Integration

Apr 27 2009

Studio MX 2004 First Look

Studio MX 2004 First Look

By: Jon Gales

There aren’t many prodcuts I use every day, but Macromedia Studio MX is one

of them. So when Macromedia let me know that MX 2004 was on the home stretch,

I couldn’t have been happier. Here’s a quick run-down of each application.

Be warned that the software I have been using is all still in beta… Stuff could still

change. I’ll post real reviews once the golden master ships (it’s not fair

to review beta software).

Studio MX 2004 in general

This release features a new look and feel. It’s called Halo, and it has been

used throughout the product. Incidently, its also been adapted for use on

Macromedia.com. The cool part of Halo (technically called MX Elements) is that

you can use the standard elements yourself in the Studio products. I haven’t

quite figured this out in Dreamweaver, but it’s easy enough in Flash and Fireworks.

I’ve been promised it is in Dreamweaver though.

Across the board, the 2004 release is focusing on a few things:

• Standards – Full unicode, CSS, XHTML support across product line.
• Integration – You can edit images in Dreamweaver, make HTML in Fireworks,

  and author sites in Flash. This isn’t “toss the file back and forth” integration.

  It’s real.

• Accessibility – Flash has much better accessibility features,

  and Dreamweaver makes the ones it had a lot more apparent. If you work for

  the government, or a major company, this is a must.

The pricing is the same, but if you want Flash MX Pro instead of the normal

Flash, you’ll have to cough up an extra $100. Not a bad deal though since Flash

MX Pro retails for $699 (Studio sells for $899).

Note, Freehand MX has not been updatedóit typically does not follow

Dreamweaver MX

At first look, it didn’t seem like much changed. However, after digging in

a while I found some gems:

• Expanded Tables Mode – hit F6 and your tables get real big (sort of like ExposÈ

  in reverse). This is killer when you have one of those situations where there

  are lots of tiny little cells that you can’t seem to select. Hit F6 again and

  the tables are back to normal.

• SFTP – FTP is so insecure that it is amazing we’re still

  using it. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. I think this makes

  Dreamweaver the only WYSIWYG

  to support SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocal).

• MS Office Support – I know this is weird for a Mac guy

  like me to like, but I’ve gotten site copy (hell, even design) in a .doc

  or .xls

  many many times. Since they buy my dinner, I can’t really complain too

  much. You can copy/paste Word and Excel documents and preserve

  formatting. Dreamweaver converts Microsoft’s stuff into standards based CSS on

  the fly. I think I wet myself after trying it the first time.

• Cross Browser support – Ever wonder if there is a problem with your code

  executing in WhateverBrowser 2.6? Dreamweaver MX 2004 will tell you with built

  in validation for every major browser (yes, including Safari). Use those

  newly freed brain cells for other more important tasks.

• CSS - Past versions of Dreamweaver had great support for

  styling text with CSS. You could use it to make a tableless site,

  but only if you lacked things to do and a family that loves you. It’s almost

  fun with this version.

There’s a lot more, but that will have to wait until the review. If you’ve

got any questions about this product, head over to the forums and ask away.

Fireworks MX

I haven’t been a real Fireworks user, but mostly because the bulk of my work

is PHP coding. I leave the graphics up the graphics guy. However, I have done

a few design gigs lately. I’ll have to give it another look. Here’s what I liked

best:

• Integration – Remember when I said Studio MX 2004 focused

  on integration? Well it shows. If your team uses the “check-in/check-out” feature

  of Dreamweaver (basically a dumbed down, “for the people”, CVS), you’ll be

  happy that you can check in/out files right in Fireworks!

• Speed - Macromedia boasts that Fireworks is up to 85%

  faster at certain operations. After further questioning it came out that

  masking is

  one of those features that has really gotten a speed boost.

• UI – The user interface [screen shot] has

  gotten cleaned up a bit. Take a look at the screen shot.

• Commands – You can change around all the commands [screen

  shot]. Under the Application menu just select “Keyboard Shortcuts”. If that’s

  not

  cool,

  check out the pull-down

  menu that lets you select standard command sets. Like Adobe’s commands.

  Make it so. Almost no effort.

• Unicode – Since it now supports Unicode fully, you can

  author images in any language that your computer supports. This was a slow-down

  before, because images are often

  used for languages that are commonly not accessible on the average user’s

  computer (international prodcut/comapny names for instance). If you did a

  regular install of OS X, you should have about any language worth its weight

  already installed. Start studying.

Word on the street is that there are some neat extensions coming out for Fireworks

in the near future. Some of the coolest stuff Dreamweaver does is done through

its exentions, so this sounds like good stuff. Since I haven’t seen them yet,

I can’t comment. If you’ve

got any questions about this product, head over to the forums and

ask away. Expect a full review once the golden master ships.

Flash MX

One could argue quite well that this is the product that saw the most change.

That’s probably because it’s the only one to actually get a pro version. The

codebase is exactly the same for the two versions (Flash MX and Flash MX Pro),

but you enter diffferent serial numbers based on what you pay for.

One of the best things about this release is that it is fully international.

You can finally code a multilingual site in Flash. Like Fireworks lacking Unicode

support, this was a slowdown and in many cases a deal breaker.

So here’s the run down:

• ActionScript 2.0 – As you know, ActionScript is the programming

  language that Flash uses to do the “cool stuff”. Version 2 is a

  major step forward. For programming-types, it supports Object Oriented design

  (just like Cocoa). Even though it’s the

  latest and greatest, it can still be compiled down to ActionScript 1.0, meaning

  it won’t break anything you’ve already written.

• CSS – No, I wasn’t kidding about Studio MX 2004 focusing

  on standards. Flash can now handle standards-based CSS.

• Spell Check – Not too cutting edge, but for non-English

  types like myself this is a great feature. Macromedia said it was one of

  the top

  requests.

• Accessible components – Another positive aspect of using

  Macromedia’s components in your Flash movies is that you gain all their accessibility.

• PDF + EPS support – OS X has had great support for PDF’s

  for a while, but now Flash is getting in on the game. Also added is EPS.

  Makes work go faster

  if your graphics departments likes to use either of the common standards.

If you want to talk Flash MX 2004, head over to the forums.

That’s all for now, look for more detailed coverage in the weeks to come.

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