News is the most popular online video category, according to a study recently conducted by the Online Publishers Association.
OPA surveyed more than 1,400 online video users, who cited news and information as their favorite category. The study also found that users respond to video advertising.
Of the 80 percent of viewers who watched a video ad online, the study said 52 percent took some sort of action, whether it’s checking out a Web site (31 percent), searching for more info (22 percent), going into a store (15 percent) or making a purchase (12 percent).
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Automobiles are not the only ones going hybrid.
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
As newspapers face declining print circulation figures, one bright spot in this spring’s Audit Bureau of Circulations Fas-Fax figures was the increase in electronic edition readership, fueled by so-called hybrid subscriptions (see sidebar, page 20).
Case in point: The Denver Newspaper Agency, which saw whopping increases in the number of readers subscribing to the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post (see chart, page 20).
Bernie Gitt, the DNA’s director of circulation consumer relations, said hybrid subscriptions, where a consumer receives a print delivery in combination with electronic access, has yielded big benefits.
“This concept was started as a sales strategy and was tested in late 2006 and has also been one of the primary acquisition offerings this year,” said Gitt. “ABC qualifies this as a 7-day subscription, with the method of delivery being different.”
The DNA offers combination packages of printed Sunday or weekend service plus access to electronic edition the other days of the week.
Another high-flyer, The Orange County (Calif.) Register, counts more than 14,000 hybrid subscribers in addition to its 1,000 pure 7-day electronic-only subs.
Online convenience
The online convenience of electronic editions is a primary motivator, said Larry Riley, vice president of circulation and distribution.
“People that are tech-savvy, but like the traditional feel of a newspaper, are hooked because they’re not only comfortable with the news layout, but they like the traditional way of advertising and the ability to interact with advertising,” he said.
Electronic editions also help drive down the bottom line for newspapers looking to trim costs.
“A newspaper does not incur the typical cost of print, freight and delivery, which can run anywhere from 35 cents a copy to 70 cents (depending on page count or day of week,” Riley said.
Readers also like the layout of The Register’s e-edition, which holds the familiar look readers are used to in the print format.
“It’s a foray into becoming a geek while holding onto what’s customary and comfortable,” Riley said. “Reading a newspaper has been described as a leisure activity and the presentation of a newspaper in a somewhat traditional format plus access online gives a reader the best of both worlds.”
Both The Register and DNA launched electronic editions in 2004 and use Olive Software Inc.’s ActivePaper software for their digital versions.
ABC’s list of the top 25 electronic edition newspapers includes a diverse crowd of dailies, spanning the gamut of size and notoriety.
The top five newspapers include The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, The Register, (Minneapolis) Star Tribune and The Denver Post.
The first two papers require paid subscription membership for online access; the three others reported double- to triple-digit jumps in e-edition figures from March 2006.
New features to woo interest
At the same time, electronic edition vendors are supplying more sophisticated products engineered to cater to a reader’s personal tastes.
NewspaperDirect, for example, has among its features the ability to link specific objects, such as an advertiser’s phone number, to elements that might be requested by the user.
The XML extractor technology “allows us to work with the PDF files and extract the description of pages,” said Igor Smirnoff, NewspaperDirect’s director of strategic development. “We understand very intimately the relationship between different objects within each paper.”
NewspaperDirect also offers a feature in its SmartEdition product line that translates articles into 12 different languages, from English to Chinese.
“Many of our publishing partners take advantage of this feature as they see this to be one of the ways they can reach out to new demographics,” Smirnoff said. “How great is it to for a large Hispanic population to read the Los Angeles Times in Spanish?”
NewspaperDirect also offers a blogging feature, which Smirnoff says is an attempt to help its newspaper clients reach out to that segment of Internet users.
“Blogging is a very interesting market segment for us,” said Smirnoff, adding that he believes the feature is a “very important vehicle for proper legal content propagation.”
“It’s the matter of how we present and give the tools we give to bloggers to work with the newspaper content while preserving the trackability and control of publishers so they can see where the content is being used.”
