Dreamweaver

WebAssist - whose partners include Adobe, PayPal, Yahoo!, Google, and Affinity - today released the latest version, v3.0, of its best-selling SiteAssist program. SiteAssist 3.0 includes new professional-level designs that the company added, according to its President Eric Ott, in direct response to its customers' growing need for standard-compliant sites.

“We’ve managed to add all the benefits of CSS functionality in SiteAssist 3.0 while keeping the tool very easy to use," explained former Macromedia executive Ott (pictured) in an interview with SYS-CON's Jeremy Geelan.

"Standard-based sites, especially those using CSS-based layouts," he added, "are easier to maintain, more flexible and better supported by current browsers."

Ott's vision for the Encinitas, CA-based company is that both professional Web designers and small businesses are hungry for a quick and easy way to create Web standards compliant sites with CSS-based layouts...and SiteAssist can help them relatively cheaply (SiteAssist retails for $199.99, but is available - says Ott - for $159.99 as a special introductory price until August 15, 2006 directly from WebAssist.com.)

"WebAssist makes the Web work with market-leading extensions (software add-ons) for the Adobe platform in eCommerce and productivity," Ott notes. But SiteAssist, he says, is a cross-platform solution - compatible with SW8 and DW MX 2004 on both Windows and Mac - and is easy to use:

"It walks users step-by-step through the set-up and design process, drastically simplifying web site creation, upkeep and development."

Stephanie Sullivan - distinguished member of the Web Developer's & Designer's Journal editorial advisory board, independent Web professional and member of the Dreamweaver Task Force for the Web Standards Project - advised WebAssist on the creation of Web pages that meet the requirements of modern, accessible standards-based design.

"Joe Lowery [of WebAssist] asked me to ask the Dreamweaver Task Force if we would have a look to see if they were going in the right direction (since they're an extension for DW)," Sullivan explained in an e-mail exchange with SYS-CON's Jeremy Geelan. "I asked the DWTF, but it ended up being me vetting the code since everyone was busy ... "

"Of course I am never busy..." she quipped, with charactistic modesty and humor. 

Sullivan continued:

"They were going in the right 'direction' (read away from tables) but definitely had a lot of work to do... So I gave them a list of best practices and input based on the layout they showed me...Joe was thrilled and says they've implemented it all..."

"I think they've taken a major step in the right direction helping developers with quick standards-based solutions out of the box," Sullivan said.