Adobe GoLive 5.0 "This New Version Has Excellent Graphics & Multimedia Support"
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GoLive 5.0 is the latest version of Adobe's professional Web authoring software which offers HTML layout, design, and Web site management tools. It's perfect for graphic designers and publishers who need to design and manage Web sites that contain multimedia features without requiring any HTML programming. Yet, it includes HTML source-code and JavaScript tools to help programmers integrate interactivity into their sites and supports cascading style sheets (CSS), Dynamic HTML, and QuickTime. It provides a consistent work environment with other Adobe applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe LiveMotion. The program includes numerous enhancements and new features: 360Code that enables user control over Web source code; tighter integration with other Adobe products; native support of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and LiveMotion files; Photoshop's Save For Web image optimizer; extensive site planning and management tools; database and e-commerce capabilities; and WebDAV support for workgroups. Adobe GoLive 5.0 is available for Macintosh and Windows. Price: $299; Upgrade: $99. See the Adobe Web site for more information, tips, tricks, tutorials, and all sorts of goodies: http://www.adobe.com.
Advanced Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced computer users. GoLive is a rich, robust, and full-featured program. With its drag-and-drop capabilities, it should be fun to use for beginners to Web design. But, the palettes and inspectors allow more sophisticated users to enter precise measurements. The program does take some time to learn, though. Since it shares much of the standard Adobe user interface and is tightly integrated with other Adobe products, it's a great program for individuals who are familiar with other Adobe software. Others might find the many options and palettes bewildering. I would recommend that if you are using GoLive for the first time that you purchase a third-party book to help you with the program as the manual for GoLive 5.0 is short on thorough tutorials, with just an overview chapter dedicated to step-by-step instruction.
Code Control and Editing • 360Code Feature (no reformatting of code) • Simultaneous Layout/Source Views • HTML Element Search and Replace • Markup Tree View Graphics Integration • Adobe Integration via Smart Objects and Smart Links Page Design • Import Layers as HTML • Image Tracing • Define Grid for Positioning • Convert to Grid Productivity and Efficiency • Improved Table Design and Handling • Enhancements to Cascading Style Sheets • Improvements to Color Palette • New History Palette • New Align Palette • New Transform Palette • Store Text or HTML Code Snippets • Custom Keyboard Shortcuts • Context Menus Interactivity • Import Sprites from Photoshop Files • Interactive Streaming • Create Moving, Linked Text • Interactive SWF Tracks Site Tools • Design Your Web Site Visually • Multiple Panes for Multiple Views • Generate Extensive Site Reports • Network Status Report • Improved Site File Work Group Support • Upload and Download Files to and From the Server • Lock and Unlock Files on the Server • Synchronize Files or Entire Sites • Workgroup Support Options Dynamic Web Site Development • Dynamic Link for ASP Enhancements Software Development Kit • Interface and Core Functionality
Code Control and Editing
Adobe GoLive 5.0 gives you better control of your HTML source code with its built-in code control functions and improved source code interface. 360Code--It's now easier to include JavaScript or other source code in your Web pages (such as FileMaker, XML, ASP, or ColdFusion). Adobe GoLive offers 360Code, which allows the movement of HTML pages and JavaScript between the visual environment of Adobe GoLive and a text-based HTML editor, without changing the content and structure of the document's HTML source code. Simultaneous Layout and Source Views--You can now view Web pages in a Layout view and edit the code in the new Source Code palette. The Layout view is the WYSIWYG document window, where you visually create and design Web pages by adding a layout grid, tables, images, and text. The Source Code palette displays the HTML source code and highlights any elements you select in Layout view. Both views can be displayed on your screen simultaneously, and when you make a change in one view, the other view reflects those changes instantly. See image to right for view of Layout and Source views. Markup Tree Palette--There is a new navigational tool called the Markup Tree palette that shows the hierarchical position of a selected object within the HTML element tree structure. For example, the Markup Tree palette might show that a selected image is contained inside a Paragraph element, the Body element, and the HTML element. Clicking on any of these elements in the palette shows a new hierarchy based on the element you click on and selects every object (including text) on the page within that element. There are previous and next buttons that allow you to go back and forth through the history of your selections. The Markup Tree palette is useful as you work in the Layout view along with the new Source Code palette to quickly and precisely select the elements you want. See image to the left for a view of the Layout view, Markup Tree palette, and Source Code view open at the same time. Search for HTML Elements--The Find dialog box has an Element tab that allows you to find and replace tags and attributes. Thus, you have two ways to search: (1) Find & Replace: search on a textual basis; and (2) Element: search on an HTML basis using HTML syntax rules. You can also use the Element tab to add new HTML elements as well as replace and delete elements by using a series of element actions in the Find dialog box. See the image to the right for a view of the Find dialog box and the Element tab options.