Regardless of technologies available for electronic editions, Riley said that digital delivery is the direction the newspaper market is headed.
“Readers love to thumb through the pages of a print newspaper, but they’re also becoming accustomed to accessing news and information online,” he said.
Associate Editor
As newspapers face declining print circulation figures, one bright spot in this spring’s Audit Bureau of Circulations Fas-Fax figures was the increase in electronic edition readership, fueled by so-called hybrid subscriptions (see sidebar, page 20).
Case in point: The Denver Newspaper Agency, which saw whopping increases in the number of readers subscribing to the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post (see chart, page 20).
Bernie Gitt, the DNA’s director of circulation consumer relations, said hybrid subscriptions, where a consumer receives a print delivery in combination with electronic access, has yielded big benefits.
“This concept was started as a sales strategy and was tested in late 2006 and has also been one of the primary acquisition offerings this year,” said Gitt. “ABC qualifies this as a 7-day subscription, with the method of delivery being different.”
The DNA offers combination packages of printed Sunday or weekend service plus access to electronic edition the other days of the week.
Another high-flyer, The Orange County (Calif.) Register, counts more than 14,000 hybrid subscribers in addition to its 1,000 pure 7-day electronic-only subs.
Online convenience
The online convenience of electronic editions is a primary motivator, said Larry Riley, vice president of circulation and distribution.
“People that are tech-savvy, but like the traditional feel of a newspaper, are hooked because they’re not only comfortable with the news layout, but they like the traditional way of advertising and the ability to interact with advertising,” he said.
Electronic editions also help drive down the bottom line for newspapers looking to trim costs.
“A newspaper does not incur the typical cost of print, freight and delivery, which can run anywhere from 35 cents a copy to 70 cents (depending on page count or day of week,” Riley said.
Readers also like the layout of The Register’s e-edition, which holds the familiar look readers are used to in the print format.
“It’s a foray into becoming a geek while holding onto what’s customary and comfortable,” Riley said. “Reading a newspaper has been described as a leisure activity and the presentation of a newspaper in a somewhat traditional format plus access online gives a reader the best of both worlds.”
Both The Register and DNA launched electronic editions in 2004 and use Olive Software Inc.’s ActivePaper software for their digital versions.
ABC’s list of the top 25 electronic edition newspapers includes a diverse crowd of dailies, spanning the gamut of size and notoriety.
The top five newspapers include The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, The Register, (Minneapolis) Star Tribune and The Denver Post.
The first two papers require paid subscription membership for online access; the three others reported double- to triple-digit jumps in e-edition figures from March 2006.
New features to woo interest
At the same time, electronic edition vendors are supplying more sophisticated products engineered to cater to a reader’s personal tastes.
NewspaperDirect, for example, has among its features the ability to link specific objects, such as an advertiser’s phone number, to elements that might be requested by the user.
The XML extractor technology “allows us to work with the PDF files and extract the description of pages,” said Igor Smirnoff, NewspaperDirect’s director of strategic development. “We understand very intimately the relationship between different objects within each paper.”
NewspaperDirect also offers a feature in its SmartEdition product line that translates articles into 12 different languages, from English to Chinese.
“Many of our publishing partners take advantage of this feature as they see this to be one of the ways they can reach out to new demographics,” Smirnoff said. “How great is it to for a large Hispanic population to read the Los Angeles Times in Spanish?”
NewspaperDirect also offers a blogging feature, which Smirnoff says is an attempt to help its newspaper clients reach out to that segment of Internet users.
“Blogging is a very interesting market segment for us,” said Smirnoff, adding that he believes the feature is a “very important vehicle for proper legal content propagation.”
“It’s the matter of how we present and give the tools we give to bloggers to work with the newspaper content while preserving the trackability and control of publishers so they can see where the content is being used.”
Regardless of technologies available for electronic editions, Riley said that digital delivery is the direction the newspaper market is headed.
“Readers love to thumb through the pages of a print newspaper, but they’re also becoming accustomed to accessing news and information online,” he said.
