for you every day. It’s time for you to give something back.

Sincerely,

Oxide Design Co.

Editor’s note: We’ll be updating this list as we find new items, or (assuming Adobe is listening) items are addressed. Also, we know that there’s an official place to submit bugs and feature requests — which is why we’ve been doing that for years.