Adobe has a new Muse — graphic designers. While “Muse” is just a working title, the beta of the graphic design software has gone live which lets users work around the fact they don’t know a scrap of code.
This means they can publish HTML websites without actually writing any CSS3 or HTML5. Check out the free beta download of Muse now, or a few more scant details in the press release below. [Adobe Muse]
Public Beta of New Software for Designing HTML Websites Without Writing Code
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Aug. 15, 2011 – Today Adobe Systems Incorporated unveiled the public beta of Muse (code name), software that enables graphic designers to design and publish professional, unique HTML websites without writing code or working within restrictive templates. Leveraging the latest Web standards including HTML5 and CSS3 where browser support exists, Muse combines precise design and creative freedom with innovative frameworks for adding navigation, widgets and HTML to include advanced interactivity on a site.
“The ability to build websites as easily as laying out a page in InDesign is one of the most popular requests from our design customers,” says Lea Hickman, vice president of Design and Web product management at Adobe. “Those who have tested Muse are thrilled that something this intuitive yet powerful is now available.”
Designers are invited to learn more about Muse by visiting http://muse.adobe.com where they can download the free beta (English only), see a gallery of Muse-created websites, and access instructional tutorials.
Plan, Design and Publish Unique and Interactive Websites:
· Easy-to-use sitemaps, master pages, and a host of flexible, site-wide tools make it fast and intuitive to plan the website layout.
· Designers can combine imagery, graphics, and text with complete control, flexibility and power, similar to the functionality in Adobe InDesign. Muse provides drag and drop customisable widgets like navigation menus. Users can add fully customisable interactive elements including slideshows, Tooltips and remote rollovers.
· Muse embeds HTML code snippets from sources including Google Maps, YouTube and Facebook.
· Muse allows for the creation of Adobe-hosted trial sites for testing and review purposes. A site can be sent to clients, converted to a paid Adobe-hosted site or exported for FTP to other hosting providers.