Dreamweaver MX 2004

This new version of Dreamweaver Web development package is for both Web designers and developers. For developers, it has enhanced support for ASP.NET, PHP, JSP and ColdFusion development. For designers, there’s a handy CSS style panel, built in image editing, in addition to direct Flash element support. Some other improvements include more checks for multiple browser compatibility, and support for more Web browsers, secure FTP and an interface overhaul that still has the soul of the old Dreamweaver. Here’s our analysis of these new features. 

One major addition to this version is the way in which it handles Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), making it an absolute breeze. There is a new CSS rule inspector panel that can be accessed both in code view and design view. This inspector shows all the rules that apply to the selected section. The rules can be graphically edited and accurate results can be seen on the interface as in they go in the Web browser. And, if you prefer coding your CSS without any graphic support, then it gives you code hints in the code window. It also has a new CSS-based text property editor, which shows various available CSS styles with their previews in a dropdown menu.

Another good feature of Dreamweaver is cross browser validation, which has always been a pain for Web developers. Till now, Web developers had to install multiple Web browsers and manually check whether the Web pages show up properly on them. The previous version of Dreamweaver introduced a few enhancements to take care of this problem, such as compatibility checks for tags and CSS constructs. This version adds more checks and Web browsers to the list.

Dreamweaver has also added secure FTP to encrypt data when uploading. 

On the developer front, it supports code hints for ASP.NET, ColdFusion and XML with color-coding. Also included are predefined objects and server-side scripts for common tasks in ASP .NET, ColdFusion, JSP and

PHP.

Finally, we come to the editing enhancements. The table editor goes for a complete revamp making it easier for the designer to manage and edit tables. You can now copy paste directly from Word and Excel while preserving fonts, colors and CSS styles. Also, not to miss is the in built support for basic image editing. Users can now crop images, edit brightness/contrast and sharpness of an image without having to switch to a professional package like Photoshop. 

All said and done, although there are a lot of all round enhancements in the product, the major improvements are on the CSS front. Thus, it’s a great upgrade if you use CSS extensively, but if you don’t, then you may want to stick with what you already have. 

Geetaj Channana