Graphics Integration
Adobe GoLive 5.0 provides excellent integration with some of today's industry-leading design applications via Smart Objects and Smart Links. Adobe Integration via Smart Objects and Smart Links--You can import native Photoshop, Illustrator 9, and LiveMotion files as smart objects into your HTML document. When you double-click the smart object in your document window, the source file opens in Photoshop, Illustrator, or LiveMotion depending on what type of file it is. Adobe GoLive automatically updates the image in the Web page if you make changes to the source file. For Photoshop smart objects, Adobe GoLive has built-in Save For Web capabilities so you don't have to launch Photoshop whenever you change an object's size or Web settings. With Illustrator and LiveMotion smart objects, GoLive launches the application in the background to update and re-optimize the Web image. To import a file, you simply drag a smart object icon from the Smart tab of the Objects palette to your document window. Then you link the smart object to the source file and specify a destination for a Web-safe copy of the file. See image to the left for a view of the Objects palette with the Smart Object tab selected. See the image to the right for a view of the Smart Image Inspector.
Page Design
The Adobe GoLive page design environment offers unique ways of importing and using Photoshop image layers and tracing images. Also GoLive 5.0 now includes the ability to convert floating boxes into a layout grid. Import Layers as HTML--You can import the layers in a Photoshop file as separate images on your Web page. When you choose File > Import Photoshop as HTML, GoLive displays each Photoshop layer in a separate Save for Web dialog box. You can change the optimization settings for each layer and then save each layer separately. Each layer is displayed as a separate floating box on your Web page. You can then work with floating boxes as you usually do, or convert the floating boxes to a layout grid and text boxes. The image to the right shows a layered graphic and the Layers palette from Photoshop, and then the GoLive Floating Boxes palette generated in GoLive after I used the Import Photoshop as HTML feature. Image Tracing--GoLive 5.0 lets you import tracing images that you can use to pre-design your Web page layout. Common image formats can be used for tracing images, including PSD, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP. Once you import a tracing image, you can set is opacity, position it, align it, and edit it, or change the source file at any time. You can also cut out a desired section of the image and use Save for Web to optimize and save the cutout image in a Web-image format. The cutout images appear in floating boxes in your Web page. You can change the layering of the cutouts and animate the floating boxes. See image to the left for view of Tracing Image Palette. Define Grid for Positioning--With the Floating Boxes palette, you can set an invisible grid to help you position a floating box on the page. As you move the floating box, you can make it snap vertically or horizontally to the gird. You can make the grid appear when the floating box is in motion and disappear when you release the mouse. Other options let you change the distance between grid lines and prevent the floating box from overlapping others. Convert to Grid--When you convert a floating box to the preset layout grid, elements inside the floating box are placed on a layout grid in a new document. The elements are in the same position on the new page that the floating box is on the original page and the grid, size and background color of the original floating box are retained.
