Adobe has announced a “point five” upgrade for Creative Suite that is scheduled to ship May 3rd. Included in the update is Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5. Information and reviews of the Dreamweaver upgrade are available now on the DWcourse blog.

• Dreamweaver CS5.5 Announced by Adobe
• Index to Adobe’s Dreamweaver CS5.5 Videos
• Should I Upgrade to Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5?

With this upgrade Adobe has made a striking commitment to the mobile environment across its product line. After May 3rd, I’ll have a hands on review of Dreamweaver CS5.5 on the DWcourse blog and additional information about the complete CS5.5 Suite here.

I recently became involved in an interesting thread in the AIGA Design Education online discussion group. Basically the topic was the increasing complexity and bloating of design software. Here’s a few relevant comments from the discussion:

graphicdavid started it off:

“… it seems that Adobe is making the software increasingly
complex, instead of just making it work better.

They seem to think that we all want cross-hybrids of their software.”

from citizendesign

“A number of years ago, Adobe seemed to be headed the other direction. Making things simpler and leaving features up to other developers to ‘plug-in’.”

artgibel

“As far as InDesign, you have pinpointed one of the reasons I still prefer teaching print production starting with Quark and moving to InDesign later.  I always tell students, the issues are the same in both programs; if your document is not set up properly for the printing process you are using, it will not print well. With InDesign, they have made it so much easier to make a mess.”

Here’s my thoughts:

I can sympathize with the desire on the part of some designers for Adobe to “simplify” its software. Occasionally I fire up my Mac SE and long for the days when computing was simple. But would I actually trade my current Mac for an SE? Of course not! Neither would I trade Photoshop for MacPaint. I may not use all the features Photoshop CS3 offers but I certainly appreciate the features I do use.

Instead of moaning about bloat, why not try to come up with a list of the features you would like Adobe to REMOVE from their programs? I’m sure, if you could get the profession to agree, Adobe would be happy to offer stripped down “Designer” editions. Of course you’ll never get the profession to agree.  The fact is your “bloat” is another designer’s necessity.

I’m also shocked that anyone can suggest plug-ins as the answer to simplifying programs. Plug-ins don’t simplify the user interface or improve the user experience. While a well-designed plug-in can fit seamlessly into a program, it’s rare and the potential pitfalls are numerous including (but not limited to):

• Installations issues
• Inconsistent user interfaces
• Additional costs
• Incompatibilities with other plug-ins or program updates

Consider the nightmare of trying to maintain your suite of Adobe applications along with a set of “core” plug-ins. I’m willing to bet that, once a plug-in became a standard, you’d be among the throng clamoring for Adobe to make the functionality native.

I was also surprised by the kind comments for Quark. Perhaps things have changed since the days when I used XPress but back then the user interface was crap and the company was notorious for its lack of responsiveness to customer concerns. That’s the reason Quark has gone from having a stranglehold on page design software to being an also ran. Adobe, on the other hand, has created well-designed programs and been responsive to its customers.

And, speaking of responsiveness, we should admit that the true cause of program bloat is that we, the users, demand it. If we own Photoshop, we don’t want to buy Illustrator just to add one small bit of functionality, we want Adobe to add that functionality to Photoshop. That new functionality may be “bloat” and it may duplicate functionality already available elsewhere but as Photoshop users we’re grateful. Everyone else can feel free to ignore it.

Finally, simpler isn’t necessarily better. Sure it’s easy to do some bad things using InDesign but it’s also possible to stab someone with an X-acto knife. Neither action is the fault of the tool. There is a learning curve with any tool. It’s possible to ignore InDesign’s learning curve and produce substandard work but that’s not Adobe’s fault. Design professionals need to accept that the software learning curve now extends throughout their professional lifetime. The only alternative is obsolescence.

