Wayne N. Kawamoto
Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com
If you develop high-end Web sites, you can rely on Adobe GoLive version 6.0. This new version offers excellent collaborative features, enhanced content creation tools, and improved integration with Adobe’s Web and media tools. It’s a first rate program that may be used to develop and support complex sites, but is probably too expensive and comprehensive for novices.
The powerful Workgroup Server software, the crown jewel in this release, helps teams collaborate on projects, manage Web and cross-media assets, and store historical versions of every site file so changes may be compared. Best of all, you can revert a site to a previous version. The tools let administrators track revisions, and obtain reports on broken links, as well as manage the files on a server and make them available to those who are working on the project.
A helpful new Syntax Checker verifies code for HTML compatibility. The program helps design and preview pages for WML-enabled phones and i-mode devices. There’s dynamic content authoring capabilities and native support for ASP, JSP and PHP that helps designers configure a Web site to support data-driven transactions for e-commerce, and QuickTime 5.0 editing and SMIL support for RealNetworks’ RealOne Player
GoLive offers an intuitive way to work on sites. The Layout Editor offers a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) work space that lets you drag and drop graphics and other page elements, and change the properties of these elements by accessing an Inspector tab. For those who would rather work in HTML, there’s the Source Code Editor. And if you want to work with HTML and see the graphic results, you can set GoLive to display both modes at the same time.
The interface is consistent with those of other Adobe products. Because of our knowledge of Photoshop and PageMaker, we felt right at home using GoLive. The program does a good job of presenting tabbed palettes that pop-up along the side of the screen and offering lots of screen and interface customization options.
To obtain a running start, premade templates let you insert your own text and images and create entire sites. And you can lock areas of sites so others can’t make changes to them. We were impressed with the way that GoLive 6.0 integrated with Adobe’s other professional design products that include Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and LiveMotion software, and allowed us to integrate media.
In all, GoLive 6.0 is a solid Web development tool for professional Web developers. And with the latest Workgroup Server features, the program effectively helps developers work together.
Manufacturer: Adobe Systems Incorporated; www.adobe.com
Price: $399. Registered users of GoLive may upgrade for an estimated street price of US $99. GoLive 6.0 is available in a bundle with LiveMotion 2.0 with an estimated street price of US $449.
Pros: Powerful workgroup server allows for collaboration; customizable interface offers graphic depiction and code; support for wireless devices and e-commerce applications: good integration with other Adobe products.
Cons: None.
