Apple Reviews

No one running Mac OS X should buy this product until the bugs are worked out.

Some of the more annoying Fireworks MX bugs:

Eyedropper - when selecting a color, selects the inverse of that color, so you have to select the color, then select it again to get the correct color.

Crop - If you set up your canvas to delete objects when cropping and then crop your document, it won't delete objects.

Text - You cannot copy and/or paste text into or out of the program

Those are all I can think of right now... but these are not all the bugs, I run into more and more every day.

DO NOT BUY THIS PROGRAM. It's not worth it.

Another half-baked update. Macromedia really needs to go back to the drawing board and put out some maintenance updates. On the good side, we have OS X versions of these web design mainstay apps (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash); on the bad side, they are so buggy that one wonders if OS 9 was really that bad at all. Overall, DW on my G4/733 feels slower than 4.01 did on a G3/333.

For example, the behavior of dragging the panels on the right side is very inconsistant. E.g., when attempting to resize the CSS panel to be longer to show more styles in my file, the cursor often does not turn into the double-headed arrow to indicate dragability; or the cursor disappears completely; dragging sometimes works, but more often doesn't. Or, when in code view, dragging across text to select results in a nasty redraw problem, with the code flashing on and off in rapid succession until you've stopped dragging. It's like the document is having an epilectic seizure.

And why haven't they put in a simple window split function? BBEdit has had this for years. They boast about how bit-chin' their HTML code view is, but jeeze, it leaves a lot to be desired (and no, I don't think switching to BBEdit should be a solution to that; I think Macromedia should do more than a half-baked job on the code editor, and then most of us wouln't need to bother with BBEdit). Additionally, some of the other bugs were extant in version 4.01. Some things in 4.01 were slow as heck (templates). What I'm seeing so far in MX doesn't bode well.  

MacroMedia has exceeded expectations with Studio MX! The newest items -- DreamWeaver MX, FireWorks MX, and Flash MX -- have been renovated to feature a much more consistent, intuitive user experience, slick graphical interface (at least under Mac OSX), and expanded capabilities and features.

So much has been added in features and experience that to call this a mere 'upgrade' is short changing the work done here. DW features all of the features from UltraDev, plus support for the free PHP, demonstrating their renewed confidence in the power of ColdFusion (dev version included w/Windows version of Studio MX), not to mention added support for ASP.NET. Those who loved Allaire's HomeSite will appreciate its integreation into the DW interface itself.

FireWorks is a beautiful application that makes PhotoShop pros feel more at home without feeling like they're using a 2nd rate knock off (like older versions of FW). Creating interacive images is much easier than ever -- some of this stuff you can just 'figure out', perhaps with a bit of guidance from the extensive online help system.

Flash: Wow! It has no competition now, and its intergration with FH10 is fabulous. These two pieces alone make for the most powerful vector-based dev environment on the planet. Crucial, considering the exodus from Raster/bit map images on the web.

Bravo MacroMedia! This stuff is so good, I have no idea what you'll do next! (But, please, may I suggest ColdFusion MX for Mac OSX?)

Getting from proof-of-concept to production has never been simpler, more powerful, or more compelling. Simply revolutionary. One of the most powerful and pervasive development suites I've seen or used. The well-ordered convergence of technologies in StudioMX is truly inspired. Now data logic and structure, business logic and rules, and presentation logic can be clearly distinct from each other for cleaner, more succinct development methods, and more closely integrated for producing more powerful rich media network applications than ever before.

Dreamweaver MX, Fireworks MX, and Flash MX are the perfect trio for web design/development professionals. With the more seamless integration which MacroMedia has devised for this upgrade, they are even more valuable to you.

Dreamweaver provides the easiest WYSIWYG design capabilities I've found. MX also incorporates all of the features previously found in Dreamweaver UltraDev. Round-trip editing of Fireworks and Flash imports makes this your total web solution.

While I've always preferred Illustrator over FreeHand, and ColdFusion is strictly for the PC platform, the set is well worth your investment. And, if you're a fan of those two programs, so much the better.

If you shop around you'll find that online storage is considerably cheaper than what Apple is selling it for. The utilities they include are not worth much to anyone that knows what they're doing. I'm very unimpressed.

If you run OS X on your Mac, .Mac is recommended to enhance the functionality of your machine. In order to use Apple's Backup and iSync utilities you need a subscription to .Mac. The .Mac mail service is not as user friendly or powerful as other services such as Yahoo mail, but the Apple Mail program makes it easy to get your .Mac mail. The value of the free games that you get throughout the year is negligible, but if Apple continues to add features and software available through .Mac it will be hard to make a case against subscribing.

Apple's suite of online tools is an incredible way to extend your digital hub, and as Apple keeps adding features and services, the value keeps going up!

If you'd like to see examples of what others are doing with their .Mac accounts, check out [the website].

Check it out, then buy a .Mac subscription! You won't be disappointed!