Visual authoring with XML data
Integrate XML based data, such as RSS feeds into web pages using a simple drag and drop workflow. Jump to code view to customize the transformation, using improved code hinting for XML and XSLT.

New, unified CSS panel.
All the CSS functionality is consolidated into one panel set and enhanced to make working with CSS easier and more productive. The new interface makes it easier to see the cascade of styles applied to a specific element and easily identify where attributes are defined. A property grid allows for quick edits.

CSS layout visualization
Apply visual aides at design time to outline CSS layout borders or color CSS layouts to reveal complex nesting schemes and improve selection. Click on the CSS layout for valuable Tooltips, such as ID and padding and margin and border settings.

Style rendering toolbar
View content the same way end users will see it, no matter what the delivery mechanism, with new support for CSS media types in Dreamweaver 8. Use the style rendering toolbar to toggle to design view and see how it will look in print, on a handheld, or on a screen.

CSS rendering improvements
Match how complex CSS layouts will render in most browsers, with substantial improvements in design view accuracy. Dreamweaver now fully supports advanced CSS techniques, such as overflow, pseudo elements, and form elements.

Accessibility: Support for WCAG/W3C priority 2 checkpoints.
In addition to the integrated accessibility evaluation tool for Section 508 and WCAG Priority 1 checkpoints, Dreamweaver now supports both CSS and accessibility with an updated evaluation tool that includes WCAG Priority 2 checkpoints.

Improved WebDAV
WebDAV in Dreamweaver 8 now supports digest authentication and SSL for secure file transfer and offers improved connectivity with a wider array of servers.

Get More Done

Background file transfer
Stop waiting and keep working while Dreamweaver 8 uploads files to the server. New functionality enables users to work with files in their local machine while Dreamweaver communicates with the server.

Zoom
Get great control over design with zoom. Pan in and inspect an image or work with a complex nested table layout. Zoom out to review how a page will look overall.

Guides
Compare the page layout to comps with pixel perfect accuracy using guides to measure page layouts. Great visual feedback helps measure distances accurately and supports intelligent snapping.

Coding Toolbar
The new code toolbar surfaces common coding operations in a gutter bar along the side of the coding surface. No more hunting through menus and panels to find code snippets. New coding features include comment and uncomment.

Code collapse
Focus only on the code in use. Hide and expand blocks of code by selection or by tag to stay organized.

Workspace layouts
Customize and save workspace configurations. Dreamweaver 8 ships with four different configurations that are tailored to the needs of designers and coders. Pick and choose, or easily build a custom workspace.

Tabbed documents for the Mac
New document tabs on Mac help simplify the user interface and make it easier to select documents.

New starter pages
Get started with web design in a snap. Beautiful new layouts and designs allow users to go from installation to full site in no time flat.

Improved site synchronize and check in and check out
Manage sites with increased reliability and confidence. Improved site synchronization features help ensure that the file in use is the latest version. Prevent accidental overwriting of others’ work with improved check in and check out functionality to track who is working on which files.

Compare files
Quickly compare files to identify what has changed, whether it is two local files, a file on the local and remote, or two files on the remote server. Dreamweaver 8 now integrates with diff utilities on both the Mac and Windows platforms.

Paste special
Spend less time wrestling content from email and Microsoft Word into formats. With new pasting options in Dreamweaver, retain all the source formatting created in Microsoft Word, or just take the text and apply the CSS already attached to the page.

Site relative references
Work seamlessly with server side includes at design time and run time by ensuring that references are relative to sites instead of local files.

Code editing improvements
Gain greater control over how the tool hints and completes tags to fit with your coding style.

Latest Technologies and Standards

Support for ColdFusion MX 7
Updated support for ColdFusion MX 7 includes new server behaviors and code hinting. To match the code hinting and debugging with the correct version of ColdFusion, Dreamweaver automatically detects the server version the first time the tool connects to the site. The tight integration between Dreamweaver and ColdFusion allows users to add and remove databases directly from the database and components panel in Dreamweaver to show only CFCs defined in the current site, making navigating CFCs a snap.

Support for PHP 5
Take advantage of updated support for PHP 5, including server behaviors and code hinting.

Flash Video
Adding Flash Video to sites is drop dead simple. Add and customize the presentation of video on sites using an easy, five click, dialog driven process.

Macromedia Web Publishing System: notification and event logging
Keep track of everything that is going on within your site. Events in Dreamweaver will notify the Macromedia Web Publishing System server so that all changes to a website in the WPS ecosystem are recorded.

Updated reference material from O’Reilly
New reference content for XML, XSLT, and XPath and updated content for ASP and JSP complements the already robust reference set in Dreamweaver. Work with the languages required for sites and applications.