Macromedia Dreamweaver MX

'UltraDev is dead! Long live Dreamweaver MX!' could well be the cry from the Macromedia camp.

But before you complain that Macromedia has just canned another great product, take a look at Dreamweaver MX - you'll see that UltraDev has simply been subsumed. That said, Dreamweaver MX isn't just two products that have been brought together to form a more easily understood product range; it's much, much more than that. With this release, Macromedia has increased the features of Dreamweaver to such an extent that it's difficult to do justice to every aspect, so forgive us if we don't highlight your favourite feature.

With previous versions of Dreamweaver and UltraDev (for developing active database-driven Web sites), Macromedia had built what were arguably the best Web design tools on the market. With Web development moving towards the .NET vision of Web Services, XML data sources and XML-transformation templates, there's a fast-growing need for a tool that will take us into the next generation of Internet application building. It's the task of embracing these technologies, along with Macromedia's own vision of the way forward, that Dreamweaver MX tackles, as well as enhancing the design environment for the beginner and the non-active Web site builder. Dreamweaver MX could be considered as an attempt to be a universal tool for all. Often this is an outrageous task to undertake - you run the risk of scaring off basic users, while not providing enough for the advanced user. So how does Macromedia attempt to achieve this? And more importantly, is it successful?

One size fits all

When you initially load up Dreamweaver MX, a small 'get you started' screen pops up with slide shows for the 'designer' or the 'developer'. A screen appears asking you how you want the Dreamweaver design environment to appear. This is called the workspace, and there are three types - the original Dreamweaver 4 with floating windows, the new MX style with docked and expandable windows, and lastly a 'HomeSite coder' style. This last style presents you with an Explorer tree-type view of your site. You can change your mind and switch to another style whenever you like, or you can even customise the layout to suit.

While you can just use Dreamweaver MX to edit single pages, a lot of its features come into their own if you define a site first. With this release, Macromedia has added a Wizard to help the beginner, although I confess that I found myself using this Wizard on numerous occasions. You can still use the older view, dubbed 'advanced'. Although Dreamweaver MX picked up and imported the sites I'd set up in my previous version of Dreamweaver, it's still a good idea to go through the site settings, as there are several new ones.

Once you've set up your site, the next stage is to add a page or two, to which Macromedia has enhanced things to great effect. Not only do you get a choice of the type of page to code - some 36 types are currently supported - but you can also select one of the many CSSs (cascading style sheets), framesets or page designs. All are previewable before you create your page. Of course, more designs can also be added from the Macromedia Exchange Web site, where there are lots of extensions to most of the Macromedia products. These extensions are often written by other developers and, with most offered free of charge, it's a great service and worth exploring. The bundled page designs are also very good and don't include images - they help with getting the design of the layout right, while Macromedia leaves the arty bit up to you.