RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE

"WebDrive is a Windows 95/98/NT/2000 FTP software client that allows you to map an Internet FTP site to a local drive utilizing the standard FTP protocol. This enables you to connect to an FTP site and perform familiar file operations like copy, xcopy, and directory functions with the Windows explorer, a DOS box, or any other application like Microsoft Word, Excel, etc. WebDrive instantly FTP enables any application that reads or writes files by allowing the application to read files from or write files to the FTP site."

Circa uses WebDrive every day, performing routine maintenance on our own web site on what appears to be local drive X:\. It doesn't get any easier than this.

"Mixed-media professionals such as photographers, Web designers, and graphic designers will not be disappointed in Adobe's latest incarnation of Photoshop. In this release, Adobe aims hard at addressing the issues of file management, easy photo retouching, and smarter output for the Web. While Adobe manages to successfully address these issues, it also remains true to its photo editing roots. New and improved features and tools such as a painting option and an enhanced brush palette allow Photoshop to build on its reputation as the leading tool for image manipulators. New-school designers of wireless applications will smile when they discover that Photoshop 7.0 offers support for WBMP-formatted graphics."

Sound Forge presents more audio-editing power than most Internet designers will ever need, used by professional recording studios for years to edit and master many of the commercial music CDs we hear every day. However, support for leading Internet audio formats, like RealAudio and Windows Media Player, makes Sound Forge a must-have tool for Internet design firms incorporating streaming media into their Internet web sites.

Perhaps most important to Internet design firms, the formerly separate "Batch Converter" plug-in is now included with the program, making the otherwise tedious conversion of multiple audio files into a largely "set-and-forget" process.

We've heard Debabelizer Pro called the "Swiss army knife" of digital image optimization. The Circa staff agrees. Hidden behind a somewhat cryptic interface lie sophisticated tools for squeezing image files to their very, very smallest. While we confess that the less-than-intuitive interface has kept us from mastering this application, those items we've used are used quite regularly and with excellent results.

Thanks to an exceptional batch-processor, you can quickly and conveniently optimize hundreds or even thousands of web images. Why export individual images from Photoshop when you can create all of those GIFs or JPEGs from the original PSD files in one step? Not happy with the results? Tweak your compression options and re-compress your whole web site. Pretty powerful stuff.

Are you still using FrontPage to develop your ColdFusion-driven web sites? That's like painting with chopsticks. Sure, you can make a picture, but it's the wrong tool for the job.

Unlike so many other HTML editors, ColdFusion Studio addresses the special needs of ColdFusion developers, from CFML tag recognition to database browsing and query building. Not a WYSIWYG editor, Studio is best suited to developers who are comfortable viewing and editing raw HTML code; an approach typically preferred by ColdFusion programmers and HTML "purists."

Flash appears to have become the standard du jour for next-generation website design. ColdFusion developers who have already maximized the functionality and "coolness" of their website's back-end can now give the front-end an equal dose of pizazz.

"Since Macromedia launched Flash in 1996, it has grown into the de facto standard for development and delivery of high-impact, visually rich, interactive Web content. Flash MX promises a similar generational shift to the one experienced when Flash 5's enhanced ActionScript introduced an unprecedented degree of interactivity to the Web."

Adobe Illustrator has become our preferred vector-based graphics editing application for creating basic website elements, like background GIFs, custom buttons, bounding boxes, static ornamental text and other items that may or may not require additional treatment in Photoshop.

"While Adobe Illustrator has traditionally been reserved for the print and prepress marketplace, recent versions have targeted a broader audience, including a growing contingent of new-school Web designers. With the latest incarnation of Illustrator, Adobe aims to please both print and prepress designers, as well as cutting-edge Web designer communities. If you're looking for a greater Web focus from your vector graphics program, look no further than Illustrator 10."