Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Student & Teacher Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently purchased the Student and Teacher Editions (academic versions) of Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, Photoshop CS5 Extended and Acrobat X Professional.
Adobe has 30-day trial versions on most of their software.
For anyone intending on purchasing academic software from Adobe, I suggest they first try out the 30-day trial version, and then if still interested, sign up for an Adobe account. It makes things much easier during the verification stage by having your account already set up.
The entire verification process is very easy and it helps to have your scanned ID or any additional paperwork ready ahead of time. I received all three activation serial numbers in less than 24 hours. Adobe says that it could take up to two business days for verification.
The following might be some helpful information:
Adobe allows you to install and activate your purchased software onto two computers. I have the above-mentioned software installed and activated on two computers on a home network. I am able to 'run' Dreamweaver, Photoshop or Acrobat on both computers at the same time without any licensing problems.
To install and activate your Adobe software on a third computer, you must first 'de-activate' the software on one of the other two computers. Make sure if you ever throw out or give away an old computer, that you first de-activate the Adobe software. Otherwise, you will lose one of your two activations.
After installing and activating, you can then register your software and receive a free gift from Adobe. The gifts vary for each software title. Some of the gifts are AdobeTextPro Font, Photoshop plugins, discounts on Adobe software and 30-day access to training videos on either Lynda.com or CreativeEdge.com. Lynda.com has an amazing amount of training videos. You may want to check out these two websites before registering so you have time to evaluate them.
Concerning future upgrades of Adobe academic software, here is a quote from Adobe's website:
"Upgrades don't have special education pricing. However, you can purchase upgrades for educational products at the regular upgrade prices from any Authorized Education Reseller."
So according to Adobe, you can upgrade your academic software for their standard (non-academic) software if or when you no longer have student or teacher status. That is a really good deal! Many software companies won't allow you to upgrade academic software.
If you are not a student or teacher and you want to purchase academic software, you may want to consider signing up for an interesting class at your local community college. You could then get your student ID and your student status. You don't need to be a full-time student and you don't need to be seeking a degree. Maybe you can find a convenient on-line class. You can then go to a website like JourneyEd and be eligible to purchase all kinds of academic software and hardware.
Also, Microsoft has a program called DreamSpark that allows students to download full-versions of their software for free. You need to first sign up for a Windows Live ID and then sign in and get verified on the Microsoft DreamSpark website. Microsoft uses your college-issued '.edu' email address for verification. During the verification process Microsoft sends an activation email to your .edu email address. You must log in to your .edu email account and click on an activation link within the activation email. My verification didn't go very smoothly as my college had blacklisted Microsoft's mail servers and wouldn't allow me to receive the activation email from DreamSpark. I was eventually verified 'manually' by Microsoft tech support. I had to email them a copy of my scanned school ID and a copy of my class schedule.
After you are verified, Microsoft will verify your student status once a year. You can download all of the software that they have available on their DreamSpark.com website. There are no time limits on the software. You can continue to use their software after your student status expires. After being recently verified, I downloaded the full version of MS Visual Studio 2010 Professional, another very expensive program that was completely free.
With that valuable student ID, you really can save many hundreds of dollars on academic software, hardware and training!

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Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 software empowers designers and developers to build standards-based websites with confidence. Work visually or directly in code, develop with your existing content management system like WordPress, Joomla!, or Drupal, and design productively with CSS inspection tools. Simplify advanced website development with integrated support for Subversion software and custom PHP code hinting. Get fast and accurate browser-compatibility testing and test dynamic content thanks to integration with Adobe BrowserLab, a new Adobe CS Live online service.




Top reasons to buy Adobe Dreamweaver CS5
Industry-leading web development environment Build standards-based websites with the industry-leading web authoring tool. Work visually or directly in code, design productively with CSS inspection tools, and develop with your existing content management system.

Integrated content management system support Enjoy authoring and testing support for your existing content management system frameworks like WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal. Dynamically Related Files provides direct access to a page's related files, even for dynamic pages, and Live View Navigation offers accurate previews of dynamic applications.

Comprehensive CSS support Design and develop websites with powerful CSS tools. Visually display the CSS box model without requiring separate utilities, and reduce the need to manually edit CSS code, even in external style sheets.

Intelligent coding assistance Discover features designed to help you write clean code faster than ever. Take advantage of code hinting with HTML, JavaScript, and Ajax frameworks such as Spry, jQuery, and Prototype. Get direct insight into core PHP functions, methods, and objects with dynamic PHP code hinting.

Support for leading technologies Design and develop in an environment that supports most leading web development technologies, including HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, Ajax, PHP, Adobe ColdFusion software, and ASP.

