Adobe CS4: Dreamweaver and Premier Pro

We look at the latest features in Dreamweaver and Premier Pro as part of Adobe CS4 and analyze how they have streamlined the tasks of building web pages and rendering movies

Thursday, September 03, 2009

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Continuing our review of the new CS4, this month we look at the new features in Dreamweaver and Premier Pro. Dreamweaver is one of the best HTML editors and web page creation applications. Anybody can efficiently create and design web pages or complex web sites very easily with the help of advanced graphical interface tools and latest techniques. The software not only aids you in web page creation and editing, but also is a web application builder, FTP client and website assets manager. It lets you design and develop web sites pretty swiftly. Editing web pages created with some other HTML editor is also possible in Dreamweaver and the program makes not distinction as far as providing functionality is concerned. The Integration provided with Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Flash and Contribute is an added advantage with this application. The pages so created are normally called as a 'dynamic page' because the final content is delivered based on requests made by web browsers or visitors. Dreamweaver develops such 'dynamic' pages with support from the MySQL database, JavaScript, VBScript, ASP.NET and ColdFusion. The 'assets' panel can be accessed from the 'Window' menu and lets you manage all assets such as images, videos, libraries and templates that are used on a Web page. A Dreamweaver page is a collection of files and assets. After you have created a web page on a PC and uploaded it to a web server, you can manage this page using Dreamweaver site management tools like link checker and HTML tag Validator.

New features in Dreamweaver
The latest version has lots of new features. The change in interface is noticeable when the program opens. Though it is not significantly different from the last version of Dreamweaver, it is more customizable and similar to Photoshop or InDesign interface. A user can dock palettes to the edge of interface, dock different palettes together and maximize or minimize palettes as per his choice. Just hover the mouse over the far right side of the window to bring the hidden panels on the screen. The same tool can bring property bars, hidden at the bottom, in full view. The full screen view is a joy for Photoshop and InDesign users, who are already familiar with such an interface. Now, Dreamweaver has the same interface as other Adobe products. The new 'Split Code' view option under the layer menu opens two code windows or code views. This is very useful for a large document with lots of code as the change in one view automatically reflects in the second view. This view can be horizontal or vertical as per a user's choice. There is no need to go to the browser each time the code changes as the 'Live View' feature renders the web page and shows the page, simultaneously. Dreamweaver has also improved Photoshop integration with itself as well as provides improved compatibility. Just drag and drop a Photoshop smart object PSD file onto a Dreamweaver page and you shall be able to do image optimisation, change its size and more. You can convert the PSD file to JPEG, GIF or PNG by optimizing to make a smaller file but maintaining image quality.

Clicking on the 'Split Code View' shows two code windows in Dreamweaver. This is very useful for a long document with a lot of coding. Any change applied to one view, automatically updates to other view at the same time.	Premier Pro can search for videos that contain the audio of a word. For eg, if you type a word in the search window, it will show all the video clips where the word has been spoken.

Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a real time, timeline-based, high definition video editing software application. This application works with digital video and other digital media like scanned images and animation sequences. Premiere Pro provides a lot of video effects that can be previewed in real time. Videographers can do complex audio editing through tools such as Audio Mixer. The latest version has been optimized for a 64-bit operating system and supports Intel-based Mac as well. The 'Imports' function allows a wide variety of video and audio file formats and codecs on both Mac and Windows. The software's integration with Adobe After Effects, an industry standard for motion graphics, and Photoshop creates powerful videos. You can import After Effects compositions directly into Premiere Pro and play them directly on the timeline. Any changes or modifications made in After Effects compositions, reflect immediately in Premiere Pro. It also allows you to open PSD files directly in Photoshop and the modifications done within Photoshop are immediately updated in Premiere Pro. This version allows you to exchange projects with Avid and Final Cut Pro systems. Users can transfer projects directly from Final Cut Pro to Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 without any conversions and preserve commonly used effects and transitions. After completing the project you can export to a DVD or on the Web through Adobe Encore, because there is dynamic linking between Adobe Premiere CS4 and adobe Encore CS4.

Dreamweaver-Photoshop integration has improved tremendously. Just drag and drop a Photoshop PSD file onto a Dreamweaver page, create an image smart object and this PSD can be converted to JPEG, GIF or PNG.

Bottomline: The integration of Dreamweaver with Indesign and Photoshop means that designers have a one-stop shop for most of their needs. Likewise, Premier Pro provides a direct compatibility with leading rendering software. So, the new enhancements provide a much-needed relief.

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