Productivity and Efficiency
There are a number of new and enhanced features in Adobe GoLive 5.0 that help to increase productivity in Web page design, layout, and creation. Improved Table Design and Handling--The new Table palette makes it easier to design and edit tables as it contains a set of table styles. You can change the appearance of your table instantly by applying one of these preset table designs, or create your own table styles and add them to the Table palette. Background images are more easy to apply to either an entire table or to selected cells. The Select tab of the Table palette allows you to easily select individual table cells, rows, columns, or blocks of contiguous cells. You can sort the content of the selected cells or table vertically or horizontally by sorting the columns and rows. See the image to the right for a view of the Table palette and preset table designs. Cascading Style Sheet Enhancements--Several new features improve cascading style sheets handling. You can insert styles by dragging a style from one sheet to another. A style can be applied by dragging it from the Style Sheet window and placing it on a selected element in the HTML page. Also you can import style sheets originally defined as external styles and convert them into internal styles, or export internal style sheets as external styles. See image to the left for view of various options. Color Palette Improvements--The user interface of the Color palette has changed in order to adapt to the general Adobe user interface, which has resulted in the incorporation of the Adobe color sliders and the dice icons for Web safe colors in the style of Photoshop. GoLive 5.0 still has retained the different color spaces from GoLive 4, and they now are now displayed in the form of buttons. Applying a color in GoLive 5.0 is much easier. Selecting any color field in GoLive 5.0 establishes a temporary live connection to the color palette. The Color palette comes to the front and each setting is instantly applied to the selected color field. Thus the live connection saves you from dragging the color from the preview pane of the palette to the color field of the Inspector. History Palette--GoLive 5.0 has a new History palette. The History palette lets you jump to recent states of the document created in the current editing mode since it was last saved. So, you can reverse changes made in the current editing mode by simply stepping backwards in the editing history displayed in the History palette. Each time you apply a change to a document, the new state of the document is added to the palette. However, the palette only lists the states or changes applied in the current mode, that is, either source mode or layout mode. Whenever you toggle between editing modes the History palette is cleared. GoLive lets you control the number of steps (or history states) that you can step back. See image to the right for a view of the History palette. Align Palette--The new Align palette lets you align or distribute the following items: objects on a layout grid; image map hot spots; floating boxes; tracks in the Layout view of the QuickTime Movie viewer; and items in the site design window. You can align items to the left, right, top, bottom, or center, or equally space or distribute objects relative to their vertical or horizontal axes. See image to the left for a view of the Align palette. Transform Palette--Several transform features are assembled in one single transform tool--the Transform palette. The Transform palette is accessible via Window > Transform and lets you position, resize, group and ungroup objects, as well as change their layering. You can transform: objects on a layout grid; regions on image maps; floating boxes on a page; tracks in the layout mode of the Movie viewer for QuickTime, items in Site Design, and map shapes on an image (image maps). Store text or HTML Code Snippets--The Site window has a new Custom tab that lets you store frequently used objects for insertion into your page, while offering full drag and drop convenience. You can add commonly used images, plug-in media files as well as text snippets to the Custom tab by dragging it from the HTML page into the Site window. While the Custom tab of the palette accepts objects to be used globally, the Custom tab of the Site window accepts snippets to be used on a specific site. Creating Custom snippets is particularly useful for saving default objects to be used on multiple pages of your site. You could create a custom snippet for a default table to be inserted into several documents by simply dragging the table or the corresponding source code from the document window and dropping it onto the Custom tab of the Site window. The snippets you add to the Custom tab are also available in the Site Extras tab of the Objects palette. See image to the left for view of the Custom tab and snippets. Custom Keyboard Shortcuts--Adobe GoLive 5.0 has a new Keyboard Shortcuts dialog that lets you choose between two different sets of shortcuts--the GoLive Standard Set which is enabled by default, and the Adobe Common Set. You also can create you own set of shortcuts. The GoLive Standard Set comprises the shortcuts that were already used in former versions of GoLive. The Adobe Common Set contains shortcuts that are typically used in other Adobe applications. See image to the right for view of the shortcuts. Context Menus--This new version of GoLive includes contextual menu options throughout the application to speed productivity, including unique options not available from the pulldown menu bar or palette window.
