Adobe Contribute CS5 Upgrade Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I am a basic beginner still learning css webpage design. For Adobe Contribute CS5 comparing to prior versions, this is a huge upgrade for me. I am still reviewing CS5, but for what I needed to accomplish from my webpages that was redesigned by a professional who used Dreamweaver CS4; Contribute CS4 had a hard time taking the pages for updating them. What I am saying is that Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 and webpage management in Contribute CS4 did not flow together when it came to updating your webpages and when you only wanted to update them in Contribute. Contribute CS5 so far me, Adobe improved this issue, but too bad they didn't do instead with correcting the problem when they redesigned Dreamweaver CS4 and Contribute CS4. I like using the latest software for improving myself, but Adobe IMO screwed up in their versions and selling 2 types of software versions that were suppose to compliment each other, instead didn't really talk to each other IMO; and that was frustrating for me doing updates and adding additional webpages that flowed smoothly. Adobe messed up IMO with these 2 software versions.
So far with Contribute CS5, and still using Adobe Dreamweaver CS4, this combination software have met that 1 sore spot issue that I had using Contribute CS4. For this I give it the 5 stars because I can actively update my webpages at a moments notice not fearing frustration of the Dreamweaver format. (I am still learning Dreamweaver application processing at my slow pace as I go.)
I hope this makes sense, and will be back to either update or add an additional review for Contribute CS5 if I find additional goodies Adobe did from prior versions. Like I said, I am not an experience web page designer and am still a basic user in Dreamweaver CS4, but I was good with webpage mangement using Contribute. My only negative is that Adobe should have corrected this issue in their CS4 versions instead of updating it into the CS5 version.
I hope this Adobe comparison chart link helps you in what the latest version has and does from prior versions and if it is complimentary to your other Adobe webpage publishing software.
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Adobe Contribute CS5 software boosts creative web development with new features such as native XML file editing, image hotspot definition, cross-browser preview and compare, Server Side Includes (SSI) file editing, Spry widget editing, and advanced search and replace. Its WYSIWYG HTML editor and in-browser editing environment give content authors the capability to drag and drop FLV, SWF, and PDF files directly into pages, as well as advanced text- and image-editing tools. Managers can simplify content classification and expedite the addition of new pages while maintaining design integrity by defining XML and HTML content types and their corresponding workflows.

Upgrade to Adobe Contribute CS5 To install an upgrade version of Contribute CS5 software, you must have an eligible earlier version of Adobe software:
Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium, Master Collection
Contribute 4, CS3, & CS4

For information on eligibility, visit www.adobe.com/go/upgradeinfo.
Top reasons to upgrade to Adobe Contribute CS5
New--Predefined content types Create new pages quickly based on existing design templates and page functionality. Set the workflow to hold new pages for review or to have them go live instantly. Set automatic expiration dates for new content.
New--XML file editing Edit XML content natively, without having to leave Contribute and open an XML editor. Easily update Spry data sets and other pages that render content from dynamic XML-based sites by editing the corresponding XML file.
New--Cross-browser preview Verify the look and feel of updated pages in multiple browsers on Windows. Preview edited pages in any installed browser. Windows users can view three browsers simultaneously with synchronous navigation and crawling for side-by-side comparison.
New--Spry widget editing Edit any content contained in a variety of Spry widgets, including data within accordion, tabbed, and collapsible panels. Change properties such as panel transition animation effects.
New--Multiple page search and replace Use the enhanced search and replace capability to update information on multiple open draft pages. Streamline the update process by performing in minutes a previously tedious task.
New--Subversion software support Roll back pages to previously archived files using the built-in Contribute rollback feature or Subversion, which is supported by Contribute CS5. (Subversion is not included with Contribute CS5; visit http://subversion.tigris.org for more information.)
New--Image hotspot support Create multiple links to different parts of a single image with integrated WYSIWYG hotspot support. Draw one or more hotspots onto any image, and then add alternate text and URLs for immediate interactivity.
New--SWF and FLV file embedding Insert SWF or FLV files and Contribute creates web standards-compliant code, compatible with code created in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 software. This helps ensure that content is Adobe Flash Player compatible while enabling drag-and-drop authoring in Contribute.
New--Server Side Includes file editing Allow authors to edit Server Side Includes (SSI) files. Authors can choose SSI files from a list, without needing to know the file path. Modify HTML content in the SSI file with Contribute.