U.S. newspaper vendors beginning to say, ‘Hello mobile’
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
New developments in the mobile phone world are giving newspapers additional options to provide customized news services and marketing programs to woo readers and advertisers alike.
To that end, several newspaper vendors are pitching text-messaging services and developing news channels to readers.
Saxotech Inc. last month formed a partnership with mobile marketing company NetInformer LLC to allow text messaging and interactive wireless communications to be added to Saxotech’s Web content management and presentation platform.
Applications for the blended software include customized text messaging of breaking news briefs, sports and community alerts, mobile coupon services and other features newspapers can offer to readers.
Saxotech said that several U.S. newspapers are beta testing the new features.
Newspapers deploying the software will have access to more than 225 million wireless subscribers in the United States, said Paul Harris, Saxotech’s vice president of corporate communications and marketing.
Content will flow from newsrooms to wireless channels designed by NetInformer.
Tools for journalists
“We are putting the tools in the hands of the journalist so that they handle their stories only one time,” he said of the software’s benefits to newspapers.
“You may have a different length and headline for a story you that would want to use in print and you may have a different headline or the story might be a bit longer for the Web.”
The text-messaging feature, meantime, will give newspapers wide flexibility in how they handle advertisers’ marketing messages, said Saxotech Product Manager Mark Regan.
“Imagine if you receive a text message for a free Starbucks coffee, you can click on the ad and it’ll send you a numeric code you can show to the cashier to redeem,” he said. “That creates quite a personalized relationship.”
Equally as important, newspapers will also be able to customize news alerts to a near one-on-one level for their readers.
“A newspaper can create a special channel that delivers specialized news like the high school football game score,” Regan said. “That is a huge relationship that you’ve built because now they have in-depth coverage of a micro-niche that no one else can serve on any grand scale but newspapers can, because they have the information and publish it to a specific channel, with no additional cost to them.”
Booming mobile market
Regan said the partnership with San Ramon, Calif.-based NetInformer comes as mobile device usage in the United States accelerates.
“We’re predicting that 2008 is going to be a breakthrough year for newspapers in particular to deliver content to mobile devices,” he said.
According to findings from M:Metrics’ latest benchmark survey, more than 81 million Americans sent text messages in February, up 3.7 percent from the year-ago period.
That said, the U.S. market has a long way to go before catching up to European mobile subscribers, of whom more than 80 percent text-message on a regular basis.
Meantime, sleek new products like the Apple’s iPhone are broadening the concept of news on the go for a younger generation accustomed to mobile phone technology.
“The iPhone will become a catalyst for the whole mobile information revolution that’s going to happen over the next 12 to 18 months,” Harris said. “In order for a newspaper to be in touch with that next generation of readers and consumers, they are going to have to be in the text-messaging game.”
USA Today offers text-messaging service
USA Today last month rolled out a text-messaging service to provide real-time news and information to users through their mobile phones.
The national paper partnered with Palo Alto, Calif.-based 4Info Inc. to offer the service to its readers.
Users can sign up to receive free text alerts on specific subjects ranging from sports and business to movies and travel, the paper said.
USA Today previously worked with 4Info to provide mobile news and advertising programs. In one promotion during this year’s NCAA basketball tournament, more than 750,000 text messages were sent to USA Today readers.
Associate Editor
New developments in the mobile phone world are giving newspapers additional options to provide customized news services and marketing programs to woo readers and advertisers alike.
To that end, several newspaper vendors are pitching text-messaging services and developing news channels to readers.
Saxotech Inc. last month formed a partnership with mobile marketing company NetInformer LLC to allow text messaging and interactive wireless communications to be added to Saxotech’s Web content management and presentation platform.
Applications for the blended software include customized text messaging of breaking news briefs, sports and community alerts, mobile coupon services and other features newspapers can offer to readers.
Saxotech said that several U.S. newspapers are beta testing the new features.
Newspapers deploying the software will have access to more than 225 million wireless subscribers in the United States, said Paul Harris, Saxotech’s vice president of corporate communications and marketing.
Content will flow from newsrooms to wireless channels designed by NetInformer.
