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Web Authoring Software Evaluation Results-
Effort 2000

Click here to read the commentary

General Information

	Macromedia Dreamweaver Version 3.0 Rating	Comments	Adobe GoLive Version 5.0 Rating	Comments
System Requirements		Mac: PowerPC • System Software version 8.1 or later • 32MB of available RAM • 20 MB of available hard-disk space • 800x600 minimum resolution • CD-ROM drive Windows: Pentium 120 MHz • Microsoft® Windows® 95, 98, or NT 4.0 (or later) operating system • 32 MB of available RAM • 20 MB of available hard-disk space • 800x600 minimum resolution • CD-ROM drive		Mac: PowerPC • System Software version 8.6 and 9.0 • 48 MB of available RAM • 70 MB of available hard-disk space • CD-ROM drive Windows: Pentium 200 MHz • Microsoft® Windows® 98, Windows NT® 4.0 (or later) with Service Pack 3, or Windows 2000 operating system • 48 MB of available RAM for Windows 98 • 64 MB of available RAM for Windows NT 4.0 • 50 MB of available hard-disk space • CD-ROM drive
Academic Pricing	$99.00	Academic pricing is also available for several different bundles as well.	$89.00

One smile is given for each of the following four tests

	This feature is available
	It was easy and intuitive to use the feature
	This feature worked well
	This feature exceeded our expectations

Required features

Anchors		Anchor can be added with the objects palette or as an item on the insert menu.		Point to the icon to the left of the link property and drag to the anchor. If no anchor is available, GoLive will create one.
Built-in text editor		Weak. The built-in text editor provided with Dreamweaver is just enough to edit text. User depends on knowledge of OS cut and paste keys. There are no menus. Editor does provide line numbers and the software can be configured to use an external editor. BBEdit (for Mac) and HomeSite (for windows) are included with Dreamweaver.		Very good built-in text editor. Features highlights for server side includes, links and media. Line numbers, errors and compiler style warnings for "bad" HTML are included in the editor
Client-side maps		Very easy. Define areas of an image using tools provided in properties palette. Resizing the image resizes the linked image areas as well!		Image map is provided as an option in the image inspector. When image map is turned on and the image is selected, the software provides tools to draw the link areas.
Font tags		All font tags can be set in a variety of ways including through the properties palette. Very easy and accessible.		Powerful, but not terribly intuitive. One would expect text properties to be available in the "inspector" window, but they are not.
Forms		Form tags are added automatically if needed. Each element's attributes can be set with the properties palette. Hand coding within intricate form elements and tags are left alone, which is important for web applications writing. Radio button grouping is a bit clumsy. Features a pre-written JavaScript to create a "Jump" menu.		Supports several nice features, including ability to set accesskey attribute, (I.E. 4.0 only), tabstops, key based security. Very straightforward.
Frames		Objects palette provides eight different frame configurations. The frameset and each document within each frame are handled separately.		Not intuitive. Pages for frames must be developed before the frameset is defined. Dragging a frame object into the layout window creates a bunch of useless frame-related html in the window
Image tags		Image tags can be set using menus or by selecting text and making changes within the properties palette. Very easy and initiative.		Drag and drop from palette to page with full settings available, including alignment, alt image and text, links, and image maps settings.
Life cycle/continued development		Fairly new product. Demonstrated commitment to further development through release of sister products like Dreamweaver UltraDev.		Product has just been released.
List tags		menu driven list options including numbering, bullets and nested lists.		Easy to create lists... Numbering was not consistent (sometimes each item got #1, other times numbers appeared sequentially). Once bullets or numbers are added, they must be removed manually. Weak.
mailto: link		mailto links are a bit less intuitive. Either use the "e-mail link" dialog box or manually add "mailto:" in the link properties		Just enter the e-mail address as you would add a link. "Mailto:" is added automatically.
META tags		Available on the objects palette or from the "insert/head" menu. Simple dialog box allows you to set the values of each tag. There is no list of commonly use tags and to review the tags, the view/head option must be set.		Treated like any other object, drag and drop.
Multiple browser support		Allows design for specific browsers and versions. Will convert higher level work (CSS, layers) down to HTML that will work on older browsers.		Basic support for multiple browsers is good but codes specific to I.E. 5.0 are not included. One strong feature is "Check Syntax" which flags attributes and tags not supported in specified browsers.
Style tags:		Set using menus or by selecting and making changes within the properties palette. Preset combinations of the above can be selected using the text/html styles menu. New styles are easy and intuitive to design.		Fully customizable styles can be applied inline, to a paragraph, a division or an area of text.
Tables		Editing of tables similar to a word processor. Customizations include merging and splitting cells, setting backgrounds, resizing, etc.		Customizations include merging and splitting cells, setting backgrounds, resizing, etc. Difficult to select individual cells and impossible to select multiple cells, columns or rows.
Title tag		This is an element of the "page properties" dialog box. Very easy and accessible.		Very easy. Available as a head object.
URLS		Adding a link is as simple as selecting the linked text or objects and editing the the link line in the "properties" dialog box		Highlight any object and click the link button to establish the object as a link (this was tough to figure out - not intuitive). Once complete, use the link properties to set the URL or e-mail address, target and alt text.
Vendor support		Macromedia maintains a web site @ exchange.macromedia.com with updates and extensions for the program. Online forums, e-mail support and documentation is available as well. Also includes 90 days telephone support with registration.		Adobe maintains a web site @ www.adobe.com with updates and extensions for the program. Site also features e-mail help, forums, tutorials and a searchable knowledge base.
WYSIWYG		Interface is very easy to use and very intuitive for most features. Drag and drop.		Very accurate rendering of pages in design mode - however you cannot design pages inside a frameset. Pages for frames must be designed first then added to the frameset.

