Adobe has just released a public beta for yet another useful application for web development. The current title is Adobe shadow. Now I haven’t had much time to play around with it as of yet, but I’ll provide the run down.

What Adobe Shadow is used for is previewing your website on not only your browser, but also any mobile devices you can find. The application has two pieces: the application itself, which can be downloaded as a beta currently at Adobe Labs; and second is a Google Chrome extension. This means you will need to use Google Chrome currently when debugging your website, but if you aren’t already using Chrome, you should be. It is in my opinion the best browser and is also rated as the most secure browser.

Once you have installed both pieces, you then register all of your mobile devices. iPhones, iPads, and Android devices are currently supported. After the setup you can view and debug your website simultaneously on your computer and all your devices. This is great to not only see how your site works on all of your testing devices but also debugging your Javascript and other code that exists on your website.

This will work great testing your HTML 5 and jQuery applications and will also be quite powerful in conjunction with Dreamweaver CS5.5 and it’s mobile support.

Today I will briefly go over a new means to style your webpage. You most likely have some experience or familiarity with CSS, but for those who do not, CSS (cascading style sheets) is the web standard for giving design to your page. The problem I have found with CSS in the past has been that it is very much so static, meaning that everything you want your CSS to do with your elements of the page you have to write out specifically. I want my styles to be dynamic, I want elements to be styled differently under different circumstances, and I don’t want to have to type the same thing over and over again just because I have elements that require similar styling. With LESS, this is no longer a problem. What LESS is essentially is a language to program you CSS instead of writing static stylesheets. LESS follows similar syntax as CSS but allows for things such as variables and functions, making your styles take shape according to output (desktop, mobile, etc.) or other conditions and also allows for reusable code and styles. Even better on the reusable code, you can import other LESS stylesheets into your styles. Why would you want to do something like that? Well what this will let you do is build a series of functions and styles that you know you will be using in pretty much every web project so you dont have to rewrite the styles at all. For those of you who are programmers, it’s the same a building libraries. Also, since the language is so similar to CSS, you will be able to take advantage of some of your code hints in Dreamweaver or the IDE of your choosing.

LESS is very easy to use. By only importing the less.js javascript file and a slight change on your typical linking of stylesheets, you can bring in your LESS styles.

The cost will be $49.99 per month. Adobe is still making subscriptions to individual applications, but the wave of the future is using the new Creative Cloud.

I have recently returned from a trip to Los Angeles for the Adobe MAX conference and am excited to tell you about Adobe’s biggest announcement from MAX, Creative Cloud. Now keep in mind that we were only given a glimpse of what’s in store, so don’t take everything I say as exactly how it will be. We were promised more details in November so be sure to keep up with that.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud will consist of a few pieces conjoined into one service. It will all be included in a subscription with a supposedly ”attractive” price. My biggest concern with the service is just that. The pricing of the Creative Suite is far from attractive to me, but pricing will be announced in November. I know that great software and services will come at a cost, but not many people can afford software priced as high as Adobe has charged in the past. I am hopeful, though, that between saving money by a solely digital distribution method in future versions and also the fact that cheaper prices will greatly increase the user base, that it will be beneficial for us and Adobe to have Creative Cloud come with reasonable pricing.

Pricing aside, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of the Creative Cloud. The service will come with 20GB of cloud storage for whatever you may need and it does sound like there will be options to upgrade the size of this storage (20GB is a lot for, but for you video editing types you will likely need a lot more). It seems like this cloud storage will be incorporated into every application included in Creative Cloud. This will make working between different devices extremely easy, since you can save your work into the clouds. Your cloud storage will be automatically synced between all devices you are using the cloud service on and your files are accesible and shareable through not only your Adobe applications, but directly through the browser as well. Now this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Next up is the publishing end of things. Your Creative Cloud will have publishing options in 3 realms. If you didn’t already assume, Creative Cloud comes with a social networking aspect. You create you cloud profile, can share your work and connect with other creatives. The browser based part of the cloud is very well done. You can not only categorize and add meta data to your various files all through the browser, or any application accessing your cloud for that matter, but you are given great detail on your files. So much detail that you can even view and turn off layers in your Photoshop files while you are spooling through your files in the browser. Pretty nifty. For web developers, business catalyst is part of your cloud service allowing you to post your sites to the web and there is also the CMS aspect of business catalyst of which you can take advantage. The third part here is the Digital Publishing Suite for InDesign. This allows you to take your creations in InDesign and publish them to all devices as an epub file. This will be a great tool to create magazines, comics, and whatever else you can think of and publish them. This service will cost money for the actual publishing, but you can also charge your audience to download the works. In this digital age, you can still do your print projects but have them completely digital. This doesn’t only make it easy to publish your work, but you can add all sorts of interactive elements that you would not be able to do in a physical print.

Now for the finale. It seems your subscription includes the Creative Suite, I was given the impression that it is the suite in its entirety, but I want that in writing. Come early 2012, it appears as though everything Adobe will be lumped into a single, subscription based service that is Creative Cloud. Better yet, there is a suite of Mobile applications (for the most part actually created using the Flash platform) thrown into the mix and again its my understanding that all of these are included in your subscription. I will go over these applications briefly.

Photoshop Touch – A touch version of Photoshop, obviously. It retains a majority of the functionality from the Desktop application.

Proto – Quickly make a mock up website that includes much of the functionality and linking created through the touch app. Also creates HTML code to turn your mockup into a fully functional site.

Ideas – This one is already available. Create vector graphics and image all with a simple touch interface.

Debut – An app to make stunning presentations.

Collage – A re-imagining of  the “drawing board”. A quick and easy way to throw pictures, color schemes, and notes on a virtual white board. Portray an idea in only a few moments that can then be passed along to designers to create a finished product.

Kuler – Create and share color palettes.

So that is the gist of it. The touch apps provide great ways to kick start a project, or even the tools to complete a project. Again, pricing will be announced in November and the service itself will be released early 2012. So, I would recommend staying tuned for further information.

The Creative Suite Conference

November 9th, 2011 , Chicago

Join the top industry professionals in Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, InDesign and all your favorite Adobe apps to learn everything about CS5.5! This 3 day conference is packed with tips, tricks, and amazing ways to expand your creativity. Nov 9-11 2011

The InDesign Conference

November 7th, 2011 , Chicago

For the past 8 years The InDesign Conference has offered dedicated design professionals jam packed in-depth seminars to publishing professionals. Our unmatched level of instruction offers the premier InDesign event of the year! Nov 7-9 2011

Just yesterday a brand new tool was released to the public. Adobe Edge is a tool that allows you to easily create HTML 5 animations in a Flash-esque application. It uses a timeline, much like Flash, where you can add objects onto the stage and manipulate them in various ways across the timeline. These animations are created using SVG and CANVAS of HTML 5. Your projects are saved as HTML, Javascript and CSS files that make up the animations and this makes it very easy to place in your web pages through Dreamweaver.

In the current version only animations are available, but Adobe has promised that there will be new features added in new builds of the preview version. So, if you find Adobe Edge to be a useful tool (and how could you not?) be sure to follow the updates.

For those of you that are new to web design or would like to get started in the field, or if you are like me and just too lazy to code your CSS, I have a great tool for you! I recently stumbled on this web app CSS3 Generator which allows you to style a box to your liking using a simple graphical interface. Once you have the box styled, press the “Get the Code” button and you have the CSS code necessary to style any object on a site you are working exactly like you have styled the box. This works great with Dreamweaver and using HTML5.