Adobe on Monday unveiled an update to its new Edge Web design tool at its MAX conference in Los Angeles.
It was just two months ago that the design software giant announced Adobe Edge, which is designed to keep the company in the game as the Web moves away from its Flash plugin to display active content on Web pages, and towards the open-standard HTML5 methods. Edge, which has been downloaded more than 150,000 times, let Web designers build dazzling animations, and today's update adds a key component missing from the first release: user interaction.
PCMag.com got an early look at the new tool, Adobe Edge Preview 3, in a Web demo last week with Adobe's Mark Anders, who's leading the Edge project.
"What's new in Preview 3 is Interactivity, which has been the most requested feature so far," he said. "Our goal for creating Edge was to have it be a professional-grade tool for doing motion and interactivity with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. We also wanted to break new ground in ease of use."
Indirectly alluding to the Apple iPad's lack of Flash support, Anders added, "A lot of this is being driven by new mobile devices. And we wanted [Edge's] output to really work well across the range of devices."
Edge's roadmap started with building a sturdy, highly useable development interface, before adding expressivity, then interactivity with this release, after which we'll see more powerful graphics and more robust coding features. To let Web designers and developers add the interactivity, Adobe has made available a library of code snippets that let them do things like add buttons that change the site view depending on whether they've been clicked. Some scripts add natural-looking physics motions, such as bouncing or spinning, as Anders demonstrated.
Anders noted that several beta testers have built impressive demonstrations of Edge's capabilities. Over 50 of them can be found on the Edge section of Adobe's discussion forums, and several users have posted their efforts on YouTube, as a quick search on Adobe Edge shows.
The update adds some housekeeping improvements, too, such as better cut-and-paste support with complex timeline sections, and the ability to add multiple Edge elements to one webpage. A complete list of updates to Preview 3 is available on the Adobe Labs site.
Edge Preview 3 is now available for free download from Adobe Labs' Edge page. The software is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7, and Windows 7. Adobe hasn't announced final pricing for the product.
For more from Michael, follow him on Twitter @mikemuch.