Dax Data, local Macromedia distributor, has released the next generation MX product family used by professional developers and designers to build Web sites and applications.
The MX 2004 family includes new releases of Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks, as well as a new product, Flash MX Professional 2004, that enables developers to create rich Internet applications. Studio MX 2004 includes Dreamweaver MX 2004, Flash MX 2004 (or Flash MX Professional 2004), Fireworks MX 2004 and Freehand MX.
"The MX 2004 applications all use the same intuitive, customisable workspace to streamline design and development tasks," says Dax Data MD, Jeremy Matthews. "The products have consistent user interfaces, including start pages, panel management, document tabs, coding metaphors and property inspectors to enable developers to work more efficiently across multiple products. They also all leverage Unicode support to use, render and save any font and encoding supported by the operating system, including double-byte character sets.
"This version includes new building blocks in the form of MX Elements for Flash and the MX Elements for HTML, along with Halo, a unique look and feel for Internet applications.
"Macromedia built MX 2004 based on customers` experiences with the products and the feedback they provided along the way. These new products and building blocks will give users the power to run with their creativity and take digital experiences to new levels."
"Developers are constantly being asked to do more with less, but still create content and applications of the highest quality that deliver great experiences," says Rikki Kirzner, research director, IDC. "They want an integrated toolset that provides a fluid, streamlined workflow for whatever type of project they are doing, not to reinvent the wheel every time. Companies that focus on productivity gains, decreased costs and a commitment to making better content easier to create are on the right path."
Dreamweaver MX 2004 continues the tradition of Dreamweaver, adding new and updated support for standards and server technologies. These include Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), secure FTP and ASP.NET. The new version further simplifies Web site and application development.
Flash MX Professional 2004 builds on the strengths of Flash with an entirely new development environment for advanced application developers. This platform provides visual developers with a familiar forms-based programming metaphor, enabling them to build and deploy rich Internet applications. It also allows developers to deliver video-rich, interactive experiences.
"Fireworks has gained the reputation as the leading tool for designing and optimising Web graphics," says Matthews. "Fireworks MX 2004 improves its capabilities, delivering a broad array of new design tools and effects for Web graphics. It promotes collaboration through expanded integration with other MX products.
"Macromedia Studio MX, first released in 2002, became the most successful product in the company`s history by providing a comprehensive suite of design and development solutions for creating great Web sites and applications. Studio MX 2004 combines the new MX 2004 tools with FreeHand MX to provide an integrated and convenient development suite with a workflow that will reduce time-to-value for our customers," Matthews says.
Each MX 2004 product shares consistent interface, design, and development elements, and functionality that enable developers to work more efficiently across multiple products. Studio MX 2004 will include either Flash MX 2004 or Flash MX Professional 2004.
Macromedia has also launched MX Elements and Halo. The MX Elements are a series of interface building blocks and a new generation of embedded, interactive design patterns and behaviours. The MX Elements for HTML and the MX Elements for Flash enable customers to build effective interfaces faster by bringing together a range of technologies including components, templates, style sheets and behaviours.
"The MX Elements, by default, have a distinctive new look and feel called Halo. The MX Elements and Halo, inspired by the properties of light, give developers an opportunity to provide Internet users with an optimised and consistent rich user experience," Matthews says.
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