Archive for April 4th, 2008
In the early days of the Internet, users were hot to design their own websites. While there are many methods of writing websites, the most ubiquitous was simply opening the notepad application and writing the website in pure HTML. While there were many programs that came along that made this HTML coding unnecessary, a lot of them were simply unusable or inefficient or otherwise had problems.
Many times, what appeared to be normal and working fine in the user’s browser would begin acting up once it was published to the Internet. This detachment of HTML coding and actual content, in what is referred to as a WYSIWYG editor, led to problems later on, as users thinking that they had effectively built a perfect website found that once published to the web, the elements of their website would move around independently and break anchor text. This breakage of anchors and refusal to follow the rules of HTML was a necessary byproduct of the WYSIWYG HTML editors.
This lack of reliability among Web authoring software led to many problems, as users were either forced to use the HTML, a boring and trying experience at best, or they could continue to use the WYSIWYG editor, which was basically a luck of the draw situation, where users were hoping to get the best results and consistent use from a somewhat inferior product. The WYSIWYG editors never seemed to do their job exactly right, as there was always some element that would be in the wrong spot or willing simply pop out after extended use or extended viewings, without warning.
But eventually, a new product hit the market called Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver was able to do a great deal of things, and embraced the HTML right on the desktop, rather than hiding it all behind a WYSIWYG editor. For the first time, users could see the HTML right up close and see what effect it was having as they moved elements around in the WYSIWYG editor. It was a revolution in HTML editing software and users flocked to the software offering that would allow them to do so much with so little.
Using Dreamweaver CS3 templates, users can save a tremendous amount of time by simply whipping out their favorite template, choosing some colors and publishing. The elegant Dreamweaver CS3 templates include a version of a template for every possible combination of themes that any user could ask for. A wealth of these templates makes it a very simple task to publish a beautiful and stunning Web page in just a matter of minutes, with some help from the Dreamweaver templates and judicious editing.
JSBwebDesign offers great tips about Dreamweaver website templates. Get free web page templates and learn about our business website design services. Visit us at http://www.jsbwebtemplates.com
April 4th, 2008
Zimbra, a Yahoo! company and the leader in open source, next-generation messaging and collaboration software, today announced the availability of its ZimbraME (Java Mobile Edition) client and source code for businesses. Beginning today, users of any Java-enabled mobile phone will have access to the industry’s most complete collaboration solution. The ZimbraME client provides Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) Open Source and Network Edition users worldwide with free access to the Zimbra experience with e-mail and calendar on mass-market Java-enabled mobile phones. This extends Zimbra’s reach of services to the broadest range of devices available in the market and builds on Yahoo!’s leadership in e-mail and mobile Web services and as a key starting point for consumers.
“ZimbraME is key to delivering on our strategy and commitment to provide the best experience and widest range of desktop and mobile support of any messaging platform in the market today,” said Satish Dharmaraj, Zimbra co-founder and Yahoo! vice president. “In an increasingly mobile world, a large percentage of people use mass-market handsets and expect to have access to information without needing a smartphone.”
ZimbraME is an over the air downloadable Java-based application for mobile devices that allows ZCS users to access their mail, contacts and calendars. It retains the powerful search capability found in the Zimbra AJAX client.
ZimbraME source code is available to the Zimbra community (www.zimbra.com) for feedback and enhancement, as well as to implement ZimbraME on the devices of their choice. Popular mobile devices supporting ZimbraME include the BlackBerry 8800 and 8820 series; the Motorola RAZR2; Nokia E61 and N73 handsets; the Sony-Ericsson W950i handset; and the Samsung SGH-E900 handset, adding to Zimbra’s longtime support for wireless platforms that includes Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm and iPhone. Additionally, Zimbra supports native sync to BlackBerry handsets via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
ZimbraME features include:
– Complete Collaboration: Real-time access to email and calendar functionality;
– Mobile Web 2.0 Functions: Ability to tag messages, view them as conversations, save searches, and have access to other Web 2.0 features via mobile handsets;
– Powerful Server-side Search: Access to Zimbra’s flexible, powerful server-side search, including the ability to search an entire inbox regardless of the memory limitations of any device.
