Adobe Muse: Design HTML websites without writing code.
Adobe has unveiled the public beta of software that enables creatives to design and publish HTML websites without writing code or use restrictive templates.
Codenamed Muse, it leverages the latest Web standards including HTML5 and CSS3 where browser support exists. Adobe claims that Muse “combines precise design and creative freedom with innovative frameworks for adding navigation, widgets and HTML to include advanced interactivity on a site.”
After downloading the beta we found there to be some truth in the claim – it’s simple to put together a trial site very quickly. Muse provides drag and drop customisable widgets such as navigation menus and supplies a selection of fully customisable interactive elements including slideshows, Tooltips and remote rollovers.
Putting together a page in Muse using widget panel
Other features of Muse include sitemaps, master pages, and a host of flexible, site-wide tools to plan the website layout. It’s possible to combine imagery, graphics, and text in a similar fashion to Adobe InDesign.
The interface is similar to the latest Creative Suite applications, but feels very design oriented rather than code-based. Behind the scenes, Muse embeds HTML code snippets from sources including Google Maps, YouTube and Facebook. The software 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.
“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,” said 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.”
Version 1 of Muse will be released in early 2012 at which time customers will need to purchase the application if they want to continue authoring websites with Muse.
After that time, Muse will be available by subscription only, on a one-year ($180) or month to month basis ($20 per month).
The beta of Muse is available at http://muse.adobe.com