FLV video content integration Add FLV files to your web pages with point-and-click ease and standards-compliant coding. Preview your movies with FLV playback capabilities in Live View.

Integration with Adobe BrowserLab Preview dynamic web pages and local content with multiple viewing, diagnostic, and comparison tools through integration with Adobe Browserlab, a new Adobe CS Live online service* that quickly and accurately tests web content across web browsers and operating systems. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Site-specific code hinting Benefit from code hinting on nonstandard files and directories in Dreamweaver CS5, enabling enhanced hinting support for your existing third-party PHP libraries and content management system frameworks such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla!.

Extended Dreamweaver community Learn and share with an extensive Dreamweaver community. Benefit from the online Adobe Design Center and Adobe Developer Connection, training and seminars, developer certification programs, and user forums.

Top new features of Adobe Dreamweaver CS5
Support for PHP-based content management systems With authoring and testing support for third-party PHP-based content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal, Dreamweaver CS5 delivers a professional development environment for creating robust websites. Dynamically Related Files provides direct access to the assets necessary for these complex systems, including dynamically generated pages and content. New Live View Navigation allows you to explore the various states of your dynamic applications and pages--even those already deployed on a live server.

Dynamically Related Files One of the biggest challenges in developing sites with a web-based content management system such as Wordpress, Joomla!, or Drupal is understanding how a page will look when finally assembled. This is primarily because a page itself is generated dynamically by the CMS from any number of individual pieces, known as includes, and is dependent on server-side logic to be viewed in a browser. The Dynamically Related Files feature in Dreamweaver CS5 helps you access files and update pages faster, as well as simplify management tasks for complex sites. With a single click, you can direct Dreamweaver to discover all of the external files and scripts necessary to assemble the page and display their filenames in the Related Files toolbar. With Live View enabled, Dreamweaver renders the page as it will appear in standards-compliant browsers, complete with dynamic, database-driven content and server- and client-side logic. Even the simplest pages in many of the popular CMS frameworks and themes have numerous dynamically related files, making it difficult to find the particular related files you need. With the ability to filter file types or use a wildcard expression, Dreamweaver lets you focus specifically on the files that you want to edit. If a related file doesn't exist locally, Dreamweaver CS5 shows a prompt, and allows you retrieve the file from the server with a single click.

Live View navigation Live View navigation expands upon the Live View feature introduced in Dreamweaver CS4 and allows you to quickly and accurately check your code and your CMS design themes. With Live View navigation enabled, not only can you view a page as it is rendered in standards-compliant browsers, but links are active, allowing you to interact with server-side applications and dynamic data. In addition to the rendered Live View of the page, Live Code highlights changes as they happen, allowing you to quickly locate the dynamically loaded data or code changes triggered by JavaScript. At any stage of development, Live View navigation also allows you to enter a URL to inspect pages served from a live web server and easily edit pages you have browsed to if they exist in one of your locally defined sites.

Enhanced CSS inspection tools By separating page markup (HTML) from the actual presentation of the content (CSS), web designs have become much more flexible and adaptable. However, for seasoned professionals and novices alike, there is a need to understand how page elements relate to one another, as well as to have the freedom to iterate and experiment with their page designs in real time. With enhanced CSS tools and Live View, Dreamweaver CS5 gives you more control without having to leave your editing environment, even giving you the ability to view any link state and change text size--tasks that previously required a browser.

The Inspect command Develop CSS-based designs more efficiently and accurately by visually displaying the CSS box model properties--including padding, border, and margin--in detail, without reading code or requiring a separate third-party utility such as Firebug. For designers who are new to web design or looking to expand their understanding of CSS, Dreamweaver CS5 makes it much easier to learn about the properties of an HTML element. In the past, external browser-based tools were required to visually identify page elements and their related CSS styles. This tedious process involved previewing the page in a browser, enabling the tool or plug-in, and then exploring the document to find the properties you wanted to change. Because this activity occurred in a browser, you had to keep track of all the changes made, and then copy and paste them into your web documents in Dreamweaver. In Dreamweaver CS5, you can use the Inspect command in tandem with Live View to quickly identify HTML elements and their associated CSS styles, giving you immediate feedback.

When an element is highlighted in Live View, its corresponding CSS rules and cascade are exposed in the CSS Styles panel where they can be edited in real time, removing the need to copy from an external tool and paste the results into Dreamweaver. When inspecting in Split view, the corresponding HTML code--including the tag--is immediately selected.

CSS enable/disable Quickly and easily disable and re-enable CSS properties directly from the CSS Styles panel in Dreamweaver CS5. Disabling a CSS property simply comments out the specified property without actually deleting it, and the affected property is no longer rendered. This convenient option for toggling CSS properties on and off, coupled with the ability to inspect CSS, allows you to remain in your editing environment throughout the development process, eliminating the time-consuming process of previewing in the browser and troubleshooting with browser-based tools.

