MACROMEDIA Studio MX 2004 with Flash Upgrade from Studio MX 2004 (Win/Mac)

Rating:
Summary: You wanted the best - You got the best!
Review: DREAMWEAVER MX 2004...
Dreamweaver is a seriously big application with advanced development tools for Web site design and maintenance. It lets designers swiftly create layouts, and developers incorporate the latest in data-driven applications. Sporting a reasonably uncluttered but intricate interface, Dreamweaver MX 2004 offers quite a bit of handholding in the form of automatic code generation and provides an excellent interface for directly accessing HTML code. This version adds features for the newest Active Server components and more powerful Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) support. Dreamweaver isn't for everyone, though. Adobe users will be more comfortable with GoLive, while non-professional site designers should consider the less formidable (and less powerful) Microsoft offering: FrontPage.

Pros: Extremely powerful Web development application; new support for CSS; start-up page simplifies options; verifies code for multiple browsers.
Cons: Steep learning curve; expensive technical support options after the 90-day free period.

FLASH MX 2004...
Macromedia's new Flash MX 2004 Flash animation designer requires less programming, boasts a much improved help system and offers new usability features such as an improved video-import wizard with editing capabilities, a spelling checker and a find-and-replace function. Although beginners might not find it as easy to use as Adobe's cheaper LiveMotion, MX 2004 is a uniquely powerful program. It's a must-have upgrade for current users, thanks to its new support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), an improved (and ECMAScript 3.0-compatible) ActionScript 2 programming language, and a new API that allows third-party plug-ins. A professional version that offers more data-handling features and components is also available -- albeit for twice the price.

Pros: Powerful scripting language; FX and interactive objects now require less programming; new API for plug-ins; new usability features.
Cons: Programming expertise required for complex projects; you must activate the product via the Internet or phone.

FIREWORKS MX 2004...
Adobe tries hard with ImageReady, but when it comes to Web graphics creation, Macromedia's Fireworks is still the undisputed king. It sports a comprehensive set of graphics tools; a sleek, efficient interface; and tight integration with other members of Macromedia's MX family (Dreamweaver, Flash, FreeHand). The program is simple to master, too. Although it's a little light in the bitmap-editing department, Fireworks more than compensates with super-slick special effects and effortless exporting to all popular Web graphics formats. We recommend this program for both amateurs and professionals who need any type of Web graphics and want the best application money can buy.

Pros: Sleek, efficient interface; tight integration with other Macromedia Web products; easily applied special effects and creation of complex objects.
Cons: Image-editing tools a little weak; no curved animation paths.

Rating:
Summary: Going downhill
Review: I have been using Macromedia Products since version 2 of Dreamweaver. I have a thorough knowledge of Dreamweaver and Fireworks. I have a bit less of Flash yet I do use it from time to time to create flash elements in sites that are primarily driven by html or xhtml code. I don't use Freehand because I think it is perhaps the most poorly implemented of all illustration programs bar none. I have always hoped that Macromedia would take Freehand seriously... and till this day I am still hoping.

Regarding the software...

Dreamweaver is by far the most popular web development software on the planet. In fact it has more users than all other web development platforms combined. This is a definite strength since you are able to find a tremendous amount of help around the Internet and in book stores.

Dreamweaver is still very good at what it does, however it has gone downhill with this most recent release (yes, I have installed the newest updater which does improve the software to a degree). The problems with the software are many. Macromedia has sacrificed a nice usable and professional interface for this 'flowery' looking gradient mess. Oh... it's pretty alright. The problem is I'm trying to get work done! The previous versions of the Studio have a much more professional interface. The program seems taxing to the system no matter how powerful your processor or how much ram you have. It also seems to have screen redraw issues. This is especially true when designing forms. Why that is... I have no idea. The way the program handles CSS is quirky at best. You need to basically go thru and make all these changes to the default behavior it is shipped with in order to get it to work and write CSS in an external style sheet else it will be written to the head of the current document (How stupid is that?). Macromedia should have used the Define Site Dialog box and asked developers if they wanted to create a CSS based site or used the older HTML methods. If a person chose CSS the program should have required them to enter the name of an external style sheet that all CSS would be written to by default. Then when using the property inspector, any changes to the design code would automatically be written to the external style sheet and not to the head or body of the document. It definately needs drastic improvement if it will ever be at the level of other Professional CSS coding software (think TopStyle Pro).

