Adobe GoLive 4.0: Good Development

You have a classy Web site, cool content, and plenty of visitors. That's all good news. But how hard is it to make the changes you need to keep your site lively? Active sites require daily postings and changes. Is your Web design tool up to the task?

For greater control over a busy site, not to mention maintaining a fresh look and feel for faithful visitors, consider a professional Web authoring program. These programs let you tackle more ambitious designs and streamline your day-to-day Web site chores, such as updating site-wide links, planning new site structures, inspecting source code, and adding the latest interactive Web controls or streaming media.

But which program should you choose? For sophisticated sites--such as those handling e-commerce--most pros have embraced Macromedia Dreamweaver 2. But that bond may weaken now that Adobe is going after the professional Web publishing market with GoLive 4.0, available for $299. Building on its decision to purchase and market GoLive Systems' Macintosh version earlier this year--Adobe is now offering its GoLive 4.0 Windows edition as a credible alternative to Dreamweaver.

To see how GoLive 4.0 for Windows measures up, I installed the 35MB shipping version on my Pentium II PC. Over a span of ten days, I expanded my own Web site, meticulously managed links, revised source code, and updated content dutifully each day. Despite a few minor foibles, my patience was never taxed. GoLive 4.0 is an impressive tool for full-time site developers who rely on WYSIWYG tools that offer precision page design, rapid-fire access to programming code, and site-wide maintenance features. But if all you want is to build a simple Web page, GoLive offers far more than you would want or need.

Complete Control

From the get-go, I loved the way GoLive's five-tabbed interface allowed me to skip between control modes at any time, without requiring me to leave the program. In Layout mode, the grids and rulers provide pixel-level precision for any item placed on a page. Frame mode lets you hone in on details within each frame. And if you suspect an errant string of JavaScript or HTML, just click on the Source tab, and your code is displayed in color-cued detail. GoLive can also check HTML syntax and call out potential problems with specific Web browsers, as well as globally search for and replace changes to code and links. Outline mode offers a birds-eye view of your entire site with its links. And finally, Preview mode shows how each page will ultimately appear to visitors using various browser platforms.

One of the key features in GoLive is the new Movie Editor for QuickTime 3.0. Unlike other programs, GoLive lets you edit QuickTime audio tracks and add text to movies you want to post on your site. You can also control the playback of events, so your movie can start or stop on cue or open up another Web page when it's finished.

Other noteworthy amenities in GoLive 4.0 include more extensive support for emerging Web technologies such as Microsoft's Active Server Pages and Extensible Markup Language, plus integration of Adobe's Portable Document Format files. Also, a slew of new Site Management tools have been added, including 14 interactive JavaScript actions that can be dragged and dropped onto pages, more refined table-editing capabilities, a DHTML Timeline Editor, Cascading Style Sheets, and enhanced CyberObject support.