Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 has always been a whole dick for produce and maintaining Web land site . The modish version builds on an already brawny merchandise by adding sustenance for Intel processors , Photoshop desegregation , and templates and tools that simplify atomic number 55 ( Cascading Style Sheets ) design . It also expands into raw territory by adding the Spry Framework for Ajax , a compounding of applied science that includes JavaScript , CSS , and HTML for building interactive user interface such as pop - up pilotage menus , tabbed panels , interactional mesa , special visual effect , real - time form substantiation , and more , without having to repay to the server to refresh the page .
Universal at last
Dreamweaver CS3 is the first version of the vane - design program to appear with the Adobe name ; it ’s also the first interpretation to run natively on Intel Macs . run on an Intel Mac , Dreamweaver CS3 is more antiphonal than Dreamweaver 8 ( ) running on Rosetta : startup time is faster ; typewrite feel quicker ; and sitewide process , such as updating templates and upset link , are speedy . For example , updating a templet in Dreamweaver CS3 on our 2.66GHz double - burden Xeon Mac Pro took just under a moment , as controvert to nearly four minutes in Dreamweaver 8 . In another tryout , we relocated a web site file in Dreamweaver , a summons that necessitated change to the situation ’s page radio link . It took Dreamweaver CS3 just 11 seconds to change all the links on our 350 - page Web site , compared with 43 seconds for Dreamweaver 8 .
The long and winding road
Full integration of Dreamweaver into the Adobe pantheon of originative plan will take time . Unlike Flash CS3 , which has adopt the Adobe look - and - feel , Dreamweaver CS3 has the same user interface as Dreamweaver 8 ( this may be welcome news for longtime users habituate to the Macromedia fashion ) .
However , Dreamweaver CS3 does provide helpful integrating with Photoshop ( ) , offer a streamlined work flow for gravel images from Photoshop into Dreamweaver . you may copy all or part of a layered or sliced Photoshop ( PSD ) text file and glue it directly into a Dreamweaver page . you may even drag a Photoshop papers from your desktop , Bridge , or the Dreamweaver Files panel onto an open Dreamweaver pageboy . A new picture - optimisation window lets you apply condensation preferences and keep a file into your site ; the optimized image then appears on the Web page .
Dreamweaver CS3 also commemorate the location of the original Photoshop PSD document — but only if you ’re using Photoshop CS3 . get through on Dreamweaver ’s Edit button launches Photoshop and opens the PSD file ; after make change in Photoshop , you just imitate the layer , the slice , or the portion of the look-alike you need , and then glue the young , edited image back into Dreamweaver . The old paradigm is replaced , and all of the optimisation configurations you hold antecedently are reapplied .
And this version of Dreamweaver includes Adobe ’s new equipment Central . This program ( which is integrated with several other programs in the cortege ) show how dissimilar mobile devices display vane message . you may preview a Dreamweaver CS3 page in more than 200 different mobile - gadget profile ; each profile simulate the video display of a special phone — in many cases , arrant with a exposure of the phone . Each profile also includes selective information about the earpiece ’s screen size of it and the character of HTML , Flash , and video recording it supports . gimmick Central uses Opera Mini ( a internet browser for handheld devices ) to sham the vane - page video display . Since not all phones ship with Mini , what you see in machine Central may not exactly match what appears on a finical phone .
Building the new Web
One of the most significant additions in this version of Dreamweaver is a Modern set of tools for adding interactive elements to a World Wide Web page . base on the Spry model , these new tools go far beyond the eye confect of Dreamweaver ’s old timeline animations , and they ’re a significant melioration on the simplistic JavaScript produced by the previous Dreamweaver behavior . Spry widgets — prebuilt block of code that you could slip in into your page — tally helpful user - interface elements to a Thomas Nelson Page ; the Spry Menu Bar widget , for example , is a piloting bar that sustain two floor of papa - up menus — the perfect way to bone a lot of links into a stocky distance . chassis - validation widgets are coded to control that data is submitted aright — for example , to verify that a field is n’t empty or that it hold a right formatted e - mail service address or phone number . This widget offers more features and produces much more professional - looking form than the Validate Form behaviour that send with Dreamweaver for years . Several other pageboy widgets make it easy to confront a great deal of content in a small space ; for example , the Tabbed Panels widget let you place content into disjoined tabbed areas , each of which is revealed by clicking on a tab .