Tools for journalists
“We are putting the tools in the hands of the journalist so that they handle their stories only one time,” he said of the software’s benefits to newspapers.
“You may have a different length and headline for a story you that would want to use in print and you may have a different headline or the story might be a bit longer for the Web.”
The text-messaging feature, meantime, will give newspapers wide flexibility in how they handle advertisers’ marketing messages, said Saxotech Product Manager Mark Regan.
“Imagine if you receive a text message for a free Starbucks coffee, you can click on the ad and it’ll send you a numeric code you can show to the cashier to redeem,” he said. “That creates quite a personalized relationship.”
Equally as important, newspapers will also be able to customize news alerts to a near one-on-one level for their readers.
“A newspaper can create a special channel that delivers specialized news like the high school football game score,” Regan said. “That is a huge relationship that you’ve built because now they have in-depth coverage of a micro-niche that no one else can serve on any grand scale but newspapers can, because they have the information and publish it to a specific channel, with no additional cost to them.”
Booming mobile market
Regan said the partnership with San Ramon, Calif.-based NetInformer comes as mobile device usage in the United States accelerates.
“We’re predicting that 2008 is going to be a breakthrough year for newspapers in particular to deliver content to mobile devices,” he said.
According to findings from M:Metrics’ latest benchmark survey, more than 81 million Americans sent text messages in February, up 3.7 percent from the year-ago period.
That said, the U.S. market has a long way to go before catching up to European mobile subscribers, of whom more than 80 percent text-message on a regular basis.
Meantime, sleek new products like the Apple’s iPhone are broadening the concept of news on the go for a younger generation accustomed to mobile phone technology.
“The iPhone will become a catalyst for the whole mobile information revolution that’s going to happen over the next 12 to 18 months,” Harris said. “In order for a newspaper to be in touch with that next generation of readers and consumers, they are going to have to be in the text-messaging game.”
USA Today offers text-messaging service
USA Today last month rolled out a text-messaging service to provide real-time news and information to users through their mobile phones.
The national paper partnered with Palo Alto, Calif.-based 4Info Inc. to offer the service to its readers.
Users can sign up to receive free text alerts on specific subjects ranging from sports and business to movies and travel, the paper said.
USA Today previously worked with 4Info to provide mobile news and advertising programs. In one promotion during this year’s NCAA basketball tournament, more than 750,000 text messages were sent to USA Today readers.
Pa., Calif. papers launch auctions
Several Pennsylvania newspapers ran auctions with software provided by CityXpress Corp., the vendor said.
The Beaver County Times, Williamsport Sun-Gazette and The Patriot-News in Harrisburg conducted auctions last month.
Since 2003, Pennsylvania newspapers have hosted 47 auctions by 31 newspapers, CityXpress said. The auctions sold more than 14,700 products valued at nearly $9 million, according to data compiled by the vendor.
Meantime, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News and sister Bay Area newspapers last month launched a one-week online dealer auction on CityXPress’ Xpress Cars platform. The auction, CarSearch 360, was the first online auto-only sale hosted by a newspaper in the state of California, CityXpress said.
The Beaver County Times, Williamsport Sun-Gazette and The Patriot-News in Harrisburg conducted auctions last month.
Since 2003, Pennsylvania newspapers have hosted 47 auctions by 31 newspapers, CityXpress said. The auctions sold more than 14,700 products valued at nearly $9 million, according to data compiled by the vendor.
Meantime, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News and sister Bay Area newspapers last month launched a one-week online dealer auction on CityXPress’ Xpress Cars platform. The auction, CarSearch 360, was the first online auto-only sale hosted by a newspaper in the state of California, CityXpress said.
Adobe introduces new e-reader software
By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor
Adobe Systems Inc. last month introduced a desktop electronic reader it contends will make rich Internet applications more accessible to consumers.
The reader, dubbed Digital Editions, is engineered to allow users to view and organize PDF and XML-based content on desktop and laptop computer, said Bill McCoy, Adobe’s general manager of ePublishing Business.
