For those of you who have waited to get or upgrade to Studio MX 2004, or have been on the fence about it's advantages - you're time on a great deal is running out. Macromedia is taking $100 off the price (whether full or upgrade) until March 31st. It's kind of disappointing to me because I paid the $499 to upgrade and they won't pass the $100 savings to me (Adobe would). But despite the fact that I don't get the savings, you CAN take advantage of the savings, and if you are a full time coder then you will be using CSS and XHTML (because they are web standards today, and more and more coders are starting to use XHTML and CSS), which means you will really like MX 2004.
I have used Studio MX 2004 since October 2003 and the CSS support is better than Dreamweaver MX and CF Studio. I haven't used CF Studio 5 in two years, so I can honestly say I don't miss it. I can do everything that I did with CF Studio 5, with Dreamweaver MX 2004. I don't use Homesite+ at all (I tried version 5.5, but it crashed a lot). As a contractor at Sprint I use Dreamweaver MX, and I can honestly say that I miss Dreamweaver MX 2004. They put more of the features of CF Studio 5 that were removed in Dreamweaver MX, back into Dreamweaver MX 2004, and again the CSS support is really nice. If you use Top Style Lite in CF Studio 5, you'll love using Dreamweaver MX 2004. Personally, for me - I like the CSS code hints, because it acts as a reminder to your options as you're typing. But I never click on them, because it swtiches to the Top Style Lite-like palette, instead of keeping you in your page of code. I want to stay in my CSS file where I'm typing my CSS code and not use the palette. (I might force myself to learn to use the palette, but I haven't yet). If you're a Flash user - Flash Pro is better than any previous version of Flash. I've used Flash since version 3 and Flash Pro has finally added features I've wanted for years, and they made them better than I expected - like auto-guides to line up objects on the stage, is just fantastic. If you use Flash Remoting (or think you might want to) then Flash Pro is required, because the Firefly Components in the Flash Data Connection Kit are deprecated. Flash Pro incorporates the functionality for Flash Remoting that Macromedia will probably stick with; instead of a separate product. I don't work for Macromedia and I don't get any percs for endorsing their products. I'm just a coder who has used many products, and I like Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Flash MX Pro 2004 so much, that I'd hate for my fellow CF coders to miss out on this opportunity. Macromedia has done this before, with ColdFusion MX. When CFMX was just released they let us upgrade at discount not only for the same version, but they even let us upgrade from Pro to Enterprise. When that promotion expired, CFMX hasn't seen prices that low again. I expect the same thing to happen to Studio MX 2004 - at least until Studio MX 2006 comes out. So now is your chance. Jim Pickering ========================================================Kansas City ColdFusion User Group's website & listserv is hosted through the generous support of Clickdoug.com To send email to the list, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To (un)subscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with your request. For hosting solutions http://www.clickdoug.com Featuring Win2003 Enterprise, RedHat Linux, CFMX 6.1. =====================================================
