Macromedia Studio 8
Macromedia is ready with Macromedia Studio 8. Combining the latest releases of Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash Professional, and Macromedia Fireworks, and essential productivity tools Macromedia Contribute and Macromedia FlashPaper, Studio 8 offers a new level of expressiveness, efficiency, and simplified workflow to create websites, interactive media, and mobile content.
Studio 8 contains workflow enhancements, new products, and feature firsts. The addition of Contribute and FlashPaper allows designers and developers a streamlined approach to maintaining web content, making the upkeep of sites created with the suite even more cost effective. Studio 8 also includes groundbreaking new video encoding tools, which give customers an easier method for creating and publishing high-quality interactive video for truly memorable online experiences. New CSS enhancements and visual authoring tools for XML add style and sophistication to websites and applications. New tools for authoring and testing mobile content give Studio 8 the market lead in helping businesses reach the widest audience possible across multiple platforms.
Dreamweaver 8 is Macromedia’s latest release of the industry-leading tool for designing and developing websites and applications. New Dreamweaver 8 features include expanded Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) layout visualization for easier design, drag-and-drop integration of XML data feeds, improved code hinting support for XML and XSLT, enhanced usability features such as zoom and system collapse to streamline the development process, and easier ways to incorporate Flash Video content onto websites.
Flash Professional 8 marks a significant release for Flash, the industry’s most advanced authoring environment for creating interactive websites, digital experiences, and mobile content. Improved graphics performance, new visual effects capabilities, new animation controls, script editor usability, Flash Video features, and workflow integration with leading video editing and encoding tools allow the creation of rich, immersive content for the web that was not possible before. Flash Professional 8 is the professional authoring environment for the Internet’s most widely distributed rich client runtime, Flash Player.
Fireworks 8 offers many new and improved features. Graphic designers and web application developers can now create interactive CSS-style pop-up menus, experiment with more than 25 new blend modes, import new file formats, and experience improved roundtrip editing with Dreamweaver 8 and Flash Professional 8.
Studio 8 is rounded out by the addition of Contribute 3 and FlashPaper 2 to fulfill the workflow needs of users better. Contribute three lets web professionals modify or update content in a controlled, template-based workflow that improves efficiency while preserving website integrity. FlashPaper 2 extends the content creation process by converting any file type into web-ready PDF or SWF file formats.
As the backbone of the Flash Platform, Flash Player 8 is a major update to the ubiquitous runtime environment. Flash Player 8 includes a higher quality video codec, an advanced text-rendering engine, and an improved security model and privacy controls to offer unprecedented performance in a lightweight runtime player. Flash Player is currently installed on over 600 million desktops and mobile devices globally.
Macromedia Studio 8 is expected to ship in September. Pricing is $999 for a full license (NA commercial) and $399 for an upgrade (NA commercial).