To that end, the software can handle rich-format authoring apps such as Flash or other multimedia tools as well as offer content-protection features to prevent unauthorized use of certain files, he said.
“It is a very lightweight download, under 3 megabytes and doesn’t require other technologies like Adobe Reader or Flash Player,” McCoy said. “It behaves as a full desktop application and supports reading content online and offline.”
Adobe Digital Editions is available as a free download and runs on Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. operating systems. Linux platforms and versions in French, German, Japanese, Korean and Chinese are expected to be available in the second half of 2007.
Open standards
DE is based on the Open Publications Structure, developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum, which supports reflowable content.
Incorporating OPS allows DE to reformat content to match a user’s display, a feature that will become more important once DE is ported to cell phones and other mobile devices.
Adobe’s release of InDesign CS3 included tools to allow users to create more dynamic content that could be exploited in DE, McCoy said.
“Of course, InDesign is quite capable of authoring rich final form pages in PDF format,” McCoy said. “But we added a new capability to offer XML content that is more dynamic and reflowable so that the content can adapt to display size.”
The app includes a library mode for allowing users to see and organize their publications. Users will be able to drag and drop files onto various bookshelves.
Bookmark content
Users can also tap into a robust annotation capability that will enable them to bookmark and highlight content for later referral.
The annotated material will be stored separately in an open XML format, which McCoy said will set the stage for future social networking features.
“Over time we want to make it possible to share these annotations publicly or privately with a set of colleagues,” he said.
McCoy said Adobe developed DE on a fast-track schedule, testing three versions in eight months.
“That’s very rapid pace of evolution for Adobe, instead of going off and working for a shrink-wrap product that’s going to take 18 months or two years to develop,” he said.
“Our job is to create the platform that enables people to do these kinds of (reading) experiences and let the newspapers figure out what it’s good for,” McCoy said of DE. “We’re just the musical instrument makers. You guys are the musicians.”
DE’s features will also be incorporated into the Sony Reader product line, according to an alliance between the two firms.
Associate Editor
Adobe Systems Inc. last month introduced a desktop electronic reader it contends will make rich Internet applications more accessible to consumers.
The reader, dubbed Digital Editions, is engineered to allow users to view and organize PDF and XML-based content on desktop and laptop computer, said Bill McCoy, Adobe’s general manager of ePublishing Business.
To that end, the software can handle rich-format authoring apps such as Flash or other multimedia tools as well as offer content-protection features to prevent unauthorized use of certain files, he said.
“It is a very lightweight download, under 3 megabytes and doesn’t require other technologies like Adobe Reader or Flash Player,” McCoy said. “It behaves as a full desktop application and supports reading content online and offline.”
Adobe Digital Editions is available as a free download and runs on Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. operating systems. Linux platforms and versions in French, German, Japanese, Korean and Chinese are expected to be available in the second half of 2007.
Open standards
DE is based on the Open Publications Structure, developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum, which supports reflowable content.
Incorporating OPS allows DE to reformat content to match a user’s display, a feature that will become more important once DE is ported to cell phones and other mobile devices.
Adobe’s release of InDesign CS3 included tools to allow users to create more dynamic content that could be exploited in DE, McCoy said.
“Of course, InDesign is quite capable of authoring rich final form pages in PDF format,” McCoy said. “But we added a new capability to offer XML content that is more dynamic and reflowable so that the content can adapt to display size.”
The app includes a library mode for allowing users to see and organize their publications. Users will be able to drag and drop files onto various bookshelves.
Bookmark content
Users can also tap into a robust annotation capability that will enable them to bookmark and highlight content for later referral.
The annotated material will be stored separately in an open XML format, which McCoy said will set the stage for future social networking features.
“Over time we want to make it possible to share these annotations publicly or privately with a set of colleagues,” he said.
McCoy said Adobe developed DE on a fast-track schedule, testing three versions in eight months.
“That’s very rapid pace of evolution for Adobe, instead of going off and working for a shrink-wrap product that’s going to take 18 months or two years to develop,” he said.
