Dreamweaver 8 vs CS4

Question

I am still using Dreamweaver 8 and was wondering what the
main differences are between 8 and CS4? I was told awhile back that
there wasn't much of a difference between 8 and CS3, but now with
CS4 out, I'd like to know how much of a difference there is.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

C_McLain wrote:
> I'd love to hear more about why you believe it's the
most significant upgrade
> since Dreamweaver MX though. Is it because of new
features? If so, what kind
> of features?
Like MX, the immediately obvious change in CS4 is the user
interface.
It's an evolutionary change, so you can configure it to work
almost
exactly the same as before; but you can also save much more
screen real
estate by collapsing panels to icons. However, the really
significant
changes for me lie in the following new features: Related
Files, Live
View, Live Code, Code Navigator, and a small - but great -
improvement:
vertical split view.
> I'd hate to install CS4 only to come back here and
complain about it like so
> many others.
It seems that you either love it or hate it. The Related
Files feature
can be disconcerting until you get used to it. It's a new
toolbar at the
top of the Document window that lists all external JavaScript
files,
style sheets, and server-side includes attached to the
current page.
Select any of them, and Dreamweaver reveals the contents of
the related
file in Split view, while continuing to display the main file
in Design
view. You can make edits in the related file, and the effect
is
immediately reflected in Design view when you press F5 or
click anywhere
in Design view.
Live View uses the WebKit browser to render your page in a
standards-compliant browser inside the Document window. It's
not
intended as a substitute for testing in other browsers, but I
find it
speeds up primary testing and development.
The Code Navigator gives you an immediate summary of style
rules that
apply to a specific part of the page. Mouse over the
selectors displayed
in the Code Navigator, and you see the details of each rule.
Click one
of the rules, and you're taken directly to the code, ready to
edit it.
Other features include code introspection for JavaScript
functions and
objects, a vastly improved way of creating Spry data sets,
and the
ability to share your screen with up to three other people.
There's also
support for a hosted CMS called InContext Editing. Some
people think
InContext Editing is brilliant. I have tested it, and will
probably
never use it again. It doesn't fit my needs, and I think it
is likely to
result in considerable maintenance problems.
One final thing: if you're looking for improvements to
Dreamweaver's
server-side features, there aren't any. No changes were made
to server
behaviors, apart from removing support for ASP.NET and JSP.
David Powers, Adobe Community Expert
Author, "The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4",
"PHP Solutions" & "PHP Object-Oriented Solutions"
http://foundationphp.com/