A shift of focus to advanced CSS and JavaScript handling, but Dreamweaver is beginning to look old-fashioned

A questionable interface redesign and greater-than-ever complexity lead to a half-baked feeling.

A cheap and cheerful approach to Flash but the sheer power it offers is exceptional, as is the price.

Modern and efficient conversion to WMV with ahead-of-the-curve Silverlight capabilities

Improved handling of templates, tracing, text and layers along with new table support, but ultimately X4 disappoints

New effects enable richer design results, while a host of other improvements boost productivity.

After the launch of the latest Acrobat a few months ago, everything went quiet on the Adobe front. It's now clear what the company was working on, with the simultaneous launch of each of its main creative design packages -- Photoshop/ImageReady, Illustrator, InDesign and GoLive. (Please see individual reviews of all of these packages on this month's cover CD.)

Macromedia Flash (May 2002, page 60), Dreamweaver, Fireworks and FreeHand (Studio MX, November 2002, page 71), have all been given the MX treatment, and now it's Director's turn.

Best-of-breed photo management, editing and sharing with great usability and value.

What makes PDF (Portable Document Format) unique is that it can provide an exact electronic replica of any document from any application on all major platforms, including all text, graphics and fonts. It’s an amazingly flexible format with a myriad of uses ranging from electronic manuals and e-books, through secure document exchange and archiving, to multimedia presentation and high-end commercial print.

A new interface, drawing engine and programming language, but surprisingly little new power.

Advanced long document functionality and screen-based publishing via Flash contribute to another Quark-bashing.

Improved media handling, Flash video support and greater interactivity see Captivate extend into new areas of training.

With its enhanced interface, support for transparency and new collaboration features, it’s the best release in years.

PowerPoint’s ease of use, The efficient web delivery of Flash, and a truly professional player.

FrontPage used to pride itself on its almost code-free approach to Web design, but not any more. Top of the new coding features is the Split View, which combines layout and HTML views. There are also improved code formatting and Auto-complete features, providing a drop-down list of context-sensitive options as you type. Auto-complete also handles regularly reused code snippets and works with HTML, CSS, XSL, JavaScript, JScript, VBScript and ASP .NET, which are all directly editable.

Photoshop moves beyond photo editing to conquer completely new territory.

A new focus on animation, better video support and deeper integration, but not the core authoring package it once was.

New realism for bristled brushes and automatic painting that approaches manual quality give Painter X an edge.

Adobe builds on its print strengths to take its rich design mission online. And it has made a success of it, too.