If you read Web Teacher posts via an RSS feed, you may forget that there is a page on the blog where I track a list of most of the posts I categorize as Web Teacher Tips. Here are 5 of the best ones brought back to your attention.
Category: Dreamweaver
Inspiring video from Adobe on responsive design
Interesting new techniques demonstrated in this video from Adobe about responsive design.
Useful links: heading markup, CSS Zen Garden, Adobe again, flexbox
How to mark up subheadings, subtitles, alternative titles and taglines now that hgroup is officially out of the spec.
CSS Zen Garden is 10 years old. Dave Shea has announced a revival. Designers take note.
Here’s what Zeldman says about the changes at Adobe: Adobe Love. It certainly isn’t what I was expecting to read on his site.
How to use the Flexbox layout method (part 1) at Web Designer Depot is worth viewing. Note that the order of the properties they use should put the actual property last after the vendor prefixes are listed. Like this:
display: -webkit-flex;
display: -moz-flex;
display: flex;
Adobe’s Creative Cloud: Drawbacks, Incentives, and Education Implications
Users of Adobe CS6 have already had access to cloud based versions of the popular Adobe product line, but now these products will be cloud only. No more software downloads, no more boxes with CDs inside. The Adobe business model for the new Creative Cloud line means a monthly subscription fee to use the products.
The products involved include Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Flash, Muse, InDesign, Lightroom, Bridge, and more Adobe tools and services. These products are now identified as CC for Creative Cloud. The CS (Creative Suite) name is going away. There won’t be a Photoshop CS7 or any other numerical ID, there will only be Photoshop CC. The release date for Adobe CC is June 17.
Those of you who use Photoshop Elements don’t need to worry. This change does not apply to your product. You’ll still be able to buy software in a box like before.
What Does This Mean?
In terms of products, Creative Cloud means you’ll always have the most up-to-date tools, and you’ll be able to share your designs with a team if you work that way. Here’s how Adobe describes it:
All-new desktop versions of your favorite creative tools and services, check. Immediate access to new features and updates, check. And that’s just the beginning. With Creative Cloud™, everything you need to create intuitively and collaboratively is included. All-new tools and services will be available in June.
It also means you aren’t paying for products, you’re paying for access to products in the form of monthly subscription fees. New users get access to the whole list of Adobe CC products for $50 a month. You can save if you sign up before the end of July. There are student and teacher pricing plans, and a pricing plan if you want to use only one product. (For example, you can use only Dreamweaver for a price of $20 per month.) The pricing plan for existing Adobe customers who own from CS3 up is also less than the $50 a month. If you own any version of from CS3 up, act quickly to get in on the price savings. You have to commit to a year’s subscription when you join. Here is the complete pricing plan list.
That monthly payment may feel like a big drawback to some. And, there is the reliability of your internet service. As Laura Scott tweeted,
Dear cloud-only/req’d apps: You’re now only as good as Comcast allows you to be. How’s them apples? #adobe
— Laura Scott (@lauras) May 6, 2013
Adobe Fireworks is going away. That may make a lot of people unhappy. According to Julie Bort, writing in Business Insider, “Adobe’s screen-grabbing, no-coding graphics tool Adobe Fireworks was originally included with the Creative Cloud, but Adobe just announced that it was killing that product.”
In spite of the drawbacks, I see some incentives for users.
If you normally buy each new version of everything each time it comes out, this monthly fee is a substantial savings. Even if you are paying the whole $50 a month, something most people won’t have to do, you’ll still be able to get two years worth of subscription services for the previous cost of a full creative suite.
If you’re like me – I’m still using Photoshop CS3, but have upgraded to Dreamweaver CS 5.5 (not the latest version either), it may not be such an attractive deal money-wise. But – you get the latest version of everything – all the time. That is a huge incentive.
Adobe has already been talking about some of the changes to Photoshop CC that users will like, always an incentive if you need to stay on the cutting edge.
Another incentive is the cloud-based collaboration and sharing that creative teams can take advantage of with Adobe CC.
Implications for Education
What does this mean for educators and classrooms full of students who want to learn Dreamweaver or Photoshop or Illustrator? Although the pricing page shows a listing for teams, it doesn’t specifically mention educational licenses for computer lab settings. I’m sure that Adobe has this figured out, but as far as I know, there’s no word out to educational institutions about it yet.
Implications for extension makers
Another question I have is what happens to those businesses like Project Seven or Community MX that have done very nicely supplying extensions for Adobe products? Will their extensions be available in Creative Cloud? Can a subscriber individualize a version of a product like Dreamweaver with custom extensions and widgets if everything is cloud based?
Thoughts?
Are you happy about this announcement and are you signing up early to get in on the savings?
Note: A shortened version of this post was also published on BlogHer.
UPDATE: See Adobe Creative Cloud for a more informed explanation of how CC works.
How is a web site like a book?
I’ve been doing some consulting with someone who is learning to maintain a website in Dreamweaver. We keep bumping into the concept that fiddling with new styles every time you create a new page of content is a bad idea.
Remember Virginia’s Law Against Unintended HTML? It goes like this:
Play with the way your content will look before the content is on the page, not after.
In looking around desperately for a concept or metaphor that will bring home the point to this Dreamweaver user, I’m wondering if thinking of a website as being like a technical book can help. I could use one of my own books as an example. Here’s what I’m thinking.
If you look through a technical book you see all sorts of formatting: headings, paragraphs, lists, images, tables. Every time you see something, for example, a chapter title, it uses the same formatting and appearance. You don’t see a different size title for chapter 6 or a different color title for chapter 8. The appearance for chapter titles is consistent throughout the book.
A web site should have the same consistency. Every page’s main heading should use the same formatting and appearance as every other page. This applies to other parts of the site, such as links, lists, images, etc. You decide before the book is printed what kind of styles will be used for the content. Then you stick with that decision for the entire book. A website should be thought of in the same way. You plan a look – the styles – and you stick with that look throughout the entire website.
If something changes in the future (because, after all, the web is a changeable medium as opposed to a book), any changes to the stylesheet affect the entire website, not just selected parts of it.
Does this metaphor work or is it confusing? How do you teach students that a website should have a consistent set of style rules and not a page-by-page mix of freshly hatched classes?
Useful links: Drupal extension for Dreamweaver, computer history, HTML5 News
Drupal API extension for Dreamweaver.
Teachers will love this article! 40 years of icons: the evolution of the modern computer interface.
Do you subscribe to HTML5 News? There are many useful links focusing specifically on HTML5 in that publication. It is my Scoop.it home for curated news about that one topic. I put a lot of links there that I never mention on Web Teacher. Keep up with the latest by subscribing to it.
Useful links: browser lab closes, web standards, FTC guidelines
Adobe is closing its browser lab. All you Dreamweaver teachers take note.
There’s a good summary of all the latest news in web standartds at .net magazine: Hot in Web Standards.
If you’re a blogger who does reviews (as I do) you should take a look at the new FTC guidelines for disclosing info in product reviews.