Other Features

	Macromedia Dreamweaver Version 3.0 Rating	Comments	Adobe GoLive Version 5.0 Rating	Comments
Cascading Style Sheets		Full dialog driven support for CSS guides the user through editing an existing style or creating a custom style.		Includes GUI and dialog driven support for CSS. Built in preview window did not display all aspects of our test custom style.
Code Control		Dreamweaver defaults to fix unclosed tags and remove extra closing tags so when server side processes would normally handle this, the developer needs to know to turn this feature off. This fix only happens on file load or on pasting code into a document. Not as good as "HTML Tidy"		GoLive defaults to not rewriting code that may look "bad" and there is no automatic feature that will do this. There is a menu item that will clean up code (i.e. fix missing tags) but changes cannot be undone. Not as good as "HTML Tidy."
Database Integration		A separate product, Macromedia UltraDev, includes tools for database connectivity. No database integration is included in the stock package. Although the product looks rather powerful, it has not been evaluated by our team. For more details on UltraDev, see http://www.macromedia.com/software/UltraDev		Basic utilities for database integration, called "dynamic link," are included along with some pre-written active server pages code packaged with GoLive. The very basic instructions included in the on line help are oversimplified. Use of this feature requires that GoLive be installed on the same machine as the server and that a server running IIS Ver. 3 or later or a UNIX web server with Chili!Soft ASP be installed. It is questionable whether it is easier to use the Adobe database connectivity feature or learn ASP.
Easy to install and configure		Installation is very easy and straightforward.		Installation is very easy and straightforward. The software reminds you to install Quicktime (necessary for certain features) if it is not installed on your machine.
Extensibility		Besides through the Macromedia Exchange web site (exchange.macromedia.com) where the user can add extensions and behaviors, the menus are configurable through editing the menus.xml file that dictates the configuration of Dreamweaver's menus.		The user can add extensions and behaviors from within the application with a built in utility that downloads new stuff from adobe. The user can also drop pre-written action files into a specific directory and they are automatically available through the actions menu.
FTP		Comprehensive FTP interface built into the site management tool.		Simple and comprehensive ftp interface
Help		No built-in help system. Help requires access to the Internet and a web browser. Online help is comprehensive and easy to navigate.		No built-in help system. Help requires access to the Internet and a web browser. Online help is fairly comprehensive, but a bit clumsy to navigate.
Image Rollovers		The "Insert image" dialog box allows for specification of starting image, mouseover image, and mousedown image and creates the necessary JavaScript automatically. There is also a built in utility for creating menu bars with roll-over images.		This is treated as a drag and drop object, separate from a regular image. The application inserts necessary JavaScript to swap graphics for main image, mouse over image and click image.
Java Scripting		Dreamweaver provides full JavaScript support plus a small collection of useful JavaScripts The built in script editor, however, is little more than a dialog box with a text box inside.		GoLive provides a great amount of JavaScript Support. There is a built-in editor with a drag and drop collection of JavaScript functions (which is very helpful in ensuring correct syntax). JavaScript is displayed in a unique color in the source viewer. The built-in preview window does not support all JavaScript code.
Links to external text editors		Edit menu -> preferences. Specify "External HTML editor" to be any text editor/word processor.		Does not appear to link to external text editors.
Links to other external applications		Freely configurable (Edit menu -> preferences). Add external editors according to the file extension they would modify. Naturally, ShockWave and Flash objects have a greater degree of configurability.		Uses the association for a particular object as registered in the OS. For example, if Photoeditor is associated with .gif files in Windows, double clicking the object will open it in Photoeditor. There is no option in the right-click menu to edit an object.
Manual		A printed manual comes with the software. The tutorial is not much help at all-it covers basics but not much in the way of reasons why one might want to do what they have the user do. The remainder of the manual is merely a reference tool-there is little substance beyond the basic, "To do X, click X and choose Y."		Manual was not available for evaluation.
Plug-in support		The program handles plugins with ease. Use the plugin icon in the objects palette to insert it, and modify its parameters with the properties palette. You can even audition the plugins from within the app.		Includes a utility, accessible from the help menu, called adobe online, from which one can access and install plugins.
Server Side Includes		Dreamweaver defaults to "fixing" unclosed tags, so when a tag is intended to be closed by an (x)SSI, Dreamweaver closes it too.		Software inserts a meta-tag line in documents with server-side includes. The included content, as long as it is available, is displayed in the preview window.
Site management		Site management interface is very complete. Multiple sites can be maintained. For remote servers, FTP or LAN access can be used. Dreamweaver will detect that a file name has been changed and update links in all other files can be configured for each site individual		Single interface includes FTP, webDAV service, general site and link management.
User friendliness		Overall, the interface is not completely intuitive to someone not familiar with HTML and website-building concepts. However, if the user is familiar with building web pages, it is easy to figure out.		Adobe's interface is more difficult to learn than the Macromedia interface - especially for new users who do not already know Adobe's products. For experienced users comfortable with the Adobe look and feel, there should be less difficulty.
XML support		Full support for XML built-in.		Excellent XML support built-in.










 

Please note: This material is no longer current and appears online for archival purposes only. Use the search and navigation tools above to locate more up-to-date materials, if they exist.