Adobe Contribute 4 Supports Office, Blogs

Adobe's Contribute 4 Web site creation tool adds new blog publishing features, Flash video support, and (for Windows users) better integration with Microsoft Office.

Adobe has released Contribute 4, the latest version of its WYSYWIG Web publishing tool designed to split the difference between full-featured tools lke Dreamweaver and the hamstrung page-creation tools typically bundled with new systems or integrated ot word processing or page design applications.

“We’re living in an era where rapid information flow is expected,” said Don Walker, Adobe’s senior director of product marketing. “With Adobe Contribute 4 anyone with basic computer skills can easily publish updated information to the Web, offloading Web site administrators from tedious routines and enabling professional Web site designers and developers to spend more time on creative design.”

Contribute 4 enables users to publish content to multiple Web sites and blogs from within a single applications, offeering easy-to-use visual authoring tools and the ability to work offline without losing content due to a dropped connection, crashed browser, or an inadvertent click of that “Back” button. Windows users may like Contribute 4’s newfound ability to publish content and blogs direction from within Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, and Outlook; more seasoned Web authors may appreciate that it integrates directly with Macromedia Dreamwaver and Adobe Contribute Publishing Server. Contribute 4 can also tie in with popular blogging services like Blogger, Typepad, and Wordpress, and provides the ability for users to rag and drop images, movies, and Flash video files into their pages and blog entries.

Contribute 4 is priced at $149 and is available for Windows 2000/XP and (sans Office integration) for Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. Upgrades from previous versions are priced at $49.