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Like Macromedia's similar Contribute tool, Adobe Co-Author lets designers designate editable regions of a site. Then the co-author, the ongoing editor uses the same application to make their changes, without needing to know any HTML or more complex code.

For the designer the entire process involves five steps: designing the site structure and page layouts; creating a Co-Author section that holds the content and resources for generating Co-Author Web pages; designing templates with editable Co-Author regions; creating initial Co-Author stories to preview and test the site and to provide examples for the person assigned to update

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it; and finally publishing the site, along with the Site Locator file needed for updates.

The co-author then uses the Site Locator file to download the site for updating, and then uses the Adobe Co-Author to edit the co-author sections and preview then publish the updates. Hyperlinks as well as bold and italic styles can be added to (or removed from) text sections, while images can be replaced by simply browsing for an alternative. The original site creator can determine whether the co-author can directly upload updates or upload them to a 'test' directory first for testing.

There is, however, a key difference with Contribute as the latter can be used to edit any website, whether made with Macromedia Dreamweaver or Softpress Freeway or hand-coded.

Adobe Co-Author is a free download from www.adobe.com/support/downloads with more information, including PDF documentation and tutorials, to be found at www.adobe.com/products/golive.

Adobe has also released a 30-day tryout version of GoLive CS2.