“Our job is to create the platform that enables people to do these kinds of (reading) experiences and let the newspapers figure out what it’s good for,” McCoy said of DE. “We’re just the musical instrument makers. You guys are the musicians.”
DE’s features will also be incorporated into the Sony Reader product line, according to an alliance between the two firms.
Creative Suite 3: Web package blends Macromedia apps
By Chere' Martin
Special to Newspapers & Technology
Adobe Systems Inc.’s release of Creative Suite 3 not only fine-tuned the well-regarded software, but brought with it the first Adobe-authored upgrade of Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks and Contribute, software Adobe acquired when it purchased Macromedia Inc. in 2005.
Whenever one company buys out another, customers worry whether the lack of competition will thwart the growth of a favorite product. Longtime Adobe users, however, recognize the company’s ability to bring companion programs together in a manner that creates a comfortable, intuitive workflow.
With the merging of the Macromedia apps into CS, we hoped for the best, and, in CS3, we are not disappointed.
Adobe is also well known for another of its marketing tactics: to distribute software bundles that include additional programs buyers may not have bought on their own.
Remember feeling like you got InDesign for free when you upgraded Photoshop and Illustrator a few years ago?
This time around, Adobe created a CS3 Design Premium bundle that includes Dreamweaver CS3 and Flash CS3 Professional. And Web designers aren’t left out of the candy parade. They receive, in addition to the Web programs one might expect, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3 and Acrobat 8 Professional.
Can you feel the cross-program love?
Dreamweaver
Since one of my most favorite things is Cascading Style Sheets, I find myself fascinated with how Adobe has gone about quietly teaching CSS in Dreamweaver CS3.
What’s interesting isn’t just that there are so many templates (including one-, two- and three-column layouts with, or without headers and footers, elastic or absolute positioning) but the extensive commenting within these existing documents. The commenting is a little overwhelming at first, but for someone with a little knowledge and some gumption, it can be a great learning tool or a check for good Web practices.
Dreamweaver CS3 comes with a multitude of preformatted templates.
These templates also come with pre-defined basic styles that are, of course, inline only. This still allows a user to utilize the styles and still build or attach custom CSS.
Other CS3 improvements include the “current” and “all” tabs in the CSS menu. “All” equates to CS2’s CSS default pallet display whereas “current” automatically displays and makes property changes available to a current selected item — be it in the design view or code view. This makes adjustments to CSS rules much faster.
There’s even an “about” area on the panel that offers greater description of a selected property, along with a “rules” option that shows the cascade rules affecting a particular tag. Like other workspace improvements, the “about” and “rules” visibility can be minimized within the docked panel.
Test your styling in CSS using CSS Advisor. It links directly from your browser checker to a site area devoted to allowing both Adobe and the Web community at large to contribute solutions to Web development problems.
Spry Widgets
Aside from the fun name, Spry Widgets attempt to offer quick and easy access to pre-assembled HTML code using JavaScript to manage the behavior of the Widget and CSS for styling. Widgets are found in a new tab within the insert menu and include frequently used items like menu bar, tabbed panels, accordion menus and text validation fields.
Widget controls can be accessed via the properties pallet to make their usage easy within the design view.
A Dreamweaver template with a menu Spry Widget dropped in
and ready for customizing.
Fireworks
Much of the improvements built into Fireworks CS3 seem to be focused on the ability to quickly create Web page prototypes.
One new feature is the improved Pages option. Here, you can create master pages that can be linked to other pages, allowing rapid creation of additional pages. Within each page, you can individually control the canvas size, color, image resolution and guides.
Another handy tool for prototyping is the Common Library. This contains preset, common items such as calendars, radio buttons, check boxes, form containers, etc., that can be tedious to develop for a site while in the design stage. While these items are standard, each can be resized individually as necessary without changing the master item. Nine-slice scaling allows further control of item size adjustments without wrecking text and other effects already applied.
Once a design is ready for presentation, a user can export from the PNG file as HTML. From there, you can use Dreamweaver CS3 or Flash CS3 to add interactive elements to create a complete click-through mock-up.
