Manage versions of your site with Version Cue

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to make a new Version Cue project, how to take an existing site and turn it into a Version Cue project, and how to mount a Version Cue site.

Introducing Version Cue

What exactly is Version Cue? Simply put, Version Cue is a file-management and version-control system specific to Adobe Creative Suite. It made its debut in the first edition of Creative Suite, but in CS2 has become more discoverable, more robust, and easier to use. If you have a standalone copy of Adobe GoLive CS2, you will not have Version Cue because it ships only as a component of the Adobe Creative Suite 2. However, each of the individual Adobe products, GoLive® CS2, Photoshop® CS2, Illustrator® CS2, InDesign® CS2, and Acrobat® 7 Professional, can hook into a running installation of Version Cue.

Version Cue is a server, a holding area in which you create projects that you want to manage with the Version Cue features, such as sharing files with a co-worker. Version Cue projects can contain documents of all kinds, and those documents are accessed either via the new Adobe Bridge application or, in the case of GoLive, from the Site window.

After completing a default installation of the Adobe Creative Suite 2, Macintosh computer users will see a new icon in their Finder menu bar whereas Windows computer users will find the icon in their Taskbar. This means Version Cue is up and running on the local machine. In both cases, you’ll be able to access several important functions of Version Cue from this icon, such as the Version Cue preferences and the Advanced Administration area.

The Version Cue preferences and Advanced Administration areas are easily accessed via the Version Cue menu found in the Windows task bar (Windows) or the Finder menu bar (Mac OS).

You can also turn Version Cue on or off directly from this menu. When Version Cue is off, its icon displays a little red stop sign on it. Choose Turn Version Cue CS2 On to enable it and Off to disable. As it is starting up, the leaves in the icon first turn gray and then turn green one-by-one until the whole icon is colored in. When the icon is completely green, Version Cue is ready to go.

Run Version Cue on a separate server

The default Creative Suite installation installs Version Cue CS2 on your machine and turns it on automatically. If you would instead prefer to run Version Cue on a separate machine so that all users on your network can access it, you can do so by doing a custom install of the Creative Suite. Simply deselect Version Cue in the list so it won’t be installed on the local machine. Then, run the installer on the second machine (the server) and deselect everything except for Version Cue CS2. This will install Version Cue CS2 on the second machine. You can find the network address that the users will need to access Version Cue in the login screen of the Advanced Administration area.

Log into the Advanced Administration area

Using the Version Cue CS2 icon in the Windows taskbar (Windows) or in the Finder (Mac OS), choose Advanced Administration. Your Web browser will open and display the login page. The default login and password system is noted directly on the page above the login and password fields. If you do not need secure access to the Version Cue administration features, you can leave the defaults as they are. If you prefer more security, change the defaults in the Users area after you have logged in. Be sure to note your new username and password before logging out.

Create a Version Cue project

There are several ways to create a Version Cue project, so we cover two of them in this tutorial. First, we show how to create a project in the Adobe Bridge, and then we create a project from inside GoLive CS2. (You can also create a project from Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, or in the Advanced Administration area of Version Cue.)

Create a project in Adobe Bridge

A very simple way to create a Version Cue project is to open the Adobe Bridge application and choose Tools > Version Cue > New Project. The New Project dialog box will open with fields in which you can type the project name and info. If you plan to work with others on the project, enable the checkmark next to Share This Project With Others. When you are finished, click OK.

When you create a new project from Adobe Bridge, use a descriptive name. It’s a good practice to put a bit of info about the project in the Project Info box as well.

Once the project has been created, you can click on Version Cue in the Favorites tab of Bridge to see it. Hovering your mouse over the project’s icon will bring up a Tool Tip showing the metadata for the project, including the project info you entered when you created the project.

You can access Version Cue projects and any data about them via Adobe Bridge.

Now that you have a project, you can take an existing GoLive site, convert it to a Version Cue site, and save it into that or any other existing Version Cue project. However, it is not necessary to have a Version Cue project prior to converting a GoLive site into a Version Cue site. In the next part of this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a new Version Cue project directly from within GoLive.

Create a project in GoLive

You can create a new Version Cue-enabled site or take an existing site and convert it into a Version Cue site directly from within GoLive. To convert an existing site, follow these steps:

Note: To create a new Version Cue-enabled site, create a new site in GoLive and when you get to the Version Cue screen, do following procedure.

1. Open the site and then choose Site > Settings from the menu.

2. Select Version Control at the bottom of the list on the left.

3. Enable Use Version Control at the top of the Settings dialog box.

   

   To convert an existing site into a Version Cue site, turn on Version Control in the Site Settings.

4. Choose Version Cue from the Version Control System popup list.

   GoLive will automatically fill out the information for Server, Project Username, and Port. If the server IP address is not correct, click the down arrow to the right of the input field to choose the name of the computer on which Version Cue is installed from the list or type in the IP address. You can find the IP address in the login screen of the Advanced Administration page (see “Log into the Advanced Administration area” above). Check to make sure your username is correct and if it is not correct it before continuing.

5. Rename the project if you’d like or click Browse to select a different project to save the site into.

6. Click the options to Show Detailed Synchronization Report and then click OK.

   If you are placing the site into an existing project, the synchronization screen will come up next. If you are creating a new project, you’ll first get a dialog box saying that the project does not exist and asking if you’d like to create it. Choose Yes, and then the synchronization screen will appear.

   

   To convert an existing site into a Version Cue site, turn on Version Control in the Site Settings. You can see all of the files that will be uploaded to the Version Cue server and make any changes you deem necessary.

7. To finish the process, click OK. The files will be uploaded to the project, and a report will be displayed.

   Note: When converting older GoLive sites into Version Cue sites, you may get an alert saying that the site must be converted to the new site structure. Do so by dismissing the dialog box, and then with the site opened, choose Site > Convert Site To New Structure before proceeding with the steps outlined here.

Mount a Version Cue site

To begin working on a Version Cue site you must first mount the site from your local machine. This means that a working copy of the site will be created on your computer, whether the site you are accessing resides in a project on your own machine or in a project on a Version Cue server elsewhere on your network. Mounting a Version Cue site is very simple. From the File menu, choose Connect to Version Cue.

To mount a Version Cue-managed site, select Connect to Version Cue from the File menu

A window will open showing a list of projects that you have access to. Select the project containing the site you want to work on and click OK, or double-click the project name in the list.

Double-click the name of the project that holds the Version Cue site you want to open to mount it to your computer

You may get a dialog box asking you to synchronize the site. You can click OK to synchronize or Cancel to mount the site without synchronizing it.

Note: Another way to mount a Version Cue site is to use the File > New dialog. From there, choose the Site category on the left, Connect to Site in the center pane, and select Version Cue from the pop up. Type in the name or IP address of the server and click Browse to select a project.