To Upgrade or Not To Upgrade?

I wasn’t waiting in the cold outside of Fry’s in order to be one of the first people to lay my hands on the Adobe CS5 Suite (actually it released in April so the temperature was most likely mild). There’s something to be said about creating as much as you can using limited tools, doing more with less. I think learning how to get the most of your software rather than chasing continually after updates and add-ons grants more in the long run. If you’re always getting the newest software versions and spending valuable time learning the newest time-saving tools the emphasis gets put on the software rather than the final product.

That being said, as more overhauls and features in Adobe’s new software bundle see the light of day, the package is beginning to look too good to pass up. For those that don’t use Adobe products, their suites provide a host of programs to aid designers and web developers. One new tool in particular has got me chomping at the bit for our scheduled Silver Square technology upgrade.

The Multi-screen Development Tool in Dreamweaver, a tool to build websites, enables the user to preview a website they’re editing as it would appear on three different screen sizes: phone size, tablet size, and desktop. Having all this in one place beats the alternative, which is having a host of simulators for the various mediums you’re targeting. Consider the following image found on Adobe’s website.

The image shows 3 different ways in which a website could be presented. Different rules can be defined depending upon how the end user is finding your website. Whether a website is viewed on a desktop computer or an iPhone, having a consistent presentation will ensure your site is always received in best possible way.

In closing, upgrading software isn’t always the best use of one’s time and money, but sometimes it’s best to bite the bullet.