Adobe Adds Productivity Features to Dreamweaver CC 2014

Dreamweaver has been a perennial favorite for website designers because it works for people who prefer a visual environment as well as for those who prefer dealing directly with the code. With the release of a new and more powerful version of Muse, you might think that Dreamweaver's appeal would be reduced for those who prefer the WYSIWYG methods. That's incorrect because the CC 2014 version of Dreamweaver adds features for both coders and designers.

A reasonable person might ask why Adobe created Muse because it would appear to compete with Dreamweaver. Appearances can be deceiving, though. Muse is designed for users who differ substantially from those who use Dreamweaver, and for different types of sites.

As I said in an earlier review of Muse, it's the ideal choice for highly designed sites that are created by people who are familiar with applications such as InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop. Muse is a less satisfactory choice for large sites (those with dozens or hundreds of pages) and people who prefer to work, at least some of the time, directly with the HTML or CSS code will find Muse to be frustrating. In other words, Adobe hasn't created a Dreamweaver killer by providing a more powerful Muse.

Live View

The Live View feature isn't new, but previous versions of Dreamweaver provided only a view of the site as it would be rendered in a browser. Now it's possible to edit what is essentially a live Web page.

Here's a test page in Live View. It's last week's program, but with some of the design features I'm thinking about for TechByter 2015 -- so you have to promise not to tell anybody.

The first feature isn't specific to Live View because it also works in normal view. (1) Clicking the </> symbol at the bottom of the main work area opens a view of the document object model. Adobe calls this the Element Quick View. (2) Then you can double-click an object and (3) it will be highlighted. The highlight depends on the view mode that's active at the time. In standard mode, the text will be selected, but in Live View you'll see a bounding box, the HTML element name, and a plus sign. Clicking the plus sign allows the addition of an ID name or a CSS class.

Here's why Live View is important. Some features, such as webfonts, don't display properly in standard view. The headline in particular is incorrect in this display. It's just a standard sans serif face and there's no rule beneath the headline.

In Live View, the typeface is correct and the ruling line is present. And then the magic begins.

Double-click somewhere in the paragraph and a bounding box will appear. This indicates that the text within the box is now editable. In this case, I want to set the words "Attacks against computer hardware and software" in bold.

After selecting the words, I was offered 3 options: Bold, Italic, and Link.

All of these changes could be made easily enough in normal view or code view, of course, but being able to see the effect exactly as it will be represented in a browser is helpful.

In the 2014 version, users can also insert HTML elements directly into the Live View from a new Insert panel. The elements are inserted in real time without any need to switch modes, which means that you see the result immediately.

CSS Designer Improvements

Cascading style sheets (CSS) are the files that are referenced by a website's HTML files and control the on-screen formatting. The CSS syntax requires precision in defining the various selectors to be used. Let's say you have an "aside" selector that has a 1-pixel dark blue border and you want to convert the border to a 3-pixel light blue border with rounded corners.

You may well be able to work out how to change the width of the border and the color, but the border-radius property that creates the rounded corners is relatively new. The updated CSS designer places dozens of properties at your fingertips and, in some cases, even provides illustrations to show how a particular property works.

So here I've (1) scrolled down to the border and border radius properties for the aside selector. When I changed the width from 1 pixel to 3, the change was immediately reflected on the page. Likewise, when I changed the dark blue color to light blue. Then it was time to (2) modify the border radius. The value for each corner can be set individually, but I clicked the "lock" icon so that they would all be the same and then changed one of the values from 0 pixels to 15 pixels. The aside was immediately displayed with rounded corners.

Then (3) Dreamweaver automatically updated the code in the CSS file. The new CSS Designer features make the process easy for those who understand CSS and possible for those who don't.

But Wait! There's More!

The 2014 edition of Dreamweaver has several more seemingly small and inconsequential additions. For many of these I would need a lot of time to explain how they work, what they do, and why they're important. Invariably, it comes down to this: The additions provide small process improvements that make using the program faster and easier.

Adobe keeps making me a liar and I love it.

Every time Adobe releases a new version of Dreamweaver, I conclude that they've invented all the features that can possibly be invented. Then, a year or so later, another version arrives and it includes functionality that never occurred to me as even being possible. This time the new features should delight both the <coders> and the designers. The 2014 edition of Dreamweaver is probably still lacking a few features, but I won't know what they are until the 2015 version is released.
Additional details are available on the Adobe website.

Turning a Small Tablet into a Large Library

The Nexus 7 turns out to be an excellent device for reading books, but varying file formats and digital rights management (DRM) can get in the way. Fortunately, there are work-arounds.

