The extension adds support for CSS3 and some HTML5 tags in Live View, HTML5 and CSS3 code hinting, HTML5 starter documents, plus some other things. I’m expecting the features in this extension to improve in the future as more HTML5 features get rolled into browsers.

I’m really looking forward to getting a chance to play with this. With that, and the additions of Drupal and WordPress support, Dreamweaver CS5 looks to become quite a useful tool for doing web development.

For me, it is beyond time to upgrade my systems, so this is about to be a very expensive month. I’ve literally been waiting on these new MacBook Pros for two years, ever since I read about these new processors from Intel. And with this new computer, it is also time to upgrade the Adobe software, so this year’s tech budget is pretty much gone.

Adobe CS5

First let’s talk about the new release from Adobe. I was pretty interested to see what was going to change with CS5. I was a bit surprised at the lack of whoopla at many of the Tech News sites I read. The mostly gave it a shout, but it lacked much of the marketing hype that I remember from CS4. In the next few days, I expect to see a bit more from the guys at Layers Magazine, PlanetPhotoshop.com, and the others whose jobs revolve around making the Adobe products seem fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate the services that those guys at Kelby Training provide, I could have just done without the sugar coating that they gave CS4, especially since it turned out to be mostly a dud, at least in sales terms.

So what’s in new and compelling in CS5? Looking through Adobe’s website, most of the products seem to have only gotten minor updates. Edge detection and new brush effects in Photoshop? (yawn) For Illustrator, perspective drawing could be cool, but most of the rest of it should have been in there a long time ago. Flash? XML swf file, and Flash Builder integration. Seriously? That needs to be pointed out? (zzzzz)

But all is not doomed…..InDesign seems to have gotten a reasonable number of “new” features. eBook publishing and multiple pages sizes look interesting and useful.

And then we get to Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is a big part of what we do here at Martian Graphix (so are the other tools, but those updates just aren’t really showing huge impacts to our daily workflow). Drupal and WordPress are also big for us, so finding good support for those systems in Dreamweaver is a major plus for our business. Dreamweaver CS5 also includes CSS inspection tools, which will cut down on needing to use Firefox’s Web Developer Toolbar. Rendering dynamic pages without having to jump over to a browser is going to be a huge win. Also using the code hinting features with the Drupal, WordPress, or just PHP methods is going to be a big plus. It’s very nice to finally see an update to Dreamweaver that focuses on the Developer side of the tool, more than the Designer oriented side, because both sides of web development must be supported equally. I’m not going stop using NetBeans or Eclipse anytime soon, but this is definitely a nice direction to see Dreamweaver heading.

So, what’s the verdict? For us, the updates to Dreamweaver provide a very compelling reason to upgrade from CS3. Add to that the incremental changes made to the other tools with CS4 and CS5, plus the fact that all this is optimized to run on the Intel processor of the MacBook Pro, as opposed to CS3, and the conclusion is: yes it’s time to bite the bullet and upgrade.

Now, which version? The Web Premium would seem like the obvious choice, but since it only seems to include the Standard edition of Flash Builder, I think we’ll go with Design Premium instead, and buy Flash Builder seperately, when the time comes.

Now, what about all this stuff from Apple? Stay tuned for the next article, Christmas in April, Part II.