Another leap in practicality is the addition of the Create Slideshow option. Within minutes you can take a template layout and create a photo slideshow that will play through or otherwise be controlled by the viewer.
Multiple albums allow topical organization. When exported, you end up with HTML and support files packaged and ready for posting online.
Flash
With Adobe’s first release of Flash came the task of making the working environment feel related to its other design products while at the same time, keeping the app comfortable for veteran users.
The visual changes aren’t as significant as one might imagine but Adobe engineered some subtle adjustments to make the panels dock like the other Adobe products and to offer more control over other aspects such as the height of the layers and frame width in the timeline.
One of the most hoped for and most likely improvements with Flash CS3 are the bolstered cross-application file format importing options.
Importing native Photoshop and Illustrator files is a reality as well as allowing users to maintain many layer options and resizing capabilities.
Primitive Drawing Tools is another new feature, although it’s debatable whether this capability was added to aid in flexibility or to help newbies adapt to how shapes act and interact in Flash.
Once you click on the rectangle drawing tool, you can convert from typical drawing of shapes (where strokes are separate from a fill and knockouts are natural to overlapping elements) to the Object Drawing mode, which acts like a simple shape might in Illustrator: Stroke and fill are one and overlapping shapes doesn’t cause loss of parts.
Meantime, ActionScript 3 is introduced with the goal of helping developers address safety, simplicity, performance and compatibility. It also brings the software into compliance with the ECMAScript standard, a vendor-neutral authoring specification.
Can it continue?
All told, Adobe has appeared to empty the bases with its release of CS3. The package is robust and includes a variety of new features and upgrades that will appeal to a wide swath of the design community.
What remains to be seen is whether Adobe, now that it’s free of any consequential competition, will manage to keep up the innovation in subsequent releases.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium
What’s in the box:
•Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
•Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
•Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
•Adobe Illustrator CS3
•Adobe Fireworks CS3
•Adobe Acrobat Professional
•Adobe Contribute CS3
Upgrade: $499
Full Version: $1,599
Chere' Martin is Newspapers & Technology’s production manager. She can be reached at cmartin@newsandtech.com.
See Chere’s review of Adobe CS3 Design Premium in the June 2007 issue of Newspapers & Technology.
Special to Newspapers & Technology
Adobe Systems Inc.’s release of Creative Suite 3 not only fine-tuned the well-regarded software, but brought with it the first Adobe-authored upgrade of Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks and Contribute, software Adobe acquired when it purchased Macromedia Inc. in 2005.
Whenever one company buys out another, customers worry whether the lack of competition will thwart the growth of a favorite product. Longtime Adobe users, however, recognize the company’s ability to bring companion programs together in a manner that creates a comfortable, intuitive workflow.
With the merging of the Macromedia apps into CS, we hoped for the best, and, in CS3, we are not disappointed.
Adobe is also well known for another of its marketing tactics: to distribute software bundles that include additional programs buyers may not have bought on their own.
Remember feeling like you got InDesign for free when you upgraded Photoshop and Illustrator a few years ago?
This time around, Adobe created a CS3 Design Premium bundle that includes Dreamweaver CS3 and Flash CS3 Professional. And Web designers aren’t left out of the candy parade. They receive, in addition to the Web programs one might expect, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3 and Acrobat 8 Professional.
Can you feel the cross-program love?
Dreamweaver
Since one of my most favorite things is Cascading Style Sheets, I find myself fascinated with how Adobe has gone about quietly teaching CSS in Dreamweaver CS3.
What’s interesting isn’t just that there are so many templates (including one-, two- and three-column layouts with, or without headers and footers, elastic or absolute positioning) but the extensive commenting within these existing documents. The commenting is a little overwhelming at first, but for someone with a little knowledge and some gumption, it can be a great learning tool or a check for good Web practices.
Dreamweaver CS3 comes with a multitude of preformatted templates.
These templates also come with pre-defined basic styles that are, of course, inline only. This still allows a user to utilize the styles and still build or attach custom CSS.
