Adobe Slips Out Three Creative Suite Betas

The latest versions of Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth are all available for testing, but you'll have to act fast to finish up that Web page in the 48-hour testing period.

If Adobe’s hefty price tags have always deterred you from owning its otherwise well-respected software, now is your chance to get your hands on three titles completely free, and legally – for 48 hours. In an unusually tightly controlled beta release, Adobe has offered Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth to beta testers, who will only be able to play with them for two days unless they hold CS3 licenses.

The three programs released for testing on Tuesday are the first of the next-generation Creative Suite (which includes Photoshop, Premiere, Flash, and other popular titles) to come down the pipe. Among a host of new features, Dreamweaver’s new Code Navigator helps designers tinker with complex pages, while a Live View Mode eliminates the need for a browser to preview pages. Fireworks gets a tweaked user interface that has been pulled into line with other CS applications, and Soundbooth gets a range of new features, from MP3 previews to speech recognition for transcription.

All three betas are available at Adobe Labs for download. The 48-hour time period begins ticking after the software has been downloaded and launched, but users with CS3 keys will be able to unlock extended time with the betas – they’ll run until the real versions come out. Adobe has not yet announced when it expects that to be.