Simplify website management
True WYSIWYG web authoring Enable content authors to see the results of their edits and additions instantly with enhanced CSS rendering, without writing code or knowing HTML. Contribute immediately updates edits to XML content and Spry widgets.
Collaborative publishing Establish collaborative workflow processes to author, review, and publish content. Define different review paths at the template level, whether a single approval for an internal web page or multiple sign-offs for a public page.
Predefined content types Define content types that specify the design template and review process that will be used automatically when a new page is created for that content type. Content type can be HTML or XML.
XML file editing Edit XML file content without opening an XML editor. Easily update Spry data sets and other pages that render content from XML files or dynamic XML-based sites by editing the corresponding XML file.
Rich media support Easily drag and drop images, FLV and SWF files, or PDF documents into your web pages. Contribute automatically uploads the dependent files to the web server when the pages are published in predefined locations.
Dynamic website editing Add content to dynamic websites powered by Movable Type, TypePad, or WordPress. Simply define the Contribute connection with the proper settings, and site content is instantly available for updating.
Cross-browser preview Verify the look and feel of updated pages in multiple browsers. Preview edited pages in any installed browser. Windows users can view three browsers simultaneously for side-by-side comparison.
Publish to websites and blogs Publish with a single click to a wide variety of websites or blogs. Contribute is the one web authoring tool that supports FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, MetaWeblog, and Atom protocols.
In-browser editing Allow authors to edit pages directly in a web browser with no need to open another application. The Contribute CS5 in-browser editor supports most browsers, including Firefox 3 and 3.5 and Internet Explorer 7 and 8.
Simultaneous shared reviews Enable multiple reviewers to comment on drafts simultaneously with in-context collaboration tools for faster and more effective web publishing cycles.
Top new features of Adobe Contribute CS5
Predefined content types With predefined content types, web administrators can specify particular Dreamweaver templates, XML templates, and workflows that will be used when creating new pages based on content type. This allows new pages to be created quickly, drawing on existing site designs, preserving current page functionality, and defining content regions for secure editing by contributors. Set edit workflows to hold new pages for review or to have them go live instantly. Set expiration dates automatically as new pages based on predefined content types are created. The content types can be defined for both XML and HTML pages. Defining content types can greatly simplify the administrator's task of site management.
Published pages based on content type can be tracked as a Smart List--an XML file providing the metadata about each publish operation of the content type, such as author name, date and time of publishing, and so on. This list can be used as dynamic data in another file or can be used as data for site analytics.
XML editing Edit site-associated XML content natively, without having to leave Contribute in order to open an XML editor. Easily update the contents of XML files that are rendered by dynamic pages. Allow modification of XML element and attribute values, while protecting document structure elements such as nodes and tags. In the past, XML data editing has typically been assigned to an expert, but now content authors themselves can easily update XML data without fear of disturbing the underlying structure. This feature also enables editing of Spry data sets and other dynamic pages that render data content from an XML file, or even entire dynamic sites built using XML; the content author simply browses to the corresponding XML files to edit them.
Cross-browser preview Another task that normally falls to web administrators is the dreaded browser compatibility check. With Contribute CS5, content authors can verify the look and feel of updated pages themselves, in multiple browsers. You can preview edited pages in three popular browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, and they need not be installed on your system. Running Microsoft Windows, you can view three different browsers simultaneously in split windows for side-by-side comparison. In Mac OS, you can preview using any browser installed on your system. Just specify the browser or browsers for comparison, and they're automatically launched when Browser Preview is invoked.
Spry widget editing With Contribute CS5, content authors can edit data contained in a variety of Spry widgets, including data within accordion, tabbed, and collapsible panels. This is accomplished with the new Widget Properties button in Edit mode, which allows the user to access and edit the displayed data, and to change certain properties of the visual effects.
Multipage search and replace Use the enhanced search-and-replace capability in Contribute CS5 to update information on multiple open draft pages. Streamline the update process by performing in minutes what used to be a tedious task. Search based on text, images, and other elements.
Subversion support An important aspect of any web administrator's duties is the archiving and redeployment of content. One of the most popular solutions for this task is Subversion, an open-source version control system. Contribute CS5 lets you work with Subversion with minimal configuration, or with the built-in Contribute rollback system. (Subversion is not included with Contribute CS5; see subversion.tigris.org for more information.)
Image hotspot support Previously, programmers and designers usually added hotspots to images using specialized image-editing software such as Adobe Fireworks during the design process. Now content authors can set up hotspots themselves from within Contribute CS5, without having to roundtrip the images to the art department. Users can create multiple links to different parts of a single image with integrated WYSIWYG hotspot support. Draw one or more hotspots onto any image, and then add alternative text and URLs for immediate interactivity.
W3-compliant code when embedding SWF and FLV files Embedding SWF and FLV files in a web page is traditionally a task left to the Dreamweaver web experts--and with good reason, as the coding required to ensure smooth and consistent operation across platforms isn't exactly the stuff you can copy and paste. Insertion of SWF and FLV files was possible previously, but now Contribute CS5 automatically creates Dreamweaver-compatible web standards-compliant code when you insert the file into your page. This helps enable predictable behavior within the Adobe Flash Player while allowing cycle-accelerating drag-and-drop authoring in Contribute.
Server Side Include editing Another task normally left to the Dreamweaver experts is the editing of Server Side Include files (SSI). These are usually small text files that are nested within a page, often with the goal of having them be updated more frequently than the rest of the page content. Contribute CS5 allows content authors to edit SSIs directly, eliminating another potential web-production bottleneck. Authors can choose include files from a list, and then edit the SSI data within Contribute.
This new capability of Contribute CS5 facilitates quick editing of included PHP, CFM, or any other SSIs from within a web-page edit workflow. When a content author selects a region in the page that is coming from an SSI, Contribute provides an Edit Included Files menu to quickly edit the included file. The user doesn't have to identify the Included file's path manually by looking at the code.
Text and image enhancements One of the strongest benefits of using Contribute is its word processor-like WYSIWYG editing environment, which facilitates the update process. With several new enhancements in Contribute CS5, this functionality helps Contribute take a big step towards becoming a real-time web page layout solution. Now content authors can create superscript and subscript text directly in Contribute. Image-editing capabilities are greatly expanded with direct editing of embedded images in Photoshop or Fireworks software, if the user has them installed. Changes are displayed accurately with enhanced CSS rendering.

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