Dreamweaver CS4: a first look
Published: 24 Sep 2008
Some veteran users of Adobe Creative Suite may find that version 4 offers few extraordinary updates to justify the high cost. However, designers and editors who lean on Dreamweaver for complex dynamic web sites will find plenty of tweaks for editing code more easily within its WSIWYG interface.
The look and feel of this application now matches those of other Creative Suite applications. You can jump among customisable workspaces from a pull-down menu, and we find the collapsible panels more elegant to place and resize.
Dreamweaver's new Code Navigator shows the CSS rules underlying layout elements. Just hover over a footer, for instance, and double-click on the text, and the navigator can take you to the code for formatting text styles. A new CSS mode in the Properties panel provides quick access to code.
Dreamweaver's new Live View shows stuff that's otherwise tricky to spot with JavaScript running in a browser, such as image rollovers. For instance, you can freeze a view of the rollover state while you're working with code in Dreamweaver.
There's more cooperation among the Creative Suite overall. For instance, you can drag and drop SWF files into Dreamweaver pages. With Photoshop Smart Objects, you can drop PSD files into web pages without losing track of source files.
To run Dreamweaver CS4 on a Windows computer, you'll need XP SP2 or Vista with a 1GHz or greater processor and 1GB or more of disk space available. Mac users must have a PowerPC G5 or Intel-based machine running at least OS X version 10.4.11, with at least 512 MB of RAM and 1.8GB of free disk space. You'll also need a DVD drive and a 1,280 by 800 display with a 16-bit video card.
The £335 (ex. VAT) cost of Dreamweaver hasn't changed since CS3. Users of earlier versions can pay the £139 (ex. VAT) upgrade fee. We'll report back with a rated review once we check out the final code, which is due later in the autumn.
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