StudioTalk: Wellington Web Design and Branding Blog

Adobe CS5 Master Collection

I feel like it was just 6 months ago since the last Adobe CS release, but they’ve just launched CS5! Hot on the tails of much debate on the Flash vs Apple, CS5 promises more flash to it’s Flash. Naturally there are always going to be improvements, but I’m not quite convinced there’s a great deal more on offer than the leap from CS3 to CS4.

The interface is the same, with only minor adjustments to some of the toolbar icons and the addition of CS Live! support. CS Live! is a tool Adobe has incorporated into the entire CS5 package which is designed to harness the collaborative power of the internet. Posting work-in-progress to others to collect feedback on a project’s direction is a tool which I can imagine many users finding very useful, however to me it adds no value.

BrowserLabs Browser Compatibility Testing
Dreamweaver has a new BrowserLab (http://browserlab.adobe.com) tool (which is available as a web-based application) and it enables web developers to test web pages in an array of browsers. The idea is hardly new but other testing solutions are messy, complicated and often expensive (requiring multiple machines and OS). As a developer I can appreciate the time it takes to test bugs and variations between browser engines and I welcome a seemless way to test browser compatibility.

Initially I was very skeptical, but after further inspection it actually seems that BrowserLab is generating images of each browser’s render, in much the same way that BrowserShots (http://browsershots.org) does. This means you’re getting a realistic representation of your website in each browser. Booyah!

64-Bit Support
Again, much of the Creative Suite 5 misses out on exploiting the growing list of 64-bit operating systems (OSX Leopard, OSX Snow Leopard, Windows Vista, Windows 7). The only 64-bit-native programs are Photoshop Extended, AfterEffects and Premier. Granted, these are the most processor-intensive programs but I certainly feel that Illustrator and Flash would benefit hugely from being 64-bit-native. Then again, I’m no software programmer.

What does it cost?
For the mac-daddy Master Edition you’ll be forking out over AU$3,900 for the full package, or over AU$1,300 for the upgrade (they curiously don’t have NZ$ prices). As always, Adobe CS is always going to be expensive, and for the last CS release (CS4) it was definitely worth it. To me, CS5 doesn’t bring enough new developments to warrant spending that kind of cash.

Summary
All told, CS5 is pretty, has a few nice new tweaks, hasn’t crashed on me (yet!) and is curiously trying to strengthen it’s Flash product with better reliability and special effects. However, all nicities aside, CS5 isn’t worth the dollars you’ll need to spend to upgrade. Download the trial (sure, if you’ve got 6gb of data cap to spare) and have a play for yourself (http://www.adobe.com/ap/downloads/).

Steve Jobs, Apple Ltd CEO, has released a public letter discussing the motivations behind shunning Adobe Flash from all Apple devices. It is an interesting read, especially if you’re an iPod, iPhone or iPad owner. Read the article here: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Using Javascript can be an awesome way to have user’s input alter the page content and style. For example a link could run a Javascript function to alter it’s class (with class styling via CSS):

<script type=”text/javascript” >
function changeMe(){
document.getElementById(“button”).setAttribute(“class”, “activated”);
}
</script>

<a href=”javascript:changeMe()” alt=”Change the class” id=”button” class=”notActivated” >Change the class</a>

This is all very well and said for Firefox, Safari or Opera users, but take a look on Internet Explorer 7 and you will have nothing happen! Luckily, this is very simple to fix. By adding a backup line of code into the Javascript function you can ensure IE knows what should happen:

document.getElementById(“button”).className = “activated”;

Click me to see a live example.

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