Good to know Adobe CS4 is almost out

I’m glad to hear that because I only have positive things to say Adobe CS3, and now that we are about to have a new version out for our use, I can barely wait. Here are some of the features we’re expecting:

For Fireworks:

• New user interface
• CSS-based layouts
• PDF export
• Live Style improvements
• Adobe type engine
• AIR authoring

The new Dreamweaver touts these features:

• Live View
• Related Files
• Code Navigator
• CSS best practices
• Code hinting for Ajax and JavaScript frameworks
• HTML data sets
• Photoshop Smart Objects
• Subversion integration
• Adobe® AIR™ authoring support
• New user interface

Very nice list of features indeed. A little more on this is available at Scott Fegette’s blog You can get to try out the beta versions by downloading them at Adobe Labs

The beta versions of Dreamweaver CS4 can be obtained here, and that of Fireworks CS4 can be obtained here. Reading through Adobe Labs today, the features that intrigued me most about Fireworks CS4 are:

• Output your Fireworks designs to the application platform of your choice: Adobe AIR™, Flash®, Flex®, or HTML. In addition, export web standards–compliant, CSS-based layouts — complete with external style sheets — to Adobe Dreamweaver®.
• Switch from Adobe Photoshop®, Illustrator®, and Flash — with the ease and familiarity of universal user interface design.
• Generate high-fidelity, interactive, secure PDF documents from your Fireworks design comps for enhanced client communication.
• Create your AIR interactive prototype directly within Fireworks, ready to be deployed to HTML and CSS, Flex, or Flash.

As regards Dreamweaver CS4, I’m excited to know that the following features are available:

• Create multiplatform desktop applications from your Dreamweaver HTML and JavaScript sites with new Adobe AIR™ authoring support.
• Drag and drop an Adobe Photoshop® PSD file into a Dreamweaver page to create an image Smart Object.
• Work with popular JavaScript frameworks including jQuery, Prototype, and Spry.Hover over any property to view a tool tip with jargon-free English explanations of CSS principles. New CSS rules can be created and applied in the Property inspector panel and stored in the same document or an external style sheet.
• View your web pages under real-world browser conditions with the new Live View in Dreamweaver — while still retaining direct access to the code. This simply means that we can now have the Aptana like functionality in Dreamweaver instead of viewing pages in an editable-like mode, we get to experience it fully as we would in the browser. This is one of the main reasons why I use Aptana, which is a great developer’s tool.