Adobe Golive 6

Web design is made easy

If "the first love can never be forgotten", then I will hardly ever forget about my first experience as a web designer. The internet was a novelty, and tools were scarce. HTML editors of the time required the compilation of lines of code, and poor users had to turn into programmers. So, after several sleepless nights spent learning HTML code, one day I stumbled upon the application of my dreams: GoLive Cyberstudio, the first truly visual web design tool.
Some years have passed since then, and the internet has grown so much that one can now choose among many solutions. Among the best known companies, Adobe, the world leader of applications designed for the press, had a slow Web start allowing competitors like Macromedia, whose applications are totally Net-centric, to conquer the market with few problems. In its attempt to remedy this situation and position itself more favourably, some years ago Adobe bought GoLive considerably evolving the product.
Today GoLive 6.0 is the last version for the software that lets you quickly design, build, manage, and deploy dynamic content for the Web and wireless devices.
Despite its improved integration with the professional world, GoLive still keeps the simplicity that made it famous. The main features of the new version include full compatibility with the latest operation systems from Microsoft, Windows XP, and Apple, Mac OS X.
The version 6 interface is almost untouched from the previous edition, but Adobe increased the number of palettes and enabled better access to the various options. This, despite its positive impact, can at first create some confusion. However, GoLive remains one of the most intuitive Web applications around.
GoLive offers a dedicated Diagram menu and another tabbed palette in which you can work out your site design based on existing and planned pages. This allows you to get an idea of the way the site you are working on should appear and how the links should interconnect. From the diagram to the creation of the pages, you're only a double click away.
Pages are built by dragging graphical elements, available in various categories, on it, and positioning them at leisure without the need to tinker with the HTML code. Of course this technique occasionally leads to building Web pages burdened with superfluous code. But version 6 also offers more advanced cascading style sheet (CSS) formatting control through a combination of the CSS palette. Thanks to a revamped CSS editor, creating or modifying the elements of a CSS is now easier. Where GoLive still needs improvement is in its support for JavaScript. In fact, even though the program is equipped with some ready-made Java-scripts, its integral Java editor offers no chance to fix malfunctioning code.
Compared with other applications, GoLive offers excellent multimedia support, due to a very good implementation of QuickTime. Nice surprises also include smooth integration with other Adobe packages such as Illustrator, PhotoShop, and LiveMotion, thanks to recognition of the different native source files and more. Even the HTML code section has improved: now one can visualize changes immediately with a really useful split screen.
GoLive 6 is now a natural environment for dynamic publishing, supporting PHP and JSP as well as ASP. Customers who do not have an application server configured for database publishing are provided one in this release of GoLive for both Macintosh and Windows platforms. A single installer contains an integrated Web server, PHP and JSP modules, and a database with minimal set-up required on the customer's part.
A simple publishing system lets users generate a series of static or non-dynamic pages based on templates and content sources in a dynamic site. This feature is useful for sites whose content varies infrequently or on a regular schedule, such as an online monthly magazine, catalogue, or a small company's employee directory.
The program's new version integrates its Web Workgroup Server, which offers server-based centralized asset management for workgroups. Several users can thus work at the same time on the same file, checking progress or updating. For safety reasons, the software can save changes in such a way that one can always Undo. The workgroup environment also introduces the use of templates. Page Templates can aid in production and maintenance by allowing for changes and updates only in predefined areas, ensuring that certain regions of a page will not be inadvertently altered.
Overall the new version is a welcome improvement that no web designer should miss.

Publication Date: 2002-05-19
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=1354