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Adobe GoLive 4.0
Description: Web Authoring Software Developer: Adobe Systems, Inc. Requirements:
Price: US$99.99 (suggested retail) Highlights:
Incompatibilities: Problems working with Apple’s QuickTime 4.0 public beta. MacNow Rating: 
As our faithful readers know, GoLive Cyberstudio 1.0–3.0 impressed MacNow Magazine’s staff and editors from day one of its rollout. GoLive set new standards in the arena of Web design applications, and then took those standards and raised their own bar. They listened to their users, both amateur and professional alike, then implemented the most wanted and needed features in timely releases, to the dismay of their competition. Enter Adobe Systems, Inc., the leader in professional graphics applications, business documents, dynamic media and other fields, and founders of the Portable Document Format (PDF), one of the most successful Web-based formats in existence today for document transferability. Trying their hand at Web design applications, Adobe produced Adobe PageMill, an entry-level application for aspiring Web authors, but not quite robust enough for the seasoned Web professional. Realizing the old adage, “If you can’t beat them, acquire them,” Adobe did just that: they bought GoLive, Inc., lock, stock and barrel. What has Adobe done with this newly acquired product? Released Adobe GoLive 4.0! But then, you figured that out from the title, didn’t you? ;-> Adobe GoLive 4.0 is GoLive 3.0 with a slight name change and several new and improved features and abilities. Adobe gets their name in Adobe GoLive 4.0, but most of the programming was done by GoLive’s staff, with a few enhancements from Adobe’s.
What’s New?Adobe GoLive 4.0 is now Mac OS 8.5 savvy. It utilizes the Mac OS’s contextual menu capability, as well as the platinum appearance via the Appearance Manager. QuickTime has been reintroduced via a QuickTime Editor. I did, however, find some flaws with it when using GoLive with Apple’s QuickTime 4.0 public beta. At one point it would seize up and freeze, or outright crash. When I downgraded to QuickTime 3.0, all was well. This is something Adobe needs to address yesterday, since the QuickTime 4.0 public beta rocks! Adobe added better support for Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). This I expected; it was a natural addition considering it’s one of Adobe’s more influential products. What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a welcome and much requested feature, as are Extensible Mark Up Language (XML), Active Server Pages (ASP) support, and slightly improved cross-platform support for various browsers. Adobe GoLive 4.0 adds Actions Plus 1.0, fourteen JavaScript actions that include slide shows, daily redirects, forced frames, remote window targeting and even password protection. These are accomplished through a point and click interface, so even an intermediate Web-head could utilize them without knowing a lick of code. A rotating banner JavaScript would have been a welcome addition to the set — maybe in version 1.1? ;-> Version 4.0 makes it a bit easier to work with tables, adding the capability to select and format multiple cells. Like AppleWorks and Microsoft Excel 98, the cells selected do not need to form a contiguous block. You simply shift-click to select multiple cells in a table, then select and apply colors, font sets and relative font sizes. This all told, Adobe GoLive 4.0 is not without its faults. Professional developers are crying for local rendering of Server Side Includes (SSIs) instead of using a sever to see pages. This would speed development and enhance productivity. Pros are also wondering about new releases. Now that Adobe has taken the helm of GoLive, will there be regular and timely releases? Or will they get left behind like PageMill in the professional’s tool box? Adobe also needs to take note that they bought a company which did not forget the beginner. When they released version 3.0, they also re-released their 2.0 version as a personal edition at a reduced price. That is class, and I hope Adobe takes that lesson to heart.
In a NutShell:Adobe GoLive 4.0 is still the top Web design tool around, but Adobe must keep it fresh, new and innovative for versions to come. If Adobe does this, they will have the same success that the original GoLive, Inc. had. On the other hand, if Adobe fails to do this, Macromedia DreamWeaver or NetObjects Fusion could take the lead in the Web application arena. | ||
