Page Templates and Libraries are two other new Dreamweaver 2 features that will ease your design experience by reusing work you have already done. A major bane of the web designer's job is building a vast number of pages that are predominantly the same, with only minor changes in content. Page Templates let one maintain a consistent look across several pages by storing the design and requiring one only to edit the content. Dreamweaver 2's library function also reuses material by storing scripts which one might use on several different web pages.

Perfection is an elusive goal and despite my lofty praise, Dreamweaver 2 does have a few drawbacks. The program works with many different variations of HTML code, including PHP3 and for the first time, XML; however, the program can't handle PHTML code. When one brings a PHTML coded page into Dreamweaver, it catonates some of the tags, essentially altering or erasing part of the page. The preview feature is also very cumbersome. It is just as easy to load the page to the server and view it on-line as it is to go through the steps to preview it. A browser preview window would be a nice feature. Most annoying of all, Dreamweaver 2 cannot directly import MS Word files. Several extraneous steps had to be taken to import the text you are reading right now.

Fireworks 2: The Graphics Side of Things
Besides page content, the most important aspect of a well-designed web page is how fast the page loads. The key to mastering load speed is to reduce the file size of the graphics. To conquer this section of web design, Macromedia created Fireworks, with the idea that Fireworks would be to web designers what Adobe Photoshop is to graphic designers. Although Fireworks will never replace Photoshop for hi-resolution, high quality graphics and images, Macromedia Fireworks provides all the tools necessary to create graphics and simple animations for the web quickly.

Web design differs from other areas of graphic design in that instead of creating a few spectacular images, whose primary purpose is to catch the eye; web design is about creating a lot of little images with common elements, whose purpose is to create a consistent, organized and attractive environment. Fireworks succeeds most in giving the user complete control over these elements. Icons, buttons, banners, navigation bars, backgrounds and animated GIFs can all easily be created and edited with Fireworks tool palettes.

The object hotspot palette and improved behavior palette make it even easier to assign behaviors such as rollovers and status messages to web objects.