The Great New Features Offered By Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
Published on August 15th, 2008 by Andrew Whiteman in Web DesignA lot of software upgrades are not really worth buying, being over-priced and often full of bugs. Dreamweaver upgrades, however, always tend to be worth getting.
Since web development is constantly evolving, each new release of web programs like Dreamweaver tend to contain features which are introduced in response to changes and new technologies in the way websites are constructed and elements that can be placed on web pages. Dreamweaver is now an Adobe product, since the acquisition of Macromedia. So let’s see what Adobe have done to enhance what is probably the most widely-used web development tool in the world.
The previous version of Dreamweaver, version 8, assumed that most users were using tables for the layout of their pages. Since then, there has been a shift towards creating more accessible page layouts using cascading style sheets (CSS). This change is reflected in Dreamweaver CS3 which now includes a series of useful CSS layouts which can be used as the basis for new pages or, more typically, new templates. Each layout contains HTML comments which explain how they are put together and how they can be modified.
This new version of Dreamweaver embraces the change that has taken place in the way web pages are supposed to be built. When the last version of Dreamweaver, version 8, was released, web designers were mainly using tables to lay out the content of their pages. Now, the recommend method is to use cascading style sheets (CSS). The new Dreamweaver contains a variety of CSS layouts which can be used for creating both pages and templates and which contain useful comments for designers on how the layouts work.
The new browser compatibility feature in Dreamweaver CS3 allows users to check for issues within their pages relating to specific browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Netscape). It creates a report explaining problems which may occur when CSS on your pages is rendered in a particular browser.
The last time Dreamweaver was upgraded, Photoshop was a rival to Macromedia’s own Fireworks. Now that Dreamweaver and Photoshop are part of the same stable, Adobe has enhanced their compatibility. You can now copy a slice, selection or entire document from Photoshop, move over to Dreamweaver and paste it. This brings up a special window which enables to optimise and save the copied pixels as a new image.
As well as enhanced support for CSS, Dreamweaver now allows the inclusion of elements of the new Ajax technology which uses JavaScript to add a new level of interactivity to web pages by updating the page with elements from a server without having to reload the page. Dreamweaver’s implementation of Ajax is via the Spry framework. This is a collection of JavaScript-based code which provides a simple way for web designers to add Ajax content to their pages without having to type a line of code.
There are three types of Spry content: widgets, special effects and data sets. Spry Widgets are clickable page elements which respond to user interaction in funky ways. For example, there is a tabbed panel widget which displays different content in the same part of the page depending on which tab the user clicks on. There are also widgets for creating navigational menus and submenus and for validating text fields, text areas and select elements on a form.
Spry effects can be applied to wide range of HTML components and include the ability to fade, highlight, zoom and shrink page elements in response to user interaction.
Spry Data sets are JavaScript objects that display data from an XML source in an HTML table. There is also a useful drill-down capability whereby users can click on summary information displayed in rows of a table to display detailed information in another region of the page.
Dreamweaver CS3 is the first Dreamweaver version to run on Intel-based based Macs as well as PowerPCs. There are also versions for Window XP and Window Vista.
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