Web Design Forums

stealthcow · 12-09-2003, 06:58

ive been using Flash MX 2004 since the demo came out (couple of days) and have found a lot of the features speed up development. Simple things like being able to tint and alpha something without having to go into advanced settings. The video editing thing is cool, you can load an entire movie and then create clips from it to use in your flash document.

You can also make powerpoint type presentations which looks promising.

Haven't had time to explore more but it looks good so far - I just need a bigger monitor because things are starting to get more cluttered on 1024x768

roto · 12-09-2003, 09:47

Quote:

Originally posted by dcd
yeah when's the next version of Frontpage out?

lol @ that

fmxtechv3 · 12-09-2003, 19:06

Think MX 2004 was released for security issues. Lot of piracy out there!

pammii · 12-09-2003, 23:47

how does releasing mx 2004 solve piracy?

Mr Fred · 13-09-2003, 02:42

its to do with the product activation technique that is used

ncrossland · 13-09-2003, 04:07

Had a good play with DW and FW (not installed Flash yet, since no Flash work to do at the moment).

I think they are not sufficient upgrades to warrant a whole version upgrade - maybe just a .5 version, had they not got sucked in to the whole 'MX' and microsoft style naming products after the year.

In Dreamweaver, the main improvement in practise is the CSS support - they seem to have banished <font> tags for good (if you arbitarily apply a font/colour etc to some text it creates a style rather than adding font tags). Also editing CSS seems to have improved. They have fixed one of my pet hates - the text boxes in the propery inspector are now full sized, instead of a tiny font in boxes about a quarter of the width you need. Apart from that, the improvements seem to be purely cosmetic (new button designs, tabs on toolbars that don't look like tabs any more, presumably because they got sued by Adobe)

Fireworks has even less improvements - I used it for nearly a day (I prefer it for mocking up) and the only improvements I can see is that there is now a dotted line style (how can it take till version 6 of a drawing package for this to appear?!), you can get previews of lines and fills from their menus, and they have revamped the buttons here too.

They have missed a great opportunity here to make Fireworks an integral part of workflow - had they included the ability to import/export CSS - so I can link a document to a CSS file, and then have a CSS style selector so I can apply a class to any object (text, shape - they could replace them both with a single tool) and it will take its appearance from that file. Update the CSS file, and the shape's appearance would update in Fireworks, or vice versa update the object's appearance in the FW interface, and it updates the CSS. Much less work then, having to manually convert the appearance of the fireworks file to CSS.

So -overall (for these bits anyway - haven't tried out Flash or Freehand) - I think it is a con that Macromedia wants to charge £300-ish to upgrade for such minor improvements. But I probably will end up shelling out anyway.

roto · 13-09-2003, 09:03

Quote:

Originally posted by ncrossland
In Dreamweaver, the main improvement in practise is the CSS support - they seem to have banished <font> tags for good (if you arbitarily apply a font/colour etc to some text it creates a style rather than adding font tags). Also editing CSS seems to have improved. They have fixed one of my pet hates - the text boxes in the propery inspector are now full sized, instead of a tiny font in boxes about a quarter of the width you need. Apart from that, the improvements seem to be purely cosmetic (new button designs, tabs on toolbars that don't look like tabs any more, presumably because they got sued by Adobe)

How are you finding the code is written so far if you do anything in design view? In the past, I know it's been sloppy at best. And oh the annoying abuse of <p> tags dreamweaver would employ when they were completely un-needed.

Luke Redpath · 15-09-2003, 02:30

No its not - and there are no plans for there to be either.

12-09-2003, 06:58	#41 (permalink)
stealthcow knocking heads Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,935	ive been using Flash MX 2004 since the demo came out (couple of days) and have found a lot of the features speed up development. Simple things like being able to tint and alpha something without having to go into advanced settings. The video editing thing is cool, you can load an entire movie and then create clips from it to use in your flash document. You can also make powerpoint type presentations which looks promising. Haven't had time to explore more but it looks good so far - I just need a bigger monitor because things are starting to get more cluttered on 1024x768 __________________ Guava Studios: outsource web design, Liverpool web design :: Friends of Scott web designers

12-09-2003, 23:47	#44 (permalink)
pammii ... Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: melbourne, aus. Posts: 199	how does releasing mx 2004 solve piracy? __________________ Should I fall out of love, my fire in the light To chase a feather in the wind Within the glow that weaves a cloak of delight There moves a thread that has no end.

15-09-2003, 02:30	#48 (permalink)
Luke Redpath Barney army! Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: London Posts: 696	No its not - and there are no plans for there to be either. __________________ Luke Redpath .::. Software Engineer .::. Reevoo - Real Reviews From Real Customers

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12-09-2003, 19:06	#43 (permalink)
fmxtechv3 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Ireland Posts: 4	Think MX 2004 was released for security issues. Lot of piracy out there!

13-09-2003, 02:42	#45 (permalink)
Mr Fred Magazines™ Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Glasgow.. Posts: 11,427	its to do with the product activation technique that is used

13-09-2003, 04:07	#46 (permalink)
ncrossland Registered User Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Sheffield Posts: 72	Had a good play with DW and FW (not installed Flash yet, since no Flash work to do at the moment). I think they are not sufficient upgrades to warrant a whole version upgrade - maybe just a .5 version, had they not got sucked in to the whole 'MX' and microsoft style naming products after the year. In Dreamweaver, the main improvement in practise is the CSS support - they seem to have banished <font> tags for good (if you arbitarily apply a font/colour etc to some text it creates a style rather than adding font tags). Also editing CSS seems to have improved. They have fixed one of my pet hates - the text boxes in the propery inspector are now full sized, instead of a tiny font in boxes about a quarter of the width you need. Apart from that, the improvements seem to be purely cosmetic (new button designs, tabs on toolbars that don't look like tabs any more, presumably because they got sued by Adobe) Fireworks has even less improvements - I used it for nearly a day (I prefer it for mocking up) and the only improvements I can see is that there is now a dotted line style (how can it take till version 6 of a drawing package for this to appear?!), you can get previews of lines and fills from their menus, and they have revamped the buttons here too. They have missed a great opportunity here to make Fireworks an integral part of workflow - had they included the ability to import/export CSS - so I can link a document to a CSS file, and then have a CSS style selector so I can apply a class to any object (text, shape - they could replace them both with a single tool) and it will take its appearance from that file. Update the CSS file, and the shape's appearance would update in Fireworks, or vice versa update the object's appearance in the FW interface, and it updates the CSS. Much less work then, having to manually convert the appearance of the fireworks file to CSS. So -overall (for these bits anyway - haven't tried out Flash or Freehand) - I think it is a con that Macromedia wants to charge £300-ish to upgrade for such minor improvements. But I probably will end up shelling out anyway.

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