Well, I’ve got to admit that Adobe has done a brilliant job with Dreamweaver CS4. It’s a pretty smooth application and as a ColdFusion & Javascript centric programmer, this is a swell setup.
Things I love about Adobe Dreamweaver CS4:
- The Interface (I use ‘Coder Plus)
Well at first I must admit I didn’t like it much. It’s a departure from the traditional Windows interface, but I think that’s a good thing. It’s not too Mac looking either. I really despise the Mac look – (you know that boring monitone colour scheme with drop shaddows! How 1997!)
- The Real Estate
It lets you get things out of the way so you can code, but keeps them accessable giving heaps more development room without having to hide all the toolbars. - Minimised Doc Bar Interface (see pic below)
I love how I can have a mini button nav that pops out the file explorer. I kind of wish Vista or Windows 7 had this kind of interface. It’s quick and easy.
- The Speed
It’s just fast. I am using Dual and Quad core machines with lots of Ram, (and it’s footprint isn’t tiny) and everything comes up very snappy. - Subversion Integration
I’ve pushed the dreamweaver team for years in beta cycles for Subversion integration. FINALLY, is all I had to say. I was quite happy to see them polling users to see what they thought and did people support this inclusion… you bet! The fact that other repositories don’t have support is another matter. Update: In CS4 you had to use a particular version of subversion, in CSS5 you now can use the latest version and update dreamweaver through a series of updates that (hopefully) will be released. - Tabbed Interface
I love the new grey tabs. I love the related files - The help search bar
Placemnent is everything here. It’s definately in the rights spot. While it needs a product selector so I can choose Coldfusion help, it’s pretty handy anyway. - Javascript Code Hinting
This is a big plus for the coders out there. This feature gives suggestions for objects that relate to the object you are editing. I can’t remember how many times I googled javascript functions to get the right syntax, or funtionality in moments where the information in your head just doesn’t compute. - Adobe Air Authoring Support
I was wonering why ColdFusion wasn’t allowed to have Air Authoring. Now I know, the Dreamweaver team put dibs on it. This is going to be a bg plus for the apps I have planned for 2009. - CS4/5 Extensions
I just love the way if you want to, you can create more functionality for Dreamweaver. I’m in the middle of integrating my ColdFusion framework hints into an extension so it makes it even easier to use my framework in Dreamweaver.
Want more Dreamwever CS4…
Uncovering the hidden gems in Adobe Dreamweaver CS4