Integration with Adobe BrowserLab Dreamweaver CS5 integrates with Adobe BrowserLab, one of the new CS Live online services, which provides a fast and accurate solution for cross-browser compatibility testing. Whether you are new to web design or a seasoned professional, you can use BrowserLab to preview web pages and local content with multiple viewing and comparison tools, customizing sets of browsers to meet your project's requirements. While working within Dreamweaver CS5, you can interact with your page in Live View, including the ability to freeze JavaScript-triggered interactions, and then send this "snapshot" of the page directly to BrowserLab for an accurate preview in the specific browsers and operating systems you've chosen. For traditional designers who want to understand how the various browsers and browser versions render their content, Onionskin view in BrowserLab allows you to overlay the same page in two different browsers or browser versions to easily spot differences.

Enhanced support for Subversion With Dreamweaver CS5, you can manage files more effectively in collaborative, version-controlled environments with enhanced support for Subversion, an open-source version-control system. In Dreamweaver CS4, Subversion support was limited to the most basic functions of locking and unlocking files and generating status updates. Dreamweaver CS5 expands support for Subversion, allowing you to move, copy, and delete files locally, and then synchronize changes with your remote SVN repository. The new Revert command allows you to quickly correct tree conflicts or roll back to a previous version of a file. From the Repository View of the Files panel in Dreamweaver CS5, you can reduce clutter by directly performing svn:ignore commands to hide files you don't need to access. To ensure future compatibility, the built-in Subversion libraries in Dreamweaver CS5 are designed to be updated by the Adobe Extension Manager. As newer versions of the Subversion libraries become available, they will be made available to the public as free extensions at Adobe Exchange at www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange.

PHP custom class code hinting Display proper syntax for PHP functions, objects, and constants to help you write code more accurately. Dreamweaver CS5 provides enhanced PHP code hinting on the fly by dynamically parsing PHP code and updating it as you type--even with code that hasn't yet been saved to disk. The code hints for PHP core functions and objects include the function signature, the module that defines the function, a description tooltip that mentions the PHP versions in which it is available, the method and parameter descriptions, and a link to the PHP.net manual page. Code hinting also works with your own custom functions and classes, as well as with third-party frameworks such as the Zend Framework. Dreamweaver CS5 dynamically highlights errors and provides alerts in the Information bar to help you more efficiently find and fix errors in your PHP code.

Site-specific code hints As sites become more and more customized, especially those built using content management systems and/or custom plug-ins, the need to edit customized code efficiently becomes more important than ever. Site-specific code hints within Dreamweaver help you to more efficiently handle PHP coding tasks on a site-by-site basis. Theme files for blogs and other custom PHP files and directories can be included (or excluded) to customize the coding environment of Dreamweaver CS5 when working with third-party PHP libraries and CMS frameworks such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla! and others. For robust code hinting, you can also specify files and even folders located outside of the defined site root.

Enhanced CSS starter layouts Jump-start your standards-based website design with updated and simplified CSS starter layouts. Based on user feedback and constantly evolving CSS best practices, the CSS starter layouts have been completely rewritten. For example, complex descendent selectors have been removed in favor of simplified, easy-to-understand classes, and the overall structure of the documents has been revamped. To help ensure success with the new layouts, instructions and comments are included both in the CSS code and the text of the document. Regardless of your experience, CSS starter layouts speed your development time by providing a variety of solid structures upon which to build your designs. For print designers and others just making the move to web design, CSS starter layouts can dramatically speed up the learning process.

Simple site setup To help make setup faster and easier, the Site Definition dialog box has been extensively redesigned, implementing many improvements suggested by web designers and developers who use Dreamweaver on a regular basis. You can start with as much or as little detail as you like-- even with just a site name and local site folder--and Dreamweaver will prompt you for the remaining details as they're needed as you build your site. For more advanced projects, you can specify multiple servers with custom names to utilize staged, networked, or other server types.

Integration with Adobe Business Catalyst In today's competitive environment, your clients demand more from their websites--they want true business results. With the Adobe Business Catalyst extension for Dreamweaver (available separately and in English only) and the Business Catalyst online service (available separately) you can deliver powerful online businesses without programming and at a fraction of the time and cost--all from within your familiar Dreamweaver workspace. Business Catalyst is an online service that can replace as many as five or more applications and tools with a single central platform for web designers that works hand in hand with Dreamweaver through the Business Catalyst extension for Dreamweaver. Using the unified platform and without back-end coding, you can build everything from amazing websites to powerful online stores, and from beautiful brochure-ware sites to lead generating mini-sites.

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