Overview

Adobe GoLive is a powerful WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") Web editor in the same category as Macromedia's Dreamweaver and Microsoft's FrontPage. It provides a visual environment for constructing Web pages and Web sites, while still allowing access to the HTML it generates.

Unlike other common WYSIWYG editors, GoLive's design paradigm is that users construct pages by inserting "placeholder" elements into a page and then attaching content to the placeholders. Page elements, such as tables or images, are inserted simply by dragging them from the Objects palette to the Layout space. Once inserted and positioned, elements can be adjusted, and content inserted, through the context-sensitive Inspector palette.

In common with other graphical user interface (GUI)-based HTML editors and Web-site managers, GoLive provides a considerable time savings in setting up complex table- and layer-based layouts, as well as in inserting basic JavaScript functions. Another time-saver is an HTML view that shows only the tag hierarchy, which can reveal underlying structure in otherwise ungainly pages. This view also allows the user to move or copy units of code by dragging them within and between pages.

How Long Did It Take to Learn to Use It Productively?

As a frequent user of Macromedia Dreamweaver, I initially found it frustrating to maneuver within the unfamiliar GoLive interface. However, after a couple of hours of experimenting, I had adapted to the interface well enough to recreate a site with rollovers and sensitively positioned graphics. GoLive uses floating palettes that keep tools accessible; however, a large number of palettes and some nested tabs make it difficult to locate options. On the positive side, options within the Inspector palette are contextual to the currently selected object. For the number of options available, the placement is well done; however, trial and error is often necessary. For example, while tool-tip labels appear on mouse-over, there are no text labels in the icon-laden Objects panel or its subtabs. Also, the need to place filler objects before selecting content feels counterintuitive to me, but this is a personal preference. Those with experience in Adobe Photoshop or PageMaker will have an edge due to the similarity between products in the logic and structure of the menus and palettes.

Product Quality

Customizability

Fair. The user can control a nice range of site-specific preferences and customize palette/toolbar placement, but the program itself is relatively fixed.

Ability to Program in Scripts, Add Extension Modules, etc.

Good. While not as broad as the Dreamweaver extension library, the Adobe Xchange offers user-contributed palettes, menus, and commands for increasing GoLive's functionality.

Ability to Import and Export in Different File Formats

Like most current HTML editors, GoLive reads external HTML files with little difficulty, and version 5 includes an option to prevent code rewriting.

GoLive also allows importation of Photoshop, Illustrator, and LiveMotion files, reducing the need to process graphics through "export for Web" workflows in the graphics programs themselves.

Useful or Unusual Features

GoLive is an HTML editor created with the graphics designer or HTML novice in mind. It features simple integration with image-editing programs, allowing page authors to make changes seamlessly to site graphics without interrupting their workflow. The software itself borrows heavily from PageMaker and Photoshop and can typically be used with very little training by someone familiar with other Adobe products.

For advanced HTML authors, GoLive includes several features that make it exceptional for working with bare HTML. The HTML outline editor, for example, presents a "collapsed" version of a Web page that is presented as a hierarchical listing of HTML tags. Each tag expands to show the different attributes that are available or in use for that part of the page. If you're used to wading through tons of HTML to find the element you want to work with, the value of this function will quickly become evident.

Authors can also take advantage of the unique code-locking feature that inserts the "noedit" tag to prevent rewriting of code tweaked by hand, and they can convert external style sheets to inline style sheets with just a click of the mouse. Finished pages can be transferred to a remote server using the industry standards FTP and WebDAV.

Limitations

GoLive is a wonderful application for users who aren't interested in learning the complexities of HTML, but it poses some problems for users who like to do things by hand. For editing bare HTML, the HTML outline mode is a wonderful tool, but once you use GoLive itself to generate a page, the autogenerated code is often impenetrable.

GoLive uses a large number of embedded tables to build its pages. While certainly acceptable to a browser, this won't make the hand coder very happy and is extremely confusing for anyone who has to maintain the code in the future.

The software's complexity poses another problem for many users. Adobe products are known for their power, but the power usually comes with a price. In the case of GoLive, there are dozens of palettes, menus, and dialog boxes that you must master before you can feel truly comfortable with the software. If you're a PageMaker or Photoshop user, you'll catch on right away; others may find the interface cluttered and unintuitive until they've worked with it for a while.

Comparisons with Similar Software

Adobe GoLive 5 is on a par with Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 - both offer a wide range of features that make it easy for users to go beyond text-based Web pages quickly. However, each has its own strengths. Dreamweaver has the edge for cleaner HTML and JavaScript, as well as a less cluttered user interface. The drag-and-drop nature of GoLive, coupled with its integration with Photoshop and its fantastic color picker, may appeal to the visually inclined, or to those experienced with PageMaker. Also, GoLive's more modest requirement for memory and drive space are a bonus.

FrontPage is less complicated, but is also less flexible and HTML friendly. GoLive's precise arrangement of elements and its multiple HTML-view options place it far above FrontPage for those who want final say over their page.

Technical Support and Documentation

The user guide contains step-by-step explanations of each feature, and the chapter structure has a good flow. The same information is available online, as are expanded tutorials on topics including WebDAV and cascading style sheets. Interactive "How Tos" and a section on troubleshooting are also online. Free registration is required to access some parts of the site.

Technical questions can be submitted online. A "per incident" fee is assessed only after the problem has been resolved.

Target Users

Users who are familiar with Adobe products or page-layout software will be most comfortable with GoLive. Those coming from an HTML-by-hand background may not appreciate the complexities of the GoLive-generated code. Complete novices may find the interface intimidating to start with, but should still be able to productively construct Web sites, and there is plenty of sophistication for them to grow into as they learn.