Ok, I'm a developer, not a designer. I like drawing, painting and I've always liked designing small items for my web development like buttons, backgrounds, logos, etc. To do this, I used to use Photoshop. I cannot say I'm a "pro" but I can certainly be efficient with those small tasks.

I have switched to Illustrator six months ago. I really like it. The fact that you can resize the items without loosing quality...Wow! How many times have I cursed about this because I haven't started my "button" the right size and had to resize it from Photoshop with crappy results?... So, six months ago I was trying to create a favicon in Photoshop...aarrggg, I'm sure there is a technique but I haven't found it!!! That's where I discovered Illustrator while reading an article that was talking about it. Obviously, the switch was not easy... I bought two training DVDs I finally managed to convert (convert as in "redoing it from scratch") my latest projects in Illustrator.

I really like prototyping my web layout in Illustrator. At least the rounded boxes keep their corner sizes... Something I'm not good at is to "when to stop" designing (since it's more a hobby then a job with deadlines)... I add and add and delete and add... and then realize that the one I did two hours ago was probably the best one... but I don't have it anymore.

So I have decided to take a copy of my AI file every time I'm satisfied with a design and then keep working on the master file. That works perfectly for me! I also export each copy into PDF. It's easier to present or review the layouts. While I was there, I've develop a small tool using PDFSharp library. It merges all my PDF files into a single file and creates "bookmarks" on the left side panel... Really nice for picking up the best design!

I wonder what the experimented (professional) designers do?

Update 1: Someone wrote me that in Acrobat 9.0 Extended, there is a way to create a "portfolio" into your PDF file that gives a really nice "presentation" media...

Update 2: Wow! From the video on Adobe web site, it looks very powerful (even PDF merger included)... I'll take a look with the trial version.