Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 review

When Dreamweaver first launched, web authoring was a simple affair based on editing a handful of HTML tags.

These days the cutting edge has moved dramatically, most notably with the introduction of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for handling rich design and JavaScript for interactivity. Dreamweaver CS4 extends its predecessor's support for both. The main Properties panel now manages all text formatting through CSS by default, while JavaScript support has been extended to popular frameworks such as jQuery.

Both CSS and JavaScript are best handled separately from the (X)HTML-based structure of the web page. Dreamweaver CS4 now makes working with such linked files much easier by making them instantly accessible from the new Related Files toolbar. Even better, with the new Code Navigator you can simply Alt-click any page element to see which linked files are relevant to it and jump directly to the code.

CSS and JavaScript are powerful in their own right, but even more so when working together with data held on a server. This Ajax (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) handling lets browsers load new data seamlessly into the current page. Dreamweaver CS4 greatly extends its support for Ajax by allowing users to store data sets in simple HTML tables rather than as advanced XML data streams.

To see the results of advanced interactive control, you once had to preview your page in your browser, but now Adobe has built support for the open-source WebKit into Dreamweaver CS4. The new Live View command icon makes your layout view spring to life as a full-blown browser. Even better, you can see the code the browser is rendering as you interact with your page, and you can even freeze the current JavaScript state.

Dreamweaver CS4 does a good job of bringing the latest web technologies within reach of the amateur web designer. However, the program's central hand-crafting approach isn't just getting more complex; it's becoming unsustainable. Having to funnel a site's entire content through a single expert web designer just isn't practical. Adobe's solution is InContext Editing.

This hosting service, which is currently free in beta, ties in with new capabilities in Dreamweaver CS4. Designers can mark up areas of a page that contributors can then edit directly within their browser. Enabling content creators to add their own material to a site is essential these days, but InContext Editing is a temporary and awkward workaround. The real solution is data-driven handling: custom web applications for large organisations and content management systems for the rest of us.

The only real competitor to Dreamweaver is Microsoft Expression Web. However, this focuses on Microsoft's own technologies, most notably ASP.NET. Dreamweaver is better at supporting a wider range of standards, and the Ajax-based dynamic support leaves Expression Web trailing. Dreamweaver CS4 is still the most powerful hands-on web page creator available - but that's less important than it once was.