Interactivity
With Adobe GoLive 5.0, you have the ability to create interactive movies using the QuickTime movie editing tools. The overall functionality of the editor for QuickTime has been extended significantly, so that the overall handling of the QuickTime editing module is vastly improved. The Timeline window provides new tools that let you create, for example, group folders to structure the tracks. The Movie Viewer now contains Preview and Layout tabs so you can control the layout of your movies. See image to the right for a view of the Movie Viewer. Import Sprites from Photoshop Files--You can import Photoshop layers as individual sprites for creating multi-state buttons. Simply set up your layered Photoshop file with each button having its own state on a separate layer. (You must have QuickTime 4.0 installed for this functionality.) GoLive will automatically translate the Photoshop layers into sprite behavior in QuickTime. You create the sprite the same way as any other sprite, and each layer is imported with its Photoshop layer name. You can add more than one sprite to a sprite track, create rollovers and secondary rollovers and set trigger actions and cursor changes. Interactive Streaming--By adding streaming racks to a movie, you can deliver streaming content via an external QuickTime Streaming server. The server side contains the streamable media (video, audio, MIDI, and text), and the client side contains the non-streamable media (such as sprites or SwF movies) and a streaming track that points to the URL of the server-side movie. When the client movie is played, the user's computer establishes a network connection to the specified server and plays the streamed content as it is received. A streaming track can be positioned in a client movie's time and space just like any other track. Create Moving, Linked Text--Adobe GoLive provides the QuickTime editing tools for you to create moving text or link text to an external URL. You can also modify font attributes such as style, size, and color. In the Movie Inspector, you can easily add movement to text and attach a URL link. In the Text Track and Text Sample Inspectors, you enter the text position, move the text position, and set the coordinates for your moving text. Interactive SwF Tracks--Add an SWF track to the Timeline window and you'll have the ability to attach labels and buttons to a QuickTime movie. Adobe LiveMotion is a natural fit for Adobe GoLive because LiveMotion lets you create a button with a label, animate the button, then export your work to SWF, a standard Web animation format. You can then import an Adobe LiveMotion SWF file as an SWF track into Adobe GoLive and use the buttons with the QuickTime movie. See image to the right for view of dragging and dropping a SwF file to the Timeline window.
Site Tools
Adobe GoLive 5.0 has a variety of new features to help you manage your site, from managing JavaScript-embedded links and external links to completely new functional areas, including Site Design and Site Reporting. Design Your Web Site Visually--You can use the site diagramming tool to visually lay out your site page by page. Design elements can be dragged and dropped onto a design canvas to create a new site or extend an existing site. The canvas offers a high level of control: (a) Each page added can be generic or inherit properties from a Stationary file. Each page is "live--content can be added, links can be created--as soon as it is added to the design; (b) Design elements can be adjusted using drawing tool metaphors (drag, group/ungroup, align); (c) Annotations can be attached to elements; (d) Pages can be grouped into a "section" of a Web site; and (e) Completed designs can be "merged" back into an existing Web site. Pages are moved into place, and elements of the design that didn't previously exist are created on the fly. See image to the right to see site design view. Multiple Panes for Multiple Views--The View Controller options let you add multiple viewing panes to the Navigation tab, Links tab, and Design tab in the site and site design windows. Each pane displays different information about the site or design. For example, the minipane shows the site in miniature so you can view the whole site without having to scroll the window. A red box appears around the portion of the site that is also visible in the main window. Other panes show media files that are referenced by selected pages in the main window, files with pending links to pages, and scratch files that aren't lined to pages in the site hierarchy. See image to the left for view of the View Controller, and see image to the right for view of multiple panes. Generate Extensive Site Reports--From the Site menu you can access Site Reports, which is a tab in the Find window. The Site Reports tab offers at least five different categories on which you can generate site reports: (1) File Info, such as file size, date created, and date modified; (2) Errors, such as incorrect titles on pages, missing HTML attributes for images, and warnings or errors in a browser; (3) Site Objects, such as where a component is used, which fonts and colors are used, and components that contain URLs; (4) Links, such as pages with external links, pages with links to files that have specific extensions, and pages with links that contain different protocols; and (5) Miscellaneous, such as items that are within a certain number of clicks away from the file or folder you specify. You can also search on criteria that you specify, create and load queries, and save queries for future reports. See image to the left for view of the Site Report options. Network Status Report--There is a new Network Status display feature in which connections to Web servers are fully logged, so any connect problems can be analyzed and quickly resolved. Improved Site File--Adobe GoLive now saves changes to your site more efficiently. Meta-information for the site file has been divided into separate blocks of disk space so now Adobe GoLive no longer has to write the entire file every time the site is save, but only when a block of meta-information has been changed.