Other CS3 improvements include the “current” and “all” tabs in the CSS menu. “All” equates to CS2’s CSS default pallet display whereas “current” automatically displays and makes property changes available to a current selected item — be it in the design view or code view. This makes adjustments to CSS rules much faster.
There’s even an “about” area on the panel that offers greater description of a selected property, along with a “rules” option that shows the cascade rules affecting a particular tag. Like other workspace improvements, the “about” and “rules” visibility can be minimized within the docked panel.
Test your styling in CSS using CSS Advisor. It links directly from your browser checker to a site area devoted to allowing both Adobe and the Web community at large to contribute solutions to Web development problems.
Spry Widgets
Aside from the fun name, Spry Widgets attempt to offer quick and easy access to pre-assembled HTML code using JavaScript to manage the behavior of the Widget and CSS for styling. Widgets are found in a new tab within the insert menu and include frequently used items like menu bar, tabbed panels, accordion menus and text validation fields.
Widget controls can be accessed via the properties pallet to make their usage easy within the design view.
A Dreamweaver template with a menu Spry Widget dropped in
and ready for customizing.
Fireworks
Much of the improvements built into Fireworks CS3 seem to be focused on the ability to quickly create Web page prototypes.
One new feature is the improved Pages option. Here, you can create master pages that can be linked to other pages, allowing rapid creation of additional pages. Within each page, you can individually control the canvas size, color, image resolution and guides.
Another handy tool for prototyping is the Common Library. This contains preset, common items such as calendars, radio buttons, check boxes, form containers, etc., that can be tedious to develop for a site while in the design stage. While these items are standard, each can be resized individually as necessary without changing the master item. Nine-slice scaling allows further control of item size adjustments without wrecking text and other effects already applied.
Once a design is ready for presentation, a user can export from the PNG file as HTML. From there, you can use Dreamweaver CS3 or Flash CS3 to add interactive elements to create a complete click-through mock-up.
Another leap in practicality is the addition of the Create Slideshow option. Within minutes you can take a template layout and create a photo slideshow that will play through or otherwise be controlled by the viewer.
Multiple albums allow topical organization. When exported, you end up with HTML and support files packaged and ready for posting online.
Flash
With Adobe’s first release of Flash came the task of making the working environment feel related to its other design products while at the same time, keeping the app comfortable for veteran users.
The visual changes aren’t as significant as one might imagine but Adobe engineered some subtle adjustments to make the panels dock like the other Adobe products and to offer more control over other aspects such as the height of the layers and frame width in the timeline.
One of the most hoped for and most likely improvements with Flash CS3 are the bolstered cross-application file format importing options.
Importing native Photoshop and Illustrator files is a reality as well as allowing users to maintain many layer options and resizing capabilities.
Primitive Drawing Tools is another new feature, although it’s debatable whether this capability was added to aid in flexibility or to help newbies adapt to how shapes act and interact in Flash.
Once you click on the rectangle drawing tool, you can convert from typical drawing of shapes (where strokes are separate from a fill and knockouts are natural to overlapping elements) to the Object Drawing mode, which acts like a simple shape might in Illustrator: Stroke and fill are one and overlapping shapes doesn’t cause loss of parts.
Meantime, ActionScript 3 is introduced with the goal of helping developers address safety, simplicity, performance and compatibility. It also brings the software into compliance with the ECMAScript standard, a vendor-neutral authoring specification.
Can it continue?
All told, Adobe has appeared to empty the bases with its release of CS3. The package is robust and includes a variety of new features and upgrades that will appeal to a wide swath of the design community.
What remains to be seen is whether Adobe, now that it’s free of any consequential competition, will manage to keep up the innovation in subsequent releases.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium
What’s in the box:
•Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
•Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
•Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
•Adobe Illustrator CS3
•Adobe Fireworks CS3
•Adobe Acrobat Professional
•Adobe Contribute CS3
Upgrade: $499
Full Version: $1,599
Chere' Martin is Newspapers & Technology’s production manager. She can be reached at cmartin@newsandtech.com.
See Chere’s review of Adobe CS3 Design Premium in the June 2007 issue of Newspapers & Technology.
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