16 December 2008

I recently upgraded to Adobe Web Premium CS4 and I must say it was like going from match to flame thrower.

I've been using Adobe (Macromedia) products since their inception and have see them come a long way. But the changes they make between versions today are consistent and methodical in two areas:

1. New technology: Of course they need to come out with new stuff. Push the envelope. Stretch the imagination. Use the latest technology to make it happen.
2. Ease of use: But maybe more important for me are the upgrades to the work flow. Changes that make regular, mundane processes move fast and efficient.
   

You need a healthy dose of each in a new version of software. But the same goes for just about anything - including your website.

Don't roll something big out on your site unless it has something new to offer and makes the user experience more streamlined (that was free...).

What I'm Geeked About
I currently use Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash and the Flash Media Encoder. And while there are numerous enhancements to these programs, I only have time to go over a few.

• Dreamweaver (view top new features here): Amazing new interface that allows you to view a live HTML page inside the design window rather than opening a browser every time. Included content is now connected visually so you can easily get to code pages (CSS, js, SSI's etc.) from the HTML page itself.
• Fireworks (view top new features here): Adobe AIR authoring, improved CSS export and robust PDF export for comps.
• Flash (view top new features here): New object-based animation, inverse kinematics with the bones tool, 3D transformation (sweet), and the Media Encoder now has H.264 support with more options and control over the video encoding process.

I'm thinking I'm in love...