Adobe Creative Suite 3 : Web Premium product reviews

What a mission... there is a LOT packed into each and every application, and when you steck them all up, you get "simply too much to say" for the package. When it comes to most of the applications in this bundle, I have mentioned many of the highlights in my review of the 'Design bundle' so to save time and space, in this review I will restrict my commentary to 'Contribute' and 'Fireworks', as these applications aren't in the Design bundle. So, here we go... and again, I am going to TRY and limit myself, but with so many improvements, it's not going to be easy...

I'll start off with Contribute, since that is one that should be quick... Contribute is a system that, in combination with Dreamweaver, allows web designers to build sites that are ready for client-side editing and updating. With proper implimentation, it allows your clients to log in and manipulate content specifically designated as client-editable during construction. This allows the designer to restrict the client-interaction to content only, and 'lock' design-specific elements... to prevent those little slip-ups we have all experienced where clients who are big on intentions but short on ability have gone and tweaked beyond the scope of common-sense and cause headaches for the designer, who usually has to fix the damage and then fight for fair payment.

With the new version, your client can now insert multiple formats, such as Office documents, Flash Video and PDFs, directly into the site. They can even publish directly from their browsers, no need for fancy upload/ftp clients, etc. It's all drag'n'drop... literally! When you first set up Contribute, it installs buttons into IE7, Firefox and MS Office so you are only a button-click away from sending your new content directly into your sites, hassle-free. And as for system compatibility... it works on Intel? based and PowerPC? Macs, and on Microsoft? Windows? XP and Windows Vista? systems. Sure, there is MUCH more to it than this... but I don't want you to get lost.

Now, onto Fireworks... This has come a LONG way since I first encountered it... and I shame-facedly admit that I haven't touched it since... so it was really easy to see all the new features and it's sheer power. It now has a 'Pages' feature, which acts in a similar fashion to pages in, say, Publisher... allowing you to logically group content within one file, saving a lot of hassle. However, you can share object across multiple pages, allowing you to keep elements consistent document/site wide. Think 'Smart Objects' in Photoshop... editing one changes all. Speaking of Photoshop... Fireworks now has native support for PSD files, retaining all formatting. Also native is support for Illustrator files, retaining all the layer, group and colour data. Excellent examples of the integration between the tradition Adobe apps and the new members of the family, the ex-Macromedia apps.

Another stunning feature that web designers are going to love, are 'Hotspots' - they act like clickable web buttons. You can mock-up a website, place hotspots over all the images of buttons, link them to the mock-ups of the relevant pages, and export it as HTML files. These can then be zipped up and sent to your client for proofing. It's not that ACTUAL site, but it looks and acts like it... close enough for design approval. How crafty is that! As the sherry on top, you can export your mock-up directly to Dreamweaver for rapid prototyping and conversion to actual site code. You can copy any object and paste it directly into Flash CS3 while maintaining vectors, bitmaps, animations, and multistates, ready to edit and same.

So there you have it, some of the highlights... I mean some... there is a lot more to these applications, of course, but if you are serious about web design, then this is the bundle for you. Reviews on Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat and Flash are covered in the Design Suite listing.