Adobe made a big splash in May by releasing their highly anticipated Creative Suite 6. They also released Creative Cloud, their first foray into cloud-based storage and software. One bit of software exclusive to Creative Cloud customers is Muse, a program that allows graphic designers to build Web sites without knowing any code. It was already easy enough to use, but Adobe is making it even easier.
Adobe announced on Monday that Muse has received a substantial upgrade. The update makes it easier to create all the content of a Web site directly inside Muse instead of having to import HTML code from third-party providers. It also includes new language and download support.
The major change in the update is support for built-in contact forms. Users can “easily add, configure and style contact forms” in their Web site designs. Users had to previously grab HTML code from third-party form providers. This meant that contact forms were never truly personalized, but now designers can make contact forms truly their own.
Here’s a video on how to create contact forms in Adobe Muse:
Another welcome addition is the ability to link to downloadable files. Adobe says that any type of file is valid, but only mentions .pdf, .zip, .dmg and .exe. It remains to be seen if all file types are welcome. I know many people prefer to use .rar instead of .zip for compression so it would be welcome if Muse included support for it. As an aside, all of these downloadable files will be uploaded with your Muse-created site in the new “assets” folder.
There’s a slight bonus for Creative Cloud subscribers versus those who pay for just Muse. Adobe has added support for HTML5 animations made in Adobe Edge to Muse. It’s just another way for Adobe to push HTML5, but it’s still a nice addition for those who prefer it over Flash.
As for new languages, Adobe has added localizations for Japanese and Italian. The Japanese localization has received special attention with support for Japanese IME and Web safe fonts. With the addition of these two languages, Adobe Muse is now available in eight languages.
To se all the changes that were added to Muse, check out the release notes. There are a lot of minor tweaks that Adobe made to the software that you may be interested in.