Customer Reviews

Dreamweaver UltraDev 4.0/Fireworks 4.0 Studio Upgrade (from Dreamweaver Only)

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With more and more businesses turning to the powerful capacities of web-based data-active solutions, B2B development is growing where dot coms have failed. With fundamental developments occuring in how businesses manage their data, new challenges arise to corporate developers and webmasters in how they can rapidly deliver integrated solutions for their companies. Macromedia's Dreamweaver UltraDev 4.0, Fireworks 4.0 bundle is a powerful solution for the needs of a rapid application web development environment and high-impact web graphics tools.

Dreamweaver UltraDev 4.0 enhances features of the first version of UltraDev, coupling in new levels of integration with existing Macromedia development tools, while capitalizing on the need for data-active development. Adding objects, such as flash components, with ODBC connectivity to data-active functions is a matter of a few simple clicks of the mouse and defining the variables.

The only complaint I have is that the text editor functions of UltraDev are pretty simplistic, with little extra functionality to tap into into features available only in the graphical design mode of the program. As a die-hard text-editor fanatic myself, I find the lack of utilities available in the text editing interface a bit lacking. Overall though, Dreamweaver UltraDev 4.0 still shaves hours off of concept development time and days off of project time.

Simple to use for the beginner, yet powerful enough to speed-up development in a professional environment, UltraDev4.0 is rapidly earning a solid foot-hold in the office and a permanent place in my development toolbox.

Fireworks 4.0 builds upon Macromedia's powerful Fireworks graphics suite. Highly integratable with virtually all web graphics tools, Fireworks has been a long-standing champion of rapid vector-based graphics engines. From designing complex image-mapping to developing vector-based logos, Fireworks 4.0 is a capable tool.

As with any program, both Dreamweaver UltraDev 4.0 and Fireworks 4.0 can be intimidating for the average beginner, with such a vast ammount of functions, the new user can find themself lost and wondering where to begin. As with all Macromedia products, the tutorials and help-files are the best in their class. With easy to follow, step-by-step tutorials, a beginner will find that in a matter of just a short period of time, Dreamweaver UltrDev 4.0 and Fireworks 4.0 will have greatly empowered their designs and opened new opportunities for creative functionality. Give this product a try. You will be amazed at the results.

Dreamweaver may seem like a novice's dream come true, but it's quite the opposite. For one thing, not only does it create messy, convoluted code; it creates code that does not conform to the HTML standard! It doesn't even insert a DOCTYPE declaration, a *must* even if the rest of the HTML is not entirely correct.

If all you're doing is a quick, simple page, the HTML required can be learned in the 5 minutes it takes to get used to this program. Or, if you are designing anything more, you will run into its limitations and bloated code very quickly.