|
Words by Ric Getter
August 2005
 It's
no coincidence that Macromedia chose August 8th (8/8) to unveil
Studio's latest incarnation. But we're certain that the company
did not need such numerical niceties to make this a most memorable
and attention-grabbing product. Even though the product won't
be shipping until September, we had a chance to take the Studio
8 Beta for a test drive and were given online tour via Macromedia's
rather cool, Flash-based web conferencing product, Breeze.
Like Adobe's Creative Suite 2, Studio 8 will likely be Macromedia's
last major software release before the companies merge over
the coming year.
In the light of this, most notably absent is an upgrade to
Freehand, a product that has perpetually taken a back seat
to Adobe's Illustrator. What has been added is a copy
of Contribute 3, Macromedia's powerful end-user web
publishing tool as well as FlashPaper 2, the company's
innovative tool for converting documents to PDF for Flash
(SWF) format.
In terms of its flagship products, Dreamweaver, Flash and
Fireworks, Studio 8 represents a significant evolutionary
step, with an extensive list of new and improved features
(and at least one we'd put in the “revolutionary”
category. However, the look and feel remains familiar enough
for users of the earlier versions to settle right in and feel
at home. Also, even though we were only working on a fairly
early beta, the Mac version of the Studio portends better
performance and greater stability than MX 2004.
Unlike many other publishers, Macromedia seems to recognize
and respect the fact that not all of its customers cutting-edge,
full-time developers. They know that professionals in other
fields as well as in K12 classrooms are using their products.
So, while adding some extensive capabilities, they've worked
hard to make all their features easily accessible with as
friendly a learning curve as possible. Most notably, they've
gone to great lengths to convert the masses to CSS.
 Dreamweaver
8 & Fireworks 8
Designing pages with tables has become so 20th-century.
The team of Dreamweaver 8 and Fireworks 8 will help bring
you up-to-date with an extensive set of features to use smoother
and speedier CSS and XHTML formatting. Fireworks even uses
CSS to generate pop-up menus. Once they're brought into Dreamweaver,
the program's expanded CSS panel can fine-tune the parameters.
The enhanced panel provides an improved design that both CSS
pro's and newbies will appreciate. Round-trip editing between
the applications is easier than ever with behaviors and JavaScript
effects moving from Fireworks to Dreamweaver with a single
click. Dreamweaver now offers more direct editing features,
so in many cases, the round-trip may not even be necessary.
There are several new features that will be welcomed by workgroups.
Dreamweaver's check-in/check-out feature has been added to
Fireworks and collections of graphic objects can be exported
from Fireworks as a Dreamweaver library. Updates to the graphics
can be reflected site-wide.
Whether you prefer WYSIWYG design or hand coding, Dreamweaver
8 introduces a variety of new tools to make your life easier
and more productive. For the former, the new Zoom tool lets
you enlarge portions of the page for more precise object placement.
For the coders, Code Collapse expands or reduces either selected
chunks of HTML or the areas between chosen tags so you can
concentrate on the areas needing attention. As you would expect,
Dreamweaver 8 provides full support of the latest dynamic
technologies including ColdFusion MX 7, PHP 5 and ASP.NET.
 Flash
8 Pro
Flash now comes in two flavors. Flash Basic 8 is
the economical, entry-level option that serves as a great
place to start if you're just interested in learning the program
and need access to its essential drawing, animation and scripting
features. All the new eye-popping features were consigned
to Flash Pro 8, the most impressive of which can be summed-up
in one word: video. Studio 8 marks the debut of the remarkable
Flash 8 Video Encoder. This very simple tool will take your
Final Cut Pro project files and render them directly into
Flash Video (FLV) format, preserving alpha channels if you
wish, so they can be composited over other Flash content.
Flash Pro also features a set of video filters for effects
like drop shadows, blurs and bevels that are rendered natively
and in real time. The Pro version also supports the creation
and testing of content for mobile devices that support the
Flash Lite standard.
Opportunity to Update
The full Studio 8 suite is priced at $999. However,
owners of virtually any of the earlier versions of the included
applications can get the collection at a special upgrade price
of $399. As always, Macromedia is exceptionally generous with
its educational pricing (which is probably why some of the
most talented and creative Flash artists on the web are too
young to drive).
You'll find more in-depth coverage of Studio 8 in an upcoming
issue of MacDirectory. Until then, look for more
details on the Macromedia web site [http://www.macromedia.com]/.
|