I recently received my copy of Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 Web Premium Edition (henceforth to be known as simply CS3). Being in a hurry to learn enough to introduce the included Dreamweaver update to my web design students, I immediately installed it. (Note: Check out Installation Pain at SEOrefugee for tips for a pain-free installation.) This is Adobe’s first update of DW since purchasing Macromedia. In spite of worries about Adobe’s near monopolistic lock on the graphics market, I’ve been looking forward to the update since the buyout was announced. Adobe has earned their dominant position by churning out great products and I’ve been anxious to see what additions they’d bring to DW and, more importantly, how they would better integrate the program into Creative Suite.

First Impressions

After spending a bit of time with the program, I’m not disappointed. DWCS3 is a must-have update.The big changes come in three areas:

1. Better support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
2. AJAX integration through the inclusion of Adobe’s Spry framework.
3. Integration with other Creative Suite products.

CSS Support

As a web developer who designs AND builds websites, the switch from HTML formatting to Cascading Style sheets has been, to say the least, challenging. I’ve found creating cross-browser, CSS-based (rather than table-based) page layouts difficult and, at times, impossible. While I recognize the superiority of CSS over tables for positioning elements, I’ve often chosen to compromise and abandon “pure” CSS in order to get a project out the door.DWCS3 should make most of those compromises a thing of the past. It ships with several one, two and three column fixed and “liquid” CSS design templates. With customization, the selections offered should address the vast majority of page design issues users will face. The templates are well constructed and, from my brief experience, easier to modify without “exploding” than the solutions I’ve “borrowed” in the past.DWCS3 also sports a robust Browser Compatibility Check. The Check scans pages for a wide variety of possible cross-browser CSS problems. It flags potential problems, describes them succinctly, details which browsers are affected and offers a link to solutions at Adobe’s online CSS Advisor. The feature worked so well that I can’t wait to try it out on my other sites. If my initial impressions stand, this feature alone will justify the price of the update.

AJAX

AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XHTML) is the basis for much of the interactivity (pop-up menus, expanding boxes, etc.) that defines Web 2.o. It’s included in DWCS3 through the integration of Adobe’s Spry framework. I suspect it will prove to be a mixed blessing. While it will make the creation of highly interactive web pages and web applications easier, I’m also dreading the possible Chinese puzzle user interfaces that inexperienced designers will create.Still, the functions work well. In a relatively small amount of time I was able to put together and customize a drop-down menu. I was also able to create expandable/collapsible panels, accordion panels and growing/shrinking graphics. I have to admit that I’m now desperately looking for a reason to use them.

Integration With Other Creative Suite Applications

As I said, this is Adobe’s first version of Dreamweaver and, not surprisingly, they’ve taken the opportunity to fully integrate it into the Creative Suite. The most striking example is the ability to copy a selection across multiple layers in Photoshop CS3 and paste it directly into a DW document. Upon pasting into DW, you are presented with a preview of the selection and prompted to save the selection in an optimized and web-friendly file format. The new image retains a link to the original, layered, Photoshop file which can be opened directly from DW (although, if you make changes, you’ll need to make a new selection and repeat the copy and paste process). I haven’t had a chance to explore DW’s integration with the rest of the suite yet but the included Workflow Guide suggests it’s extensive.

Other impressions

Speaking of image editing, one surprising change in CS3 is that ImageReady has been replaced by Fireworks (also a former Macromedia application) for editing web images. While the new Fireworks is a more powerful program, I suspect I’m not the only one who will find adapting to the Fireworks interface, which betrays its Macromedia origins, difficult.

Recommendations

I normally recommend caution when buying new software or upgrading existing software. However, given the relatively few reports of problems (other than with installation by users who previewed a beta version of Firework or Photoshop CS3), I’d recommend an immediate upgrade to DWCS3. This is especially true if you’re using, or plan to use, CSS on your websites. The templates and Browser Compatibility Check will justify the cost in short order.Given the cost of purchasing a CS3 suite, I’m more hesitant to recommend that purchase. However, if you qualify for an upgrade and will be updating DW anyway, you can probably justify the cost of upgrading the suite. And, if you’re a student or instructor, don’t forget that Adobe offers academic discounts. Check with your school store.