For people who do like heart - candy , Spry core let you draw attention to your WWW Page with effects that fade out , funk , grow , or shake an image or other Thomas Nelson Page contentedness . The Spry Data Set characteristic let you take data from an XML file and display it in a table . People viewing the WWW page can sort out the mesa by clicking on column headers , and they can even see detailed entropy about one item — all without download a new page from the Web server .
Solving CSS woes
CSS is a entanglement designer ’s main tool for creating beautiful and operational Web website that adhere to proper Web - coding criterion . Unfortunately , CSS is also a puzzling engineering , and thanks to the foible of entanglement browsers , creating Web page that look and work the same on Windows machines and Macs , and on Microsoft Internet Explorer , Mozilla ’s Firefox ( ) and Apple ’s Safari ( ) is often difficult . This is especially troublesome to Mac - based Web designers because the most popular Web browser app , Internet Explorer 6 for Windows , also has the most job handling CSS . Dreamweaver CS3 adds two new elements — CSS layout and the Check web browser Compatibility feature of speech — that cut down on the laborious trial - and - error often consort with CSS - free-base WWW design .
The Cs layouts hold the introductory hypertext mark-up language and CSS necessary to make the most common page layouts — two - pillar , three - column , liquid - width , and fixed - width , for example . These guide offer more alternative than the few CSS templet offer up in Dreamweaver 8 , and also unlike the guide in the previous version , these are canonic layouts without any graphics or unreasonable styling , so you may modify and add together to them to make your own look - and - find . In addition , the Dreamweaver CS3 layouts include all the necessary CSS workarounds required to make the designs work well in all current WWW browser app .
The new Check browser app Compatibility feature get you check a Web page for caesium or HTML code that might not work correctly in a particular web browser app . possible wrongdoing are identified , and a unmarried click takes you to Adobe.com ’s CSS Advisor , which render suggestions for how to set up the problem .
Dreamweaver CS3 improve on the broadcast ’s already powerful caesium tools . Dreamweaver ’s video display of atomic number 55 - found figure within the program ’s interface has also improved , fetch closer to the “ what you see in Dreamweaver is what you ’ll get in a Web web web browser ” nonpareil . New CSS direction tool simplify the procedure of reorder style in a style mainsheet , renaming styles , and moving styles between style sheets .
Getting old
Dreamweaver CS3 does n’t extend any changes to the host - side tools that have made this diligence a favorite for decorator who do n’t like programming but do require Web internet site that can interact with database . The programme still miss statement for solve common host - side problem such as upload files , sending e - ring mail , and visual SQL ( database ) enquiry multiplication . entanglement designer who require to add more - advanced features will have to buy third - company extensions , one of which is the fresh Adobe Dreamweaver Developer Toolbox ( $ 299 ) .
Dreamweaver CS3 and Dreamweaver 8 Tested
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How we tested : All test were flow on Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 version 9.0 Build 3481 and Macromedia Dreamweaver interlingual rendition 8.0.2 . All system were running Mac OS X 10.4.9 with 1 GB of RAM . Each of the tests were run using a 16.5 M internet site containing 350 pages and various Dreamweaver files . The Link Update test involved travel a booklet to another location and timing how long it took Dreamweaver to update links . The Update Template trial involved modify a template and timing how long Dreamweaver took to update pages . For the Synchronization Sitewide examination , we recorded how long it took for Dreamweaver to synchronize the Web site onto a local server.—Macworld research laboratory examination by Brian Chen and James Galbraith
Macworld’s buying advice
With its combination of exact visual intent , excellent atomic number 55 tools , and unattackable site - management features , Dreamweaver continues to be the PM internet - pattern program . If you ’re not on an Intel Mac , do n’t ask the fancy substance abuser - port contrivance offered by the Spry model , and do n’t have trouble with your cesium layouts , you may not see the CS3 debut that enticing . However , if you ’re using an Intel Mac , are hoping to still the frustration of building CSS - based Web layout , or want to add responsive user - user interface controls such as complex , multilayered drop - down menus , Dreamweaver CS3 is quite a suitable upgrade .
[ David Sawyer McFarland is the author ofDreamweaver 8 : The Missing Manual(O’Reilly , 2006 ) . ]