Work Group Support
GoLive 5.0 offers new services to promote a collaborative Web environment via support for the WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) standard protocol. Upload and Download Files to and From the Server--There are several ways to upload and download files to and from a WebDAV server: the Site menu, toolbar buttons, the WebDAV Browser window, and the WebDAV tab in the site window. Whichever method you use, you work through the WebDAV Browser window, which is your window to the WebDAV server. Lock and Unlock Files on the Server--Adobe GoLive supports two kinds of locks for workgroup editing: exclusive and shared. An exclusive lock prevents anyone else from working on the same document. A shared lock allows the user to actively share the document with other users who also have a shared lock on the same file. Synchronize Files or Entire Sites--Adobe GoLive provides a function that lets you synchronize both the site on your local platform and the site on the WebDAV server, and it does so in either direction. If there is a synchronization conflict, such as when the same file has been changed on the local site and on the remote site, you can decide which synchronization action you want to take to resolve the conflict. Workgroup Support Options--There is a Workgroup support option that, when selected, automatically handles file locking, unlocking, and synchronization when you check out or check in files on the WebDAV server.
Dynamic Web Site Development
Adobe GoLive Dynamic Link is a module that provides a simple way of visually designing and adding dynamic database content and e-commerce functionality to your Web site. Dynamic Link for ASP Enhancements--With Dynamic Link for ASP, you can seamlessly connect to and deliver content from any OLE DB- and ODBC-compliant databases. No prior programming knowledge, middleware, or server-side installs are required. Simply mock up your Web page content in GoLive with a template of your own creation. One click of the mouse inside the Dynamic Link palette links the mock content on your Web page to a specified database, complete with a Live Preview based on the actual database content. The ASP code is automatically written by Dynamic Link. The Dynamic Link palette gives you full control over the use of dynamic content on your web pages. You use the palette to set up content sources, bind placeholders to database fields, and control many other aspects of dynamic content on your site. See image to the right for view of the Dynamic Link palette
Software Development Kit
Adobe GoLive 5.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) lets developers customize the GoLive environment. Interface and Core Functionality--With Adobe GoLive SDK users can enrich and customize the Adobe GoLive interface, add new tags and source code for native visual editing in Adobe GoLive, create complex new functionality at the page and site levels, customize options via JavaScript and XML, permit flexibility for C developers, and build a solid extensibility foundation for future development in Adobe GoLive.
Adobe GoLive 5.0 has more bells and whistles than many designers will need. If you are just creating a Web site containing a few pages, with content that won't change much over time, you might want to try one of the basic Web design packages. But if you want a program that you can grow into and one that will provide you with the robust and precise tools you need to develop a complex site, then Adobe GoLive 5.0 is an excellent choice. This new version is not just simply the same old software with a few minor additions and enhancements here and there. It's a significant upgrade with features for both graphic designers and programmers.
Windows Pentium 200 MHz (or faster) or compatible processor Windows 98, 2000, or NT 4.0 SP3 48 MB RAM for Windows 98; 64 MB RAM for Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0 SP3 60 MB Disk space CD ROM drive Macintosh Power PC CPU and higher Mac OS version 8.6 or 9.0 64 MB RAM recommended (48 MB minimum) 70 MB Disk space CD ROM Drive
Graphics: Adobe ImageStyler & Adobe Photoshop 6.0 Web Page Editor: Dreamweaver 4.0 Scanner: Hewlett Packard ScanJet 6250C Professional Series