Macromedia, maker of the popular Flash and Dreamweaver applications, is expected today to release a major upgrade to its most popular products. The new release, Version 8 of Macromedia Studio--which
includes Flash 8, Dreamweaver 8, Fireworks 8, Contribute 3, and FlashPaper 2--contains a host of new graphical effects, as well as extra support for XML.
The Flash player, which is used for
many rich media ad units, is getting a number of new graphical refinements--including blue, drop shadow, beveling, and glow, along with an improved text rendering tool.
Dreamweaver 8, also a
popular design tool, will get a new drag-and-drop workflow that allows designers to click-and-drag design elements into place on the page, as well as zoom and guide tools to help designers square
their designs on the screen with what they've come up with on paper. The new version also includes support for embedding XML files into Web pages, allowing dynamic content on the page to be updated
automatically.
Michael Scafidi, Web developer with Avenue A/Razorfish, estimated that roughly 10 percent of the front-end work that Avenue A/Razorfish does is with the Flash tool.
Among the
other upgrades made to the new version are a new video codec integrated with Flash Professional to allow for easier integration of video onto Web sites with Dreamweaver and new compatibility with the
Adobe Creative Suite 2, ColdFusion MX 7, PHP5, Flash Player 8, and support for the latest OS X Tiger and Windows versions.