Adobe previews Creative Suite 4.0 with new beta releases

[AppleInsider]

Adobe on Tuesday offered a sneak peek at the next release of its Creative Suite design bundle by releasing limited public betas of new versions Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth.

The San Jose-based software developer said the Dreamweaver beta for Web design and development, the Fireworks beta for prototyping, and the Soundbooth beta for creating and editing audio, demonstrate a new direction for Creative Suite in which new features and technologies will simplify and streamline design and development workflows across all media types.

“Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth are the major applications we’re unveiling as public betas before the next release of Creative Suite,” said David Burkett, vice president of product management for Adobe Creative Suite. “This early release software gives our loyal customers a taste of the radical workflow enhancements that we have in store, as we redefine how designers and developers collaborate to deliver stand-out digital experiences.”

Dreamweaver CS4

Adobe said the Dreamweaver public beta includes a new Related Files Toolbar and Code Navigator feature that allows users to dive deep into complex pages that include HTML files, links to JavaScript documents and integrated XML data. Users can see related files in the Related Files Toolbar and with Code Navigator make changes to code that appears in various parts of a document just with one update.



The update to Dreamweaver also features a new Live View Mode, which is based on the open source rendering engine Webkit from Apple, and enables users to see content in real-world, real-time environments without having to leave Dreamweaver to preview in a browser. The feature also gives users the ability to freeze JavaScript language to debug interactive pages as well as view and interact with Flash content.

Fireworks CS4

Meanwhile, Adobe said fresh features in the Fireworks beta include a new user interface that is now consistent with other applications within the Creative Suite, making it easier for users to switch between applications that now have a universal look and feel. In addition, Fireworks beta now allows users to export design comps as high fidelity, interactive, and secure Adobe PDF documents for enhanced client communication.



Fireworks beta is also now compatible with Adobe AIR, HTML, Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex Builder so users can create their design once and deploy to whichever application platform is required by clients.

Soundbooth CS4

For its part, the Soundbooth beta showcases a host of new features aimed at allowing creative professionals to complete their audio production tasks more efficiently, including the new multiple track support which allows users to edit multiple audio clips on a number of tracks, and the new ability for users to match volume levels across audio files.



Also included is the capability to preview MP3 compression settings before saving them and a new speech recognition technology that lets users create transcripts of dialogue tracks quickly and search them for words and phrases within a timeline.

How the betas work

Adobe says the three betas, once downloaded and launched, will be active for 48 hours after which time only CS3 customers will have extended access. Existing CS3 license holders will be able to use their CS3 product serial numbers to unlock the betas and use them for free until the next version of Creative Suite becomes available.

Adobe added that the betas will give users an opportunity to deliver feedback to the company, via Adobe Labs, for future product development.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[8CoreWhore]

Webkit FTW!

[SS3 GokouX]

What is going on with the window title bars in some of these new apps (Fireworks, specifically in this case)? Close/Min/Max widgets and other toolbar buttons?

I noticed them in the video stream John Knack linked to the other day. Weird.

[collide007]

'Unlimited' Beta for CS3 owners, nice touch. Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside for acquiring it legally. Downloading Dreamweaver now, hopefully they made more changes to it this time, lees macromedia and more adobe please.

[the cool gut]

After the f*cking mess I had cleaning up after the Lightroom beta, I'm never installing Adobe betas again.

[simulacra]

What about AVCHD support in premiere?

[gastroboy]

Great I was sick of the old bugs and GUI snafus...

...now we can have a whole new batch.

[Foo2]

What about the security holes in Flash?

[mrpiddly]

Apart from flash, I personally have no reason to upgrade to CS4 since they are not even going to have 64 bit support for macs until CS5.

However the 3d effects, inverse kinetics, and possible external support for languages such as C++ has lured me into upgrading my copy of flash when it is released.

[jowie74]

Originally Posted by Foo2

What about the security holes in Flash?

indeed... What about the fact that Flash CS3 is a buggy piece of sh!t which hasn't even received a decent bug fix release?

[ecking]

I'm actually really impressed with how giving adobe is being with these betas. It almost feels like a software company may trust the people again.

[Crtaylor]

I have sort of a love-hate relationship with Adobe. On one hand, their apps are versatile, but on the other they lack creativity and inspiration in several respects. Plus, didn't they just release CS3 a year ago? What is the rush!?

I recently sent a letter to Steve Jobs describing my idea of how they should create a product similar to Creative Suite. It would involve a hybrid 2D/3D Illustration app, a more Photoshop-like version of Aperture, and updated versions of Color, Final Cut Pro, and Motion. It would also include an upgraded version of Pages that would function more like In Design, a Web Design and prototyping app, and maybe the "Phenomenon" project rumored in 2006. The 2D/3D Illustration app would be based on a framework called NEXUS, which is implemented by Luxology (www.luxology.com). Also, Motion is already compatible with Flash, so they would already have that covered.

While I do think that Adobe's stuff is decent, I also think that Apple could easily outdo them. They already have a superior video editing suite, so why not go across the board?

[esXXI]

Unimpressed. The titlebar controls are damn ugly (we need a custom titlebar why?), tabs... Ugh. How about fixing the pathing bugs, or giving us better font rendering below 40px where it's a joke.

[remarkable12]

how do yoy surf with out flash though?

[Marvin]

I would like to see them reducing their lineup a bit. I don't like Fireworks much but the designers I work with prefer it for some reason so I have to use it for their layered PNGs as Photoshop doesn't support Fireworks data - even if they fixed that, it would help. In Photoshop, I can preview image slice output before saving as PNG or JPG and there is so much more I can do filter-wise.

I just don't see why Fireworks even needs to exist. Why not take whatever features it has that PS doesn't (I'm not even sure there are any) and get rid of it?

Quark is adding vector tools into their layout software and I think Adobe need to do the same. It's a nuisance for designers having to do all the vector drawings in Illustrator to then drop them into Indesign. It wastes resources for one thing as two apps have to be open at the same time.

There are people who use illustrator who don't do layout though and vice versa so there should probably still be separate products but even something that allows people to do vector editing in Indesign without having to open Illustrator would be useful.

[esXXI]

Originally Posted by Marvin

I would like to see them reducing their lineup a bit. I don't like Fireworks much but the designers I work with prefer it for some reason so I have to use it for their layered PNGs as Photoshop doesn't support Fireworks data - even if they fixed that, it would help. In Photoshop, I can preview image slice output before saving as PNG or JPG and there is so much more I can do filter-wise.

... Then tell your designers they're morons and to save as PSD if they're giving saves to people that use Photoshop?

Also, I've yet to see someone make something that is not doable in Fireworks. (And you can use PS filters in Fireworks, you know)