Another issue with Dreamweaver that I have is with its lack of ability to support a dual monitor configuration without major bugs, headaches, and screen redraw issues. I know many developers that have gone over to the dual monitor approach to development because of a tremendously improved work flow. YOu could have the design Window in one monitor and the code window in the other (Go to Window -- Code Inspector -- or hit F10). Once the code inspector is open, you can drag it over to the second monitor and thus develop both visually and with code. However, the newest DW version has some serious issues when you do this. First of all, you can't maximize the code window... so you have to manually drag one corner and size it yourself. The other is when you are between documents and have no current document open. The program seems like it just wants to crash, drawing and redrawing the entire interace. 'What in the world is going on here?' is the question that comes to mind minus profanities!

Flash has improved and is more powerful than previous version being more 'coder friendly' and allowing flash apps to be built using a forms based approach although I think they made a big mistake in making two versions of the software. It just confuses people and now is harder to share work within a team unless everybody is using the exact same version! Bad decision Macromedia.

Fireworks is probably the program in the group that deserves the highest honors. It is tops in the field of web graphics and functionality. I put it over Photoshop/ImageReady because it is specifically designed for the web whereas Photoshop is trying to be all things to all people. And to people who need that functionality, Photoshop is King! However, Fireworks is significantly easier to learn and use than PS. It will do anything you could possibly want in creating web graphics and eliminates all the functions that a print designer needs. Fireworks is for the web... not print. If that is acceptable for your work load.... use it!

Freehand is dead at this point in my eyes. Illustrator and Coreldraw are both vastly superior in usability and power. Freehand is a clunky and bug ridden program that does poorly what Illustrator does masterfully! Evidently Freehand has also taken a back seat in the eyes of Macromedia too. Freehand has always been delivered much later than the rest of the Studio. Even to this day in June of 2004, Freehand is still one version behind the rest of the software even though the MX 2004 Studio has been released for nearly a year (August 2003)! Some have argued that Macromedia purposely delays Freehand so that they can make more money off the developers who have already bought the current Studio and then need to purchase an upgrade to the latest Freehand. So perhaps this is a marketing ploy used in order to make more money. My opinion is that they will make more money if they improve their software, eliminate bugs, drop the 'flowerly' interace, and release the Studio as one release for both Mac and Windows (This means no 'pro' and 'non-pro' versions, all version share the same name...MX 2004 or whatever). Another note, Mac users should not be considered second class web developers. This particular offering for Mac users is particularly bad because of the bugs and speed of the software.

The best I can rate this offering is two stars... hopefully things will change in the near future. All that being said, I still consider myself a fan of Macromedia software... and just think they had a major hickup here with this latest offering.

Rating:
Summary: When Macromedia upgrades, they mean it.
Review: This isn't one of those upgrades that just helps the company's bottom line for the quarter. Studio MX 2004 takes what was already a great suite of programs and makes it better.

Dreamweaver MX 2004 has better support for cascading style sheets. It includes better database integration. The templates work better. And, it interfaces more seemlessly with Flash and Fireworks.

Fireworks MX 2004 has always been a great web graphics program. It can create rollovers, full menus, full web sites for that matter. Extremely easy to learn and fun to use.

Flash MX 2004 improves upon the MX upgrade (Which is saying a lot!). Better use of components to make building web interfaces a snap. Deeper integration with databases. It still has a steep learning curve to get started, but once you do... the web is yours for the taking.

FreeHand MX, honestly I prefer Adobe Illustrator when it comes to vector graphics. That said, Macromedia has done a fine job of making this work well with the other programs.

Studio MX 2004 as a whole works very well within it's own environment. Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks all communicate amonst themselves very well. That makes a much easier time of global editing within your site.