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I HAD THE PLEASURE of reviewing one of the first versions of GoLive more than a year ago, before Adobe purchased the company. I was impressed with the product, since it was simple like NetObjects Fusion but as powerful as FrontPage. The latest version only builds on this great start.

I always love looking at products by Adobe. PhotoShop is the best graphics editor I have every used, and I admire the thought that went into the design and programming of this tool. I am a serious fan of PageMaker, which I used extensively during the late 80's and into the early 90's. Even their utilities are the best in their class. The Web wouldn't be the same without Acrobat, which I use daily. Though many of these technologies were bought from outside companies, I admire the skill at which they select products to purchase. So it was no surprise when they bought GoLive as their Web authoring tool.

I reviewed an early version of GoLive, and my major complaint was that it only ran on the Macintosh. Since most companies have Macs in their design departments where they create Web pages, it was fine for high-end design, but the businessperson could only choose from Microsoft FrontPage or NetObjects Fusion. It really needed to run on both machines to be competitive. Fusion is available for both platforms, but FrontPage has stalled on the Macintosh at version 1.0. Adobe has released GoLive for Windows, so they now have a serious and competitive product.

GoLive 4.0 is unique in that it keeps 3 windows open at all times. When you first run it you'll find main window, where you do your editing, as well as the palette and table inspector windows. This design serves the user well. Each window has multiple tabs, keeping important features conveniently close to where you're working. The table inspector window changes to reflect the
current tool you're working with, so setting up tables and other complicated features is a breeze.

The palette window is a great idea -- Adobe has created a drag and drop Web authoring tool. To add a table to your Web page, you simply drag and drop the table button onto your page. The table inspector window changes to let you set the number of rows, columns and other features quickly. Almost every feature in GoLive is used this way.

The best feature is easily the layout grid. This innovation enables you to place text or graphics on your Web pages with incredible precision. If you've tried to get something to line up perfectly in another tool, you'll really appreciate how you can line things up.

An exclusive addition to GoLive is their Quicktime movie editor. At first I thought this was just another feature that I wouldn't use, but then I thought about how many movies I download a week. As our connection to the Internet gets faster, I believe we'll be using more movies to illustrate concepts, help visitors, and to entertain. This is not Adobe Premier (a high-end editing program), but should enable you to create simple movies to add to your site.

In my work I have access to the top 3 design tools. I have used all three for different projects, and will still use FrontPage for the majority of my work. This is not because it's a superior product, but rather because I'm more familiar with it and our company has standardized on it. I also like the code it creates, which is easier for me to edit. However, for specialized pages and projects that require complicated design work, I'll turn to GoLive. The feature I'd love to see Microsoft steal is the layout text box.

If you're going to be creating complicated Web sites I'd advise you to try Adobe GoLive. It makes it very easy to create complex layouts, and although you can do most things without knowing HTML, you can always get under the hood and edit the code as much as you want. Adobe has done a great job of updating this outstanding Web authoring tool.