Category Archives: Web designer tools

Macware MacFlux 3 review – Macworld UK

Macware MacFlux 3 review Macware’s MacFlux 3.1.4 simplifies creating rich HTML5 and XHTML websites without sacrificing powerful features. With its WYSIWYG layout tools and powerful CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) editing, even novices can learn to build and revise complex sites quickly. But beginners may be tripped up by the program’s occasional quirks and spotty documentation.…

Flash Professional CS5.5 review – Macworld UK

Flash Professional CS5.5 review Flash CS5.5 is an odd beast with modest benefits for its traditional audience. Now animators can pin joints to more easily simulate naturalistic movement with the Inverse Kinematics tools, and margins, padding and custom tab stops can be set directly on the stage using the Text Layout Framework (TLF) engine. However,…

Adobe Muse preview – Macworld UK

Adobe Muse preview Since the launch of Adobe InDesign; designers have had an integrated set of tools to handle their print workflow. Using InDesign for page layout; Photoshop for photo editing; Illustrator for creating impressive artwork and Acrobat for output the possibilities are endless; but until now there’s not been a similarly integrated tool for…

Adobe Edge review – Macworld UK

Adobe Edge review Adobe’s new web design tool Edge lets you build Flash-style animations by adjusting the attributes of elements in an HTML file. The results are rendered using HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. This means modern browsers, including Safari on iOS, can display the results without the need for Flash Player. Edge is at the…

BannerZest Standard 3 review – Macworld UK

BannerZest Standard 3 review It was only seven months ago that we reviewed BannerZest, but the animated advertising maker is back in version 3, with timely support for HTML5, incidentally. To bring everyone up to speed, we should explain that Bannerzest is a simple, wizard-based animation tool for chucking together animated advertising banners. You can…

MotionComposer review – Macworld UK

MotionComposer review MotionComposer provides the tools to make animations for the web. Distinguishing it from established tools is its ability to author once and output the same motion graphics in two formats: Flash for the many devices that support it, and HTML5 for suitable web browsers. It swaps the frame-based timeline of Flash for slides,…

Tumult Hype review – Macworld UK

Tumult Hype review What if you could create animations that looked like Flash and had interaction like Flash, but that ran directly in any modern browser – including Safari on the iPad? You don’t have to speculate, because it’s already here. The hype about Tumult’s Hype is justified. At first sight, Hype looks a little…

DooID review – Macworld UK

DooID review Billed as “your personal website and contact hub,” DooID provides both free and paid plans for putting your information online. The free version is limited (fewer themes and options), but the paid version costs only $36 per year, which is still significantly less expensive than hiring a Web designer. You have to fill…

Ahead review – Macworld UK

Ahead review If you have to give presentations, it’s easy to get stuck in a Keynote or PowerPoint rut. These slide-based systems are boring, so it’s refreshing to find a tool that does it better. Ahead is an online service, with a desktop client that enables you to create sprawling, animated presentations without slides. Instead,…

Gradient review – Macworld UK

Gradient review Gradient is a cheap and cheerful program for creating CSS3 colour transitions. These can be used for page backgrounds, buttons and other block elements on your website. Web design has come a long way from the days when animated GIFs and blinking text were de rigueur. Developers have much more control over the…