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Web Design & Productivity
Review: Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium
5/29/2007
So is there anything wrong here? Sure--there's always something to complain about, though in this case everything falls into the category of relatively minor nits. First, as a designer (and intermediate ActionScripter on my best day), I'm not nuts about the changes in ActionScript 3. Yes, I know AS2 is available, but you can't use AS2 with the new streamlined components, so it kind of forces your hand. It's also not trivial to port legacy projects to AS3; basic things like button clicks have to be completely re-written to conform to the new language. I'm also not thrilled about Adobe's approach to playback of FLV content. Straight FLV playback has never been a trivial task, and while a simple "double-click to view" FLV player would have sufficed, apparently we must collectively wait for the advertiser-friendly Adobe Media Player later this year to "officially" handle FLV playback. In the meantime, VLC plays back FLV clips admirably, as does Adobe's own Bridge application. Mac users can also use the Perian codecs to view FLV clips directly in Apple's QuickTime Player.Overall, however, between Flash 8 and now CS3, most major gripes have been addressed, and thoughtful and worthwhile new features have been introduced. Flash CS3 works well across platforms; the Mac version is every bit as fast, as responsive, and as "quirk-free" as the Windows versions (XP and Vista), especially on Intel Macs (for both Flash 9 content playback as well as the authoring environment). The CS3 upgrade seems to mostly be about refinement, compatibility, and integration, and, on those points, Flash CS3 is a complete success.
So now that you've been buttered up by the new and cool stuff in Flash, it's time to throw some cold water on this party. In a nutshell, the other three former Macromedia Studio products range from "ho-hum" to disappointing, yet in the midst of all the "meh" I'm about to spew forth, a few nuggets of excellence still stand out. Let's start with Dreamweaver and work our way ahead from there.
Dreamweaver CS3
GoLive is out, and Dreamweaver is in. No real shock there, since Dreamweaver is very widely used. But for all the effort put into making Flash CS3 look and behave like an Adobe product, Dreamweaver seems to be left holding the bag. The CS3 interface is nowhere to be found, save for the "periodic chart" icon and splash screen, and the latest version has very limited new features. Unfortunately, this approach has been the norm for the last several Dreamweaver updates, and a new corporate parent hasn't seemed to change things much. Let's cover what few additions there are to Dreamweaver CS3 because, while there aren't many, some are at least significant.
(Click for larger image.)
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