Neil Merton

Initial Thoughts on Dreamweaver CS3

No, I’ve not received an early copy of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 - but I have been spending some time reading up about the release on Adobe’s website, so I thought I’d share what my initial thoughts are on this upcoming release’s main new features.

1. The support for Spry (AJAX): How many people use Spry (it’s Adobe’s AJAX framework)? I looked at it briefly, once, but didn’t like how it inserts ’spry:command‘ into html tags - so that’s where I left my investigation. So, no, this feature is not one that interests me.
2. Photoshop & Fireworks integration: Ok - it is just me or is it really not that diffecult to have Photoshop/Fireworks open while you’re working in Dreamweaver? Do I really need to copy directly from either of these programs and paste directly into Dreamweaver? I don’t think so. So again, this feature doesn’t interest me.
3. Browser Compatibility Check: Code semantic and valid css and xhtml and your code should be compatible with most browsers! This feature isn’t for me.
4. CSS Advisor website: Won’t this be available to the general public anyway?
5. CSS layouts: Glad to see that this is included - it should help those starting out in web design to get to grips with css layouts, but it’s not one for me - I prefer to get my hands dirty thank you.

So there you have my initial thoughts. This isn’t a release that will excite any hand-coder. Sure there seem to be some great new features for people starting out in web design - but are these people really going to be willing to shell out their hard-earned cash for this release?

Will I be paying $199 (upwards!) for the upgrade? Unfortunately not - I’ll be putting my money towards an editor that is trying to make life easier for coders.

Web2.0* In The Top10

I just noticed that my Web2.0* Wordpress Theme has managed to sneak into the Top10 list on Wordpress Theme Viewer website!

So, a BIG thank you to every one for rating it so positively - it is much appreciated.

Update: it seems that shortly after taking this screenshot the website stopped using it’s rating system. Oh well… at least the theme is nearing 4,000 downloads.

AdoIco Dock Icon Set

I recently created a collection of png files for use with any dock application called AdoIco - these are inspired by Adobe’s new icons for CS3.

You can download them from my DeviantArt page.

If you would like to have these on your desktop and don’t use a dock application then I can highly recommend RocketDock.

Windows TextMate Port

I’ve never really used the TextMate editor, but have always heard good things about it from the Mac community. It’s an ingenious approach to code writing as it tried to aid writing code quickly by offering snippets in a variety of coding languages (including ColdFusion).

It was purely by chance that I happened to stumble upon a new text editor that has just become available for the PC called e-TextEditor and it seems to emulate TextMate very closely, which is nice.

So, naturally I was quick to download and install it. After applying the ColdFusion Bundle (which was a breeze thanks to cfTextMate) I tested out the editor’s nifty features. Very impressive, and I’m sure with regular use writing ColdFusion will be an even more pleasurable experience.

Here’s a few items I really like:

1. Indent guides - provides a visual guide to your code indents
2. Themes - loads of different colour themes to choose from (not essential, but a nice bonus!)
3. Bundles - these are code ‘packages’ that allows the magic to happen (e.g. simply type ‘cfif’, press tab and be amazed!)
4. TODO / FIXME / CHANGED - simply add these to comments and then view the list of things to do

The editor is still in beta stage, so it’s a little rough around the edges, but I know I’ll be keeping a very close eye on it’s progress.

What’s a Doos?

Your homework for today is to find out what the translation for the name that Ernie Els called his golf ball shortly after hitting it:

Original link from ChumpStyle.

Gem of an Editor

I recently had the need of a code editor that could make backups of files before saving them - a feature that I though I wouldn’t be able to find in a free application.

After a short Google session I came upon Crimson Editor. It’s no longer being maintained but it is definately worth investigating if you’re looking for a light-weight code editor. The one feature that I do love is the ability to create a copy of the file before it was editted when you save it. This can also be done in such a way that they get autonumbered - thus creating a simply version control system.

There is a set of ColdFusion tags in a syntax file (click on ‘Syntax Files’ and then search for the term ‘ColdFusion’) and these are very easy to install. It doesn’t have an auto-complete feature, but this can be a good thing as it forces you to remember the tags.

Keyboard Layout Shortcut

Recently my keyboard layout seemed to magically switch from UK to US without me requesting it to. Or so I thought!

Windows has a very nifty shortcut sequence built into it of ‘Left Shift + Alt’ that will switch between the two available layouts.

If you find this happening to yourself and want to disable the shortcut then follow these directions:

1. Right-click on the taskbar
2. Select ‘Toolbars’
3. Select ‘Language Bar’
   (you should now have a blue indicator on your taskbar - mine says ‘EN’ indicating English)
4. Right-click on the indicator icon and select ‘Settings…’
5. At the bottom, under ‘Preferences’ click the ‘Key Settings…’ button
6. Ensure ‘Switch between input languages’ is selected and click the ‘Change Key Sequence…’ button
7. Untick the two checkboxes (these are ‘Switch input languages’ and ‘Switch keyboard layouts’)
8. Click ‘OK’
9. Click ‘OK’
10. Click ‘OK’
11. To remove the indicator from the taskbar -right-click on it and select ‘Close the language bar’.

Done.