Adobe launches a beta of its web design software Muse

SOFTWARE OUTFIT Adobe has launched a beta of its latest web design software, codenamed Muse, which will allow users to design and publish web sites without any HTML skills.

The software works similarly to most of Adobe's other programmes, such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign, in that users are greeted with a blank page upon which they arrange with text, images, links, and other things necessary to design a web site.

Adobe showcased several web sites that were built using Muse, hinting at how good it could be. All of the web sites look professional and appealing, making use of general good design principles and Adobe's extensive design capabilities.

Muse lets web designers with little or no knowledge of HTML coding design a professional web site quickly and easily through use of sitemaps, master pages, a familiar Adobe design palette, and several interactivity options, such as auto-generated navigation, slideshows, widgets, image overlays, anchors and mouseover features.

Muse also helps with publishing a web site to the web, offering services like a trial web site for testing, automatic compatibility for multiple web browsers, Adobe web hosting and the ability to export to HTML for upload to an existing host.

Muse promises to be a powerful design tool, but it raises the question of what will happen to Dreamweaver, which Adobe acquired when it bought Macromedia in 2005. Dreamweaver allows simple web design using drag and drop, but also allows coding for those who want to mix it up a bit. It looks like Muse will be simpler to use, but might lack some of the functionality of Dreamweaver. Considering that a new version of Dreamweaver was released in April, we don't expect it to be discontinued any time soon, but Adobe could decide to pull the plug if it finds Muse to be much more popular.

The Muse Beta is free for now until its official release in early 2012, when it will cost $180 (£110) per year. µ