Studio MX 2004 with Flash

As a package, this is probably the best one to buy out there! As individual programs, there are better ones out there. Still a little pricy from Macromedia, but extremely good value as a web design package. Its best asset is the online tutorials, which make initially confusing programs, easier to deal with and more user friendly.

Delivery was fast. Great product

Macromedia Dreamweaver is the first obvious starting point of this package. Dreamweaver is an excellent package that can be used to build full-featured websites. I would suggest anyone starting to use Dreamweaver to attend a course as the package can be overwhelming if you have no background in WSWG (what you see is what you get) software to build websites. The next thing to learn would be Fireworks, which is a fairly web-centric graphics program. Fireworks can do many of the things that a full-blown graphics program like Adobe Photoshop can do, however it is more targeted at the web developer. For those who are more daring, try the Flash product which can be used for animations among other functionality. I really like Coldfusion. Coldfusion has many interesting tags that allow you to read and write databases, perform programming logic like ifs, elses and a myriad of other functionality like scripting, using Java, XML etc. Theres no end to what you can do and keep discovering in Coldfusion. A great book is Sams Teach Yourself Coldfusion MX in 21 Days, which has all you need to know to build fairly significant Coldfusion applications. The only drawback of Coldfusion, which is really the endgame of these products, is that it is not extensively used commercially by web developers. Time and time again I get chastised for not creating my web applications in more commercially acceptable PHP or Microsoft products that would make my products more universally hostable, supportable and acceptable. We can only hope that a new version of Coldfusion is soon coming, with even more extensive and fun features to learn. I would say, especially if you are a web programming hobbyist, and have access to some inexpensive courses to get you started, you wont be disappointed by joining the Macromedia way.

good product

Ive been in the computer game since I was 5, so Ive had time to try out a lot of programs. From Adobe to Apple, Macromedia to Microsoft Ive tried most of the creative suites out there. I must say that of everything Ive ever used, Studio MX 2004 is the best collection of programs youll find (and its worth the money if you can get an academic discount). I am a web designer by trade and I found every program in MX 2004 useful. Flash is the recognized standard in online animation. With this program I created in 30 minutes a navbar which exceeds those of Apple and Microsoft for usability. In five minutes I created an animated advertisement (though not a very good one). Fireworks is simply the best multipurpose image editor (photoshop is better at pure images, but not as versatile). Fireworks can do everything from having flames fly out of a friends mouth to creating web animations that reach out to those who have not downloaded Flash Player. Freehand is the least useful program in this suite. It has not changed at all since MX, so it is a bit behind in features and integration. Still, I used it for creating sketches of layouts or classic thoughtwebs. Dreamweaver! Oh, what can I say about dreamweaver! Any web designer who does not praise this program is either a hard-core pure coder, or an imposter. With this new version it becomes a 10 second matter to change the font used on every page of my websites. Rather than going through 30 pages of html, I open up one css file and type a color, or font, or size change. It is a beautiful culmination of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) technology. While most people will balk at the $999 price tag, I say look around until you find a academic copy (I got one for $199). At a $700 discount you can buy this and a new computer to serve your creations to the world. Either way I say anyone who is a job where they need to construct creative projects for the web or presentations needs to pick up a copy of Macromedia Studio MX 2004.

A+

I noticed that there were a few customers who had problems with registering the product. I did get an error page on the Adobe site, but nothing that indicated registration wouldnt be possible. I had no problem installing and opening the programs in the kit. I bought this package for the full copy of Flash MX, but Im pleased that I got some great additional Adobe products with the kit. Also the seller upgraded my shipping to priority at no cost to myself. This was a pleasant surprise.

All in all this upgrade is good, not tremendous. The problem lies in the changes to the ActionScript Panel: The Normal mode has been removed. This means that you need to learn how to write all your ActionScript yourself, without the great aids that MX offered. There are still a few little helper menus you can use, but if you dont understand the syntax of ActionScript in detail they arent much help. If you intend to use Flash without becoming a programmer, choose the MX version, not MX 2004.

Couldn’t get codes for this so it was a waste.

I really like Macromedia software, in general. I do, however, find it slow on my (months old) Mac, under Panther. Both Adobe and Apples recent product upgrades seemed to speed their software up greatly (hey, wow, upgrades can DO that???) but these new versions of Dreamweaver and Flash are an insult to Mac users. The software is the slowest I use, even with plentiful memory in my computer. Even after Flashs belated patch that was released, the software is still unsatisfactory to me. Theres no real reason for this software to be so incredibly slow and buggy! Often I have these programs quit for no reason, I cant think of one other piece of software I use on my Mac that does such things. I havent tried the MX 2004 Windows versions, but I havent heard such complaints from Windows users. I wish that Macromedia would work a little harder on their Mac versions. Sorry Im not getting into too many specifics about the software. In general, you cant beat the features of Dreamweaver in its class (nor, obviously, Flash, who is alone in the field anymore) but its not worth the time-consuming workarounds to get it all working well.