I've installed several readers on the tablet computer -- the Kindle reader, the Nook reader, the Kobo reader, Aldiko, and the tablet comes with the Play Books reader. More recently, I've added the Universal Book Reader.

Although the Universal Book Reader is free, I quickly ponied up the $3.50 payment required for the paid version. The small payment eliminates the unobtrusive ads and, more importantly, supports the developers. Although it doesn't have quite as many settings and options as Aldiko, the Universal Book Reader has the best interface I've seen on a tablet and an integrated file browser provides access to any PDF or EPUB format file on the tablet, including Adobe DRM-protected files. For Adobe DRM-protected files, you'll need to provide an Adobe account login (available for free). This means that you'll be able to install any book you can download from your library in Adobe DRM format.

Whose Rights?

Probably the most vexing "feature" of electronic books is digital rights management that can limit the number of devices on which you can read a book you've purchased. For example, let's say you've purchased a book that you plan to read on a dedicated reader, but then decide that you want to read it on a tablet during a business trip.

The various readers support different file formats. Amazon's Kindle, for example, can deal with AZW, MOBI, and PDF documents, but not the arguably more standard EPUB format. Readers by Barnes and Noble (Nook) and Sony can't display AZW. If you want to read books on various devices, you may need to find a way to convert them.

If the book is protected with DRM software, converting the file is at least technically illegal because you first have to remove the DRM. I say "technically illegal" because I hope that the world's book publishers won't sue readers who have paid for books and then remove the DRM software so that they can copy the books to their other readers. Of course, if you strip the DRM software from a book and then share a copy with someone else, that clearly is illegal.

After all, e-books are software and, therefore, come with the same restrictions that apply to other software: You have not purchased the book; instead, you have purchased a license to use the book. The license specifies how you may use the book and every book with DRM software comes with a prohibition against removing that software, even if your only intent is to place the book on another device.

Quick, Easy, and Legal Cases

Older books that are no longer protected by copyright (Alice in Wonderland, for example) have no DRM software and can be freely and legally copied to all of your own devices and shared with others. You may still need to convert them from one format to another.

The free and open-source Calibre supports conversions from nearly any standard format to nearly any other standard format. Calibre's supported input formats include CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, DJVU, DOCX, EPUB, FB2, HTML, HTMLZ, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ. The output formats are slightly more limited: AZW3, EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, HTMLZ, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT, TXTZ. One word of warning about conversions from PDF, though: Don't expect much. If the book you're interested in is available in some format other than PDF, choose the other format.

Some current books are sold by publishers that don't use DRM and these can also be converted easily. Just download Calibre, read the online instruction manual, and start converting books. Calibre even includes a reader, but I think the display leaves a lot to be desired and Calibre isn't available for Android devices. The fact that a modern book doesn't have DRM software installed doesn't mean that it's legal to share the book with others.

More Difficult and Legally Troublesome Cases

Two cases exist for wanting to remove DRM software from books you have paid for: First, you might prefer not to depend on the service you paid to maintain your copy of the book and you'd like to back it up. Second, you may want to read the book on a device that doesn't support the format used by the company that sold you the book. In either case, you would need to remove the DRM software.

I like the look of the UB Reader and the way it works, so I prefer to use it for all e-books.

Removing the DRM software for use cases such as these is in a gray area legally. Certainly if you remove the DRM and then post the book online or send copies to your 15,000 closest friends, you're breaking the law. But if you remove the DRM simply to allow backing up the book or placing it on another reader for your own convenience, I have to hope that the publishers will realize that they're not being injured and leave you alone.

To a rational person, this is a clear case of fair use. Keep in mind, though, that corporations and courts sometimes seem not to be overstocked with rational people.

There are processes that involve using a variety of downloadable applications that can be used to remove DRM, but the process is more than a bit cumbersome or, for those who consider technical instructions to be impenetrable, impossible. The alternative is to use some plug-in applications that work with Calibre.

Chapter 2 of Skin Games (Harry Dresden series). I have purchased books in the Dresden series from Amazon, Kobo, and possibly one of the other vendors, but I prefer to have them all in the same format.

Calibre is a key part of converting files from one format to another, but it doesn't remove the DRM software and can't open DRM-protected files. A plug-in for Calibre can remove the copy protection software from many types of e-books. A Google search for Apprentice Alf will eventually lead you to K4MobiDeDRM, which is one of many plug-ins that can be added to Calibre. (Find Calibre here.)

Once you've installed the plug-in, you can drag a protected file into the Calibre library and the DRM software will be removed. Then you can use Calibre to convert the file to the format you prefer (or that your mobile reader prefers).

Just be sure to retain the converted files for your own use. Posting them on the Internet or sharing them with friends is a clear copyright violation.

