Average Grod's Average Blog

Woot CS3 is here! I want the Web Premium. I get so frustrated with Dreamweaver sometimes. It has a lot of cool features but lately I have been just using it to manage my CSS and as a text editor. I use a couple visual tools and I validate with it but IE 7 is so easy to design for that I don't need DW as much as I used to. Oddly the only browser I have much of a problem with is Firefox which is also what I use. As long as I have the Firebug addon I am ok but I am very excited about the new DW3 which is shocking to me. Having more support for CSS as well as Ajax and the closer integration with other CS3 products is great. The Spry tools add a huge layer of abstraction that should allow even the newest beginner to come up with some incredible sites. I LOVE the idea of a browser compatibility check!!! It is hard enough installing IE 3-7 on one PC and debugging for as many as possible but that feature alone will make it worth picking it up for me.

Photoshop 3 Extended is about the coolest thing I have heard of and you should expect to see a lot more 3D graphics soon. It will be easier to have 3D in Flash without having to buy extra software.

Speaking of Flash, being able to pull actionscript straight out of timeline tween is like cheating!!! I love to script but there are times when this will save hours as well as headaches. I usually design and draw in Flash(shhh don't tell anyone) because I am so familiar with it's limited tools. The addition of a more powerful (dreaded)pen tool to make it more like Illustrators is great. I am so excited that they adding more power to the Flash toolset AND the ability to import Photoshop docs while maintaining layers is priceless!!!

Another really intriguing feature is the new page feature of Fireworks. I absolutely love Fireworks and I can't imagine prototyping a single website without it now.

Anyone want to prebuy me a copy??? Actually I can upgrade so it won't be too bad :)