[Nfb-web] Dreamweaver 8 Information

[Peter Donahue]

Good evening everyone,

    I'm currently in the Macromedia Live Docs information area on the
Adobe/Macromedia Web Site gathering information about Dreamweaver 8 as some
of us may be evaluating its usability by the blind. Below is information
about what you can do with Dreamweaver 8, and a list of all of the new
features in this version. Here is the information:


What's new in Dreamweaver 8

Dreamweaver 8 includes many new features that help you build websites and
applications with a minimal amount of time and effort. Dreamweaver makes
complex
technologies simple and accessible, helping you accomplish more in less
time.

Following are a few of the key new features in Dreamweaver 8:
List of 8 items
. Zoom tool and guides
. Visual XML data binding
. New CSS Styles panel
. CSS layout visualization
. Code collapse
. Coding toolbar
. Background file transfer
. Insert Flash Video command
list end

For a complete list and description of new features in Dreamweaver 8, see
What's new in Dreamweaver 8
in Using Dreamweaver (Help > Using Dreamweaver).

What's new in Dreamweaver 8

Dreamweaver 8 includes various new features that improve usability and help
you to build pages whether you're working in the design or the coding
environment.

First, Dreamweaver 8 provides support for best practices and industry
standards, including support for advanced CSS use, XML and RSS feeds, and
accessibility
requirements.

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Work with best practices

Visual authoring with XML data

Get up to speed with XML using powerful, visual tools to integrate feeds
into work and remove the mystery from XML to HTML translation. Integrate
XML-based
data, such as RSS feeds, into web pages using a simple drag-and-drop
workflow. Jump to Code view to customize the transformation, using improved
code hinting
for XML and XSLT. For more information, see
Displaying XML Data in Web Pages.

New, unified CSS panel

The new, unified CSS panel provides a central location for learning,
understanding, and working with the CSS styles applied to pages in a visual
way. All
the CSS functionality is consolidated into one panel set and enhanced to
make working with CSS styles easier and more productive. The new interface
makes
it easier to see the cascade of styles applied to a specific element so that
you can easily identify where attributes are defined. A property grid allows
for quick edits. For more information, see
Using the CSS Styles panel,

CSS layout visualization

Apply visual aides at design time to outline CSS layout borders or color CSS
layouts. Applying visual aides reveals complex nesting schemes and improves
selection. Click the CSS layout for valuable tooltips that help you
understand the elements that are controlling the design. See
Laying Out Pages with CSS.

Style Rendering toolbar

View content the same way users will see it no matter what the delivery
mechanism with new support for CSS media types. Use the Style Rendering
toolbar
to toggle to Design view and see how it will look in print, on a handheld,
or onscreen. See
The Style Rendering toolbar.

CSS rendering improvements

Match how complex CSS layouts will render in most browsers with substantial
improvements in Design view accuracy. Dreamweaver now fully supports
advanced
CSS techniques, such as overflow, pseudo-elements, and form elements.

Accessibility: Support for WCAG/W3C priority 2 checkpoints

In addition to the integrated accessibility evaluation tool for Section 508
and WCAG Priority 1 checkpoints, Dreamweaver now supports both CSS and
accessibility
with an updated evaluation tool that includes WCAG Priority 2 checkpoints.

Improved WebDAV

WebDAV in Dreamweaver 8 now supports digest authentication and SSL for
secure file transfer, and offers improved connectivity with a wider array of
servers.
See
Using WebDAV to check in and check out files.
table end

Get more done in less time with optimized user workflows that reduce the
time required to complete common tasks. Dreamweaver 8 takes the hassle out
of the
little things so you can spend more time designing and developing engaging
websites and applications.

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Get more done

Background file transfer

Keep working while Dreamweaver 8 uploads files to the server. For more
information, see
Managing file transfers.

Zoom

Get greater control over your design with zoom. Zoom in and inspect an image
or work with a complex nested table layout. Zoom out to preview how a page
will look. For more information, see
Zooming in and out.

Guides

Compare the page layout to page mockups with pixel-perfect accuracy using
guides to measure page layouts. Visual feedback helps measure distances
accurately
and supports intelligent snapping. For more information, see
Using guides.

Coding toolbar

The new Coding toolbar provides buttons for common coding features in a
gutter bar along the side of Code view. For more information, see
Inserting code quickly with the Coding toolbar.

Code collapse

Focus only on the code you want to see by hiding and expanding blocks of
code. For more information, see
Collapsing and expanding code fragments.

Workspace layouts

Customize and save workspace configurations. Dreamweaver 8 ships with four
different configurations tailored to the needs of designers and coders. You
can
also build a custom workspace. For more information, see
Saving custom workspace layouts.

Tabbed documents for the Mac

New document tabs on the Mac help simplify the user interface and make it
easier to select documents. For more information, see
Displaying tabbed documents (Macintosh).

New starter pages

New layouts and designs let you to create sites quickly.

Improved site synchronize and check-in/check-out

Manage sites with increased reliability and confidence. Improved site
synchronization features help ensure that the file in use is the latest
version. Prevent
accidental overwriting of others' work with improved check-in/check-out
functionality. For more information, see
Synchronizing the files on your local and remote sites.

Compare files

Quickly compare files to identify what has changed. You can compare two
local files, a file on the local computer and one on a remote computer, or
two files
on the remote computer. Use your favorite file comparison tool with
Dreamweaver on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. For more
information, see
Comparing files for differences.

Paste Special

With the new pasting options in Dreamweaver, you can retain all the source
formatting created in Microsoft Word, or just paste the text. For more
information,
see
Adding text to a document.

Site-relative references

Work seamlessly with server-side includes at design time and runtime by
ensuring that references are relative to sites instead of local files. For
more
information, see
Setting the relative path of new links.

Code-editing improvements

Gain greater control over how Dreamweaver provides code hints and completes
tags to fit with your coding style. For more information, see
Setting the code hints preference options.
table end

Dreamweaver 8 supports efforts to learn and take advantage of new
technologies, including PHP 5, Flash Video, ColdFusion MX 7, and the
Macromedia Web Publishing
System.

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Integrates with the latest technologies and standards

Support for ColdFusion MX 7

Updated support for ColdFusion MX 7 includes new server behaviors and code
hinting. To match the code hinting and debugging with the correct version of
ColdFusion, Dreamweaver automatically detects the server version the first
time it connects to the site. The tight integration between Dreamweaver and
ColdFusion lets you add and remove databases directly from the Databases
panel, and view only ColdFusion components defined in the current site. For
more
information, see
Enabling the ColdFusion enhancements.

Support for PHP 5

Take advantage of updated support for PHP 5, including server behaviors and
code hinting.

Flash Video

Quickly and easily insert a Flash Video file in a web page. For more
information, see
Inserting Flash Video content.

Macromedia Web Publishing System: notification and event logging

Keep track of everything that is going on within your site. Events in
Dreamweaver notify the Macromedia Web Publishing System server so that all
changes
to a website in the WPS system are recorded.

Updated reference material from O'Reilly

Consult new reference content for XML, XSLT, and XPath, and updated content
for ASP and JSP.

    Anyway this is what we'll have to play with once we receive DW8. I
explored Fireworks MX and made a number of surprising discoveries. I found
that there were more things a blind Web Developer may be able to do with
that pagage than I originally believed to be possible. Take care and have a
great evening.

Peter Donahue