For traditional bitmap editing, audio editing, font design, and word processing programs, updates every eight months would be considered larceny on the part of publishers. Unfortunately, though, for Web development software, upgrades and new full number editions are absolutely necessary. Why? Simply because the Web and related technologies go through new feature cycles as often as every three months.

Macromedia has done well of late when it comes to knowing when to release updates of their Web software, releasing new versions with notable upgrades to increase productivity, and when there are compelling new technologies that can be "rolled in" to the base functionality of the system versus a patch or plug-in. That's why we were excited at the opportunity to test drive Macromedia's new bundled studio, comprising updated editions of both Fireworks for image editing and compression, and Dreamweaver for visual editing of Web site pages and content.

Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver 3 continues an excellent tradition of visual (WYSIWYG) site development, with its "roundtrip" feature, which allows you to edit and refine pages in a traditional text-based editor when needed. An important change from the prior edition for Mac users is that Dreamweaver 3 no longer includes the full version of Bare Bones Software's beloved BBEdit 5, only a working demo. But Dreamweaver 3 does include a new quick tag editor that allows you to refine coding without leaving the document window, as well as an improved HTML source inspector featuring line numbers and copy/paste--hence the reduced necessity for using an external text editor and the roundtrip function. For Windows users, Dreamweaver 3 includes Allaire's HomeSite 4.5 text editor.

The new methodology for HTML styles in Dreamweaver 3 is a fundamental change, allowing you to create "styles" using cross-browser standard HTML tags rather than use cascading style sheets (CSS); the styles palette from version 2 is now called the CSS styles palette. This is a more sensible approach, allowing you to configure styles using normal (easy) tags when desired rather than being locked into CSS styles. Generally, styles are useful in a visual editor because you can specify "headline," "body copy," and "subhead" styles then simply select a text area and "apply" a set style without having to keep retyping HTML on/off font/size tags throughout a page. This is a massive time saver, especially with larger sites that require frequent updates.

For those who use E-commerce software, Web languages such as PHP, Python, or Miva, and the popular active server pages (.asp) and Cold Fusion (.cfm) tags, the enhanced third-party tag system allows you to specify that Dreamweaver 3 should ignore tags used in these programs. This problem has been a compelling reason for professional site designers (including myself) to not use WSYIWYG Web editors, because they tend to "mangle" custom tags, while attempting to "correct" perceived HTML errors.

Other notable new features in Dreamweaver 3 include: Javascript fixes for Netscape problems with CSS layers, improved file synchronization between your work system and server with a much improved check in/check out system, character objects to insert special characters like copyright symbols, frame objects for quick setup of predefined framesets, improved object placement (Flash, etc.), inline image map editing in Dreamweaver, and the ability to edit and check URLs in Flash movies. The new 440-page printed manual is also an improvement.

Dreamweaver 3 works better and faster than Dreamweaver 2, and I was impressed with version 2. Dreamweaver 3 is an excellent product, and certainly the best overall visual Web site editor for the Macintosh and one of the best for the PC. It still does not offer support for nested tables design methods, but many folks don't need that feature.

Fireworks
I will admit I was disappointed with the first incarnations of Fireworks, finding them ambitious but quirky. Integration was sufficient with certain Macromedia products, but somewhat "anti-social" with other publisher's products.

Fireworks uses many of the operating concepts common to Director, Flash, and other Macromedia products, and may seem obtuse for those used to Adobe's consistent interfaces. In fact, Fireworks had problems importing Photoshop files and layers, which is tantamount to heresy in the visual arts field.

Fireworks 3 is still quirky, but that should not be a hurdle if you've been able to get your brainstem to fathom other Macromedia products like Flash. One of it's most notable improvements is its ability to import and work with Photoshop files and layers, and to use Photoshop filters for live effects (which work like the built-in effects of Photoshop and ImageReady). Best of all, the files are not corrupted once edited, retaining their editability if you choose to reopen them in Photoshop later.

If you choose to make Dreamweaver your "Web dev" tool of choice, then Fireworks 3 is definitely worth considering because of its powerful integration with Dreamweaver. For example, you can automatically insert Fireworks sliced/assembled graphics and HTML into a working Dreamweaver document. You can also automatically locate Fireworks files that you've chosen to edit within Dreamweaver. In addition, enhanced preview functions allow you to pretty much preview anything you would see on a Web page from the workspace without having to constantly bounce to the browser and hit refresh/ reload. Like ImageReady, Fireworks 3 features 2-up and 4-up optimization windows that allow fast comparisons of various levels of compression for quick editing. I love the ability to preview roll-overs for buttons within the application, without having to first import the file to an HTML document, drop it on the browser, then test it in the browser. It's a huge time saver.

Other improvements over version 2 that are worth noting in Fireworks 3 include: a history panel with full undo and redo (a necessity with Web work and another "catchup" with ImageReady); the ability to save groups of steps as "Commands" (similar to droplets); export of files as vectors to use in FreeHand 8 or Illustrator; export of files as SWF to use with Flash (such as a GIF animation); much improved slice/rollover features, including polygon slices for irregular shaped areas; a new library of reusable images exactly like in Flash; and a new button editor to simplify making Web site navigators.

Fireworks 3 also answers my other long-standing criticism of the program by adding standard bitmap image editing for adjusting brightness/contrast, hue/saturation, tonal range/curves, and so forth. The live effects feature is also very cool, because it allows you to use Photoshop-compatible filter plug-ins, but they work the same way Photoshop's built-in effects (starting with PS5) do, meaning you can edit the size and shape of objects or text and then the filter is updated using the settings you've chosen; and it doesn't permanently "affect" the layer. Very cool.

The Studio
Macromedia has very effectively prepared a combination of products that answers both the shortcomings of their prior individual products, provides tighter and worthwhile integration of the two new editions, and serves up a compelling feature mixture at an affordable price. Fireworks is now more bitmap friendly and finally worth considering for day-to-day image editing/compression for the Web.

For newcomers, especially, this is a great package because Adobe no longer offers ImageReady by itself (only bundled with Photoshop), and Dreamweaver 3 offers answers to many problems that have restrained most Web professionals from fully embracing visual Web site development. I am genuinely impressed with this package and am still discovering the many creative options within Fireworks 3 that today surpass anything else out there.

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