“The addition of ZimbraME was instrumental to our choice of ZCS as a platform to support our customer base,” said Tom Riley, CEO, Crossroads Wireless. “ZimbraME will provide our users a Web 2.0-like experience on practically any wireless device, giving them functionality previously only available to them via a smartphone or on their PC.”
Pricing and Availability
The ZCS 5.0 Open Source Edition is free. The commercially supported ZCS 5.0 Network Edition is available for a 60-day free trial on the Zimbra website. Zimbra’s Hosted Demo (www.zimbra.com/demo) is available for an immediate test drive of ZCS.
ZCS Network Edition includes product support as well as software subscriptions to new releases, updates and patches. ZCS is available on-premise or as a hosted service and is available at a significant educational or non-profit discount. Please contact sales@zimbra.com for information. Users can discuss topics related to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite and provide feedback at www.zimbra.com/forums/.
April 4th, 2008
Upgrade to Dreamweaver CS3? Or stick with Dreamweaver 8? This is a question that many web designers who own Dreamweaver 8 are asking themselves as they consider whether it would be worth their money or their web design company’s money to upgrade their design software. Since it is your job as a web designer to work with the software in question, the onus of deciding whether the new version will improve service and overall work quality or not. Many web designers are also wary of the fact that Macromedia has been acquired by Adobe and are wondering whether the new owners have improved or destroyed this piece of software. It is my opinion that there is no clear choice between the two. The choice you eventually make must be determined by what you require from your design software.
Web design feature #1: Adobe and Dreamweaver Together
Some web design companies may find the integration between the new Dreamweaver software and existing Adobe tools a good enough reason to purchase the Dreamweaver CS3. Images can easily be transferred from one software to another and some designers find this feature very attractive.
Web design feature #2: CSS Support Made Better
Designers will likely find that one of the best new features of Dreamweaver CS3 are the fresh and improved CSS layouts. The software code contains detailed commentaries related to how these layouts function so understanding how to use them is a relatively simple affair. There are currently 32 different layouts to choose from, in 1, 2, or 3-column designs, and in fixed or liquid design layouts. The starting position of the CSS is easily defined and subsequent movement is also simple and easy. Designers can simply style the tag directly into the HTML through a style attribute, then transfer it to their style sheet. In Dreamweaver CS3, “Convert Inline CSS to Rule” appears on a single right click of the tag and a custom class for that particular style or a full CSS selector is easily created.
Web design feature #3: Mobile Support
The incorporation of Adobe Device Central into Dreamweaver CS3 also makes designing pages for viewing on mobile platforms much easier than before. Although use of the mobile platform to view web pages has become increasingly popular, it was previously a rather challenging task to design pages that are compatible for viewing on both a mobile platform and a web browser one. Dreamweaver CS3 makes those challenges a thing of the past.
Web design feature #4: Ajax Implementation Now Made Possible
Adding Ajax widgets and effects to the web pages that you create is now possible through the incorporation of the Spry framework in to Dreamweaver CS3. A simple drag and drop operation will deposit them into your dataset. Transition effects such as shrinking, growing, highlighting and fading, integration of XML feed data and widgets for tables lists and forms are just some of the features of Spry that have been included in Dreamweaver CS3.
Web design feature #5: XLST Support
XLST support is a major feature of CS3 and both you and your design company will be delighted by the support included through the use of XML files as the database source. Viewing of the XML and integration into any HTML documents are made easy through XLST. Web designers who possess XML files of the same format can easily create a single template for them by using XLST.
Web design feature #6: Support for Mac Intel Processors
CS3 is now also native to the Intel-based Macintosh platform, and load times have been significantly reduced. The company behind CS3 claims that, whereas Dreamweaver 8 previously required four minutes to load, CS3 now accomplishes the same feat in under one minute. However, these claims have yet to be verified by proper testing.
To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade
The question does not have an easy answer. Personally, I chose to upgrade and have not looked back since. The new CSS features, XLST support and Device Central are all wonderful new additions to the software. However, live databases and server side scripts are still difficult to use with Dreamweaver CS3 and this may discourage web design companies from purchasing the software. If, at the end of it all, you choose to upgrade, it is unlikely that you will regret the money spent.
Moe Tamani is a Dallas SEO consultant for a leading Dallas Web Design company.
April 4th, 2008
