The Creative Toolbox: A First Look at GoLive 6.0

I’ve been using Adobe GoLive since its first incarnation. In its previous five versions, it’s gained powerful, unique features and undergone a couple of name changes. First, it was GoLive CyberStudio, which was then abbreviated to its current name when Adobe acquired its developer in 1999. With version 5, Adobe brought us Smart Objects, a standout feature that allows the dynamic linking of Photoshop files and other Adobe formats and the automatic re-exporting when resized. Site planning and diagramming also made its way into the feature set.

Now Adobe is poised to release GoLive 6.0. The first major update in more than a year, GoLive 6 includes native OS X and Windows XP compatibility, improved site diagramming and dynamic content capabilities, integrated workgroup functionality, and an assortment of features and enhancements designed to aid in your Web-page layout and source-code authoring. Here’s a first look at what GoLive 6 is set to offer just on the brink of its release.

Diagrams without Pen and Napkin
Anyone who’s ever attempted to design a complex site without properly sorting out its underlying structure has probably learned the lesson the hard way: Complex sites need proper site diagramming just as a house needs an architect. Many of us have resorted to diagramming sites in our favorite illustration or page-layout application because of the dearth of good site diagramming software out there, even though it makes perfect sense to have your site-diagramming tool within your site-authoring environment. In this version, Adobe expanded the site diagramming features introduced in GoLive 5 by providing a full complement of diagramming objects within the Object palette and adding features such as the Master tab and diagram exporting.

Figure 1: GoLive’s diagramming features include a master palette that offers functions much like Master Pages in a page layout application.

The Master tab found in the Site Diagram window functions just like a master page in a page layout application (see figure 1). Objects added to the Master tab will appear on all your diagram pages. This is useful for inserting a legend or company logo. It’s possible to drag native Photoshop or Illustrator files, GIFs or JPEGs within your diagrams and zoom in and out of them to get the whole picture.

Once your site diagram is ready for review, you can export it directly to an Acrobat PDF or SVG file (see figure 2). Then you can choose to open the file in Illustrator to refine as presentations. Reviewers can also use the markup tools available in Acrobat to add comments. When everyone has approved the structure of the site, GoLive 6 can take your most complicated site diagrams and generate live pages (just as in GoLive 5), empty shells ready for you to start authoring and laying out. No matter if you are developing a 50- or a 500-page site, you’ll find the improved site diagramming tools a vital part of GoLive 6.

Figure 2: Exporting your site diagrams to PDFs makes it possible to share with clients or further refine in Illustrator.

No Web Designer is an Island
Attempting to work as a team collaboratively on a Web site can quickly dissolve into a file management nightmare as communications break down, files get overwritten, and hours of work is lost. But trying to integrate a source control system into a Web development process can be just as bad: You find yourself hopping back and forth between your authoring and source control application, struggling to find all dependant files and checking them out as well. It’s no wonder Superman works alone.

Adobe attempts to cure these collaboration headaches by including a Web-based workgroup server with every copy of GoLive 6: Adobe Web Workgroup Server, a WebDAV server that tightly integrates with GoLive to bring versioning and asset management to your sites with powerful features such as version rollback, user management, version difference, and archival of entire sites. All these workgroup features incorporate nicely into GoLive and do a fine job of not getting in the way of your normal workflow. What’s more, other WebDAV-enabled software, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, can also hook in and take advantage of the Web Workgroup Server.

Working on a site together can be all the more difficult when varied roles come into play. Someone is responsible for adding the copy while the designer handles the visual aspects of the site. It would probably put everyone’s heart at ease if each person knew they could only affect the area they were assigned to. Using the Web Workgroup Server, administrators can assign different levels of access to site assets. Users given the proper permissions then see the entire page when checked out, but color overlays indicate locked-out regions (see figure 3). Collaboration headaches may soon be a thing of the past if Adobe’s Web Workgroup Server lives up to its promise. I, for one, hope it does.