The Harvard Classics and Project Gutenberg

Perhaps you'd like to give yourself a "classical eduction". You can find The Harvard Classics online for free. Originally known as Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf, they are 51-volumes in an anthology of classic works from world literature, compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot and first published in 1909. Also included is the 20-volume Shelf of Fiction and combined they cover every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject through the 1910. Eliot said that this library included "all the books needed for a real education."

You'll find them here: https://archive.org/details/harvardclassics. Many of the books have been digitized, but the problem I've found with the EPUB (text) versions of these books is that they include a lot of errors, bad word breaks, and poor formatting. The volumes are all available in various formats and possibly the most usable options are the online reader (shown here) or the PDF downloads. Because the PDFs are scanned versions of the text, the files are large and there is no search function.

Project Gutenberg contains more than 46 thousand free books. DRM is not a concern with these books because they're all long out of print and not subject to any copyright protection. From adventure and fine arts to crime and history, from science and religion to wars and music, you'll find a vast array of topics in English and several other languages. Many of the thousands of books that have been digitized by Project Gutenberg have been edited so that at least some of the scanning errors have been cleaned up.

Only older books are available through Project Gutenberg. For example, Agatha Christie wrote a lot of books, but only 2 of the books are available here: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written in 1920, and Secret Adversary, written in 1922.

Dozens of other Agatha Christie novels are still protected by copyright and not available on Project Gutenberg.

In brief, lots of opportunities exist to load up a tablet with books. Some of them are clearly legal. Others are clearly illegal. And several are in a a kind of middle ground that's questionable. It's up to you to decide how to proceed.

Short Circuits

Ballmer Is No Longer (on the Microsoft) Bored (Board)

After 34 years with Microsoft, Steve Ballmer has called it quits. He succeeded Bill Gates as CEO, resigned earlier this year, bought the Los Angeles Clippers, and now has resigned from the board because his duties with the basketball team will require so much of his time. Or at least that's the story.

Ballmer's letter of resignation is on Microsoft's website. And besides being busy with the basketball team and other interests, Ballmer said that he's happy with the company's direction under the current CEO, Satya Nadella.

"It would be impractical for me to continue to serve on the board," Ballmer wrote, because he will be busy teaching and dealing with the team. So his "departure from the board is effective immediately."

In fact, the board has been pressuring Ballmer to speed up his separation from Microsoft. New CEO Nadella will undoubtedly reverse some of Ballmer's decisions and that would be easier if the former CEO isn't present on the board. Ballmer is still the company's largest single individual shareholder with just under 4% of the company's stock (Value: $15 billion). And yes, that's more than what Bill Gates owns. In his online letter, Ballmer said that he plans to retain ownership of the stock.

HP Unveils Cheap Windows Notebook, Targeting Chromebooks

HP has unveiled the "Stream" PC for $200. It has a 14-inch display and runs on an AMD processor, but if you want to accomplish anything with the computer, you should plan on spending at least $100 more and maybe double the price of the least expensive unit.

The HP Stream is an inexpensive notebook that runs Windows 8.1. The included hard drive is, of course, a solid-state drive, but instead of an Intel Atom processor, the computer has an AMD A4 Micro-6400T Quad-Core SoC with a Radeon graphics subsystem.

The base system has only 2GB of RAM and you can't add more. There's just 32GB of flash memory (you can obtain a system with 64GB) in place of a hard drive. The 14-inche screen has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. You'll also find a 720p webcam, Beats Audio (with 4 speakers), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an SD card reader, HDMI output, 1 USB 3.0 port, and 2 USB 2.0 ports. The touchpad is a multi-touch device and the computer comes with a 2960mAh battery. It weighs a little under 4 pounds.

Is this a Chromebook killer? Maybe. If your primary operating system is Windows, the Stream might be a good choice. Chromebooks have their own advantages, though. Chromebooks can edit or view many Windows-based file types and they're able to boot in less than 10 seconds.

Windows 9 Preview Coming Soon

Rumors suggest that Microsoft will release a public preview of Windows 9 in late September of early October. It will be generally available in Spring 2015 and is code named "Threshold".

Based solely on rumors, it appears that some variant of the Start Menu will be back (Why?) and Metro (aka "Modern") applications will be able to run on the Desktop. Other rumors suggest that the Charms bar will be eliminated. (Also, why?)

Windows 8 has not been widely accepted by corporate clients and Windows 9 reportedly will address the issues that have kept corporate IT managers from approving Windows 8.

Microsoft is operating on an "agile" release schedule and the preview is expected to be available to anyone who wants to try it. By way of recommendation: Don't install pre-release software of any sort on a machine that you need to use daily. This is doubly true for operating systems.