VERDICT Simple HTML editing becomes a distant memory as Dreamweaver CS4 concentrates on advanced CSS and JavaScript handling for today’s complex compound web pages.

VERDICT A period of transition as Adobe gets to grips with its Macromedia inheritance and the changing nature of the web.

Adobe’s background is in print design and its web efforts such as GoLive and ImageReady were less than impressive. It seemed something of a miracle then when Macromedia agreed to be taken over, allowing Adobe to add the market-leading web apps to its market-leading print portfolio.

Microsoft pulls off an extraordinary feat reinventing desktop application design, but it's only the taste of things to come regarding the web.

For years now there has been talk of Microsoft’s determination to move into the design software territory normally associated with Adobe. Now, with the launch of the Expression Studio suite, the talk is over – so how does it shape up?

VERDICT: Dreamweaver takes its place at the heart of the Creative Suite Web Edition

Recently I looked at Adobe’s CS3 Design Standard suite with its strong focus on professional print. These days, however, most designers are as interested in outputting to the web as they are to paper...

VERDICT: Improved CSS handling, browser compatibility checking and especially the new Ajax support make this the most significant Dreamweaver release for years.

Dreamweaver has dominated the world of professional web design in the decade since Macromedia first introduced it. Recently however there has been growing concern that it has been trading on past glories...

VERDICT: Handy way to devolve content contribution to non-expert users, but there’s little here that’s new.

When it was first introduced Contribute was a radical and exciting development in web authoring as it enabled non-expert users to safely update a website’s content without risking breaking its design...

However, as the previous Contribute 4 was only launched at the beginning of the year, it would be unfair to expect similar fireworks this time around.

VERDICT: Adobe puts designing for mobile devices at the heart of its latest releases

One of the benefits for web designers of Adobe’s takeover of Macromedia is the wider graphical and design expertise that Adobe can draw upon...

With GoLive all-but gone, it might seem that Dreamweaver now holds a monopoly over professional page-based web authoring.

However there’s still one company with the resources, vision and resolve necessary to mount a serious challenge to Adobe, and Microsoft is absolutely determined to do just that.

VERDICT Microsoft finally recognizes that professional web authoring needs a standards-compliant tool – just so long as they are Microsoft-approved standards.

Both the Web and Microsoft are central to modern computing but FrontPage, Microsoft’s longstanding web authoring application, is generally viewed with contempt. Microsoft has finally bitten the bullet, killing off FrontPage and replacing it with a complete rewrite: Expression Web.

Tom Arah looks at Microsoft’s upcoming Expression Studio and its underlying WPF and XAML-based strategy.

Key to understanding Microsoft's future plans is an appreciation of Windows Vista’s new presentation subsystem, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)...