Adobe® Edge will continue to be updated during the preview period with additional features and improved functionality. Below is a summary of updates for each version.
See the Edge Preview Release Notes for supported features and known issues
Features Introduced in Edge Preview 4 (1/19/12)
We are very pleased to introduce significant updates in this release. Preview 4 adds Symbols, the ability to create reusable objects that animate and interact independently of the main composition. Other key additions are support for web font services, and Element Display, which lets you manage how long elements are displayed on the stage.
Symbols
- Create nested animations with independent timelines and interactive capabilities.
- Programmatically control symbols via exposed APIs and pre-built code snippets.
- Edit symbol definitions in the same manner as working with other objects.
- Specify whether or not a symbol should autoplay or not.
- Control playback functionality at the playhead location, such as play or stop commands.
- Scrub or play the timeline to scrub symbols, which will follow symbol commands and autoplay definitions.
- Easily access symbol definitions and instances in the new Library Panel.
Web Fonts
- Add richer typography to your compositions by integrating a web font service. Edge supports the following types:
- Downloadable font packages (ex: FontSquirrel)
- Linkable font services (ex: Google Web Fonts)
- Token font services (ex: Typekit, fonts.com)
- Access newly added fonts from the list of available fonts.
- Define a font fallback list for users who don't have the font in your composition.
Element Display
- Control how long an element is displayed, so they only appear when needed. By default, elements are always on even if they're off the stage. They can be configured to be "off" (equivalent to display="none"), removing them from the HTML rendering tree and reducing resources.
New Enhancements and Usability Improvements
- Re-parenting Elements — Define the parent-child relationship between objects.
- New Library Panel — Easily access imported assets (such as images), symbols, and fonts. You can also drag and drop from the Library Panel to a specific location on the stage.
- Transform tool — Scale objects on the stage instead of resizing them.
- Transform point — Place objects outside of the bounds of the div. For example, this lets you rotate around a point to create a circular path.
- Color tools — Select the stroke and fill color for a shape prior to drawing it (located on the toolbar).
- Multi-Select improvements — Perform operations to a group of objects selected on the stage, rather than the last selected object.
- Composition ID — Easily edit the composition ID in the stage properties. Composition IDs are helpful for using multiple compositions in one web page.
- Simplified script include — Use Edge's simplified script in your host HTML page, which is now only a single line of code.
- Usability improvements
- Drag and drop assets from the file system directly onto the stage.
- Newly refined timeline actors list.
- Set autoplay on or off on the stage.
- Use Option-drag or Ctrl-drag to duplicate objects.
- Additional elements properties: Clip regions and background position for images.
- Ability to insert time at the playhead.
Performance
- A common version of WebKit for Mac and Windows provides a more consistent stage experience across platforms and improves performance.
- In-app playback performance has been improved, especially on Windows.
- Various bug fixes.
Features Introduced in Edge Preview 3 (10/3/11)
We are excited to announce interactivity capabilities for Edge, the most requested functionality thus far. The introductory set of interactivity features include looping, hyperlinks, access to the Edge animation framework API, and the ability to handle HTML DOM events – all within Edge.
Interactivity
- Actions — The core of Edge's interactivity capabilities, Actions are functions that can be added to handle a single event.
- The Actions Editor uses a popup interface that lets you enter JavaScript code for a function.
- A built-in code snippet library is available for commonly used functions like go to, stop, hyperlink, etc.
- Add your own JavaScript code to add new flexibility to your compositions.
- Where actions can be attached:
- Elements to handle click events
- Stage to access composition-level events such as "loaded"
- Timeline to access playback events such as "complete"
- Triggers to allow time-based actions to be applied in the timeline
- Objects other than triggers allow you to select multiple events you wish to handle, each with its own action.
- Labels — Insert labels on the timeline as reference points in your code, to enable functionality like playing or seeking to that point in the timeline.
Enhancements and Bug Fixes
- Multiple compositions — We have made some tweaks to the way elements are bound to the stage, so you can now insert multiple Edge compositions into an HTML page.
- Expand and Collapse Timeline Rows — We have added two commands to help you better manage the amount of space the timeline takes up. You can access the Expand/Collapse Selected and Expand/Collapse All Commands from the Timeline Menu.
- Performance — Timeline rendering has been improved (especially on playback) and a new version of WebKit has integrated for Windows.
- Copy and paste — Usability enhancements and bug fixes make copying and pasting easier to use.
- Duplicate elements — The ability to quickly duplicate elements has been added (Command+D / Ctrl+D).
- Z-index manipulation — Usability for drag and drop z-ordering in the elements panel has been improved.
Features Introduced in Edge Preview 2 (9/7/11)
This release focuses on fit and finish improvements as well as feature enhancements, many of which are in response to community feedback.
Elements
- Specify semantic tags on managed elements — Change the tag type of each shape, image and text you create in Edge to reflect how they appear in the HTML document object model (DOM).
- Copy and paste elements — You can now copy and paste elements in Edge, to easily duplicate shapes, images or text. Duplicate images will refer to the same underlying asset.
- Drag and drop z-index manipulation — In the elements panel, you can now control the z-order of shapes, text and images created in Edge.
- Element IDs based on file names — Elements created when importing image assets now retain their original file names, so you don't need to rename their IDs.
Stage
- Smart guides — Guides and dimension markers are displayed when an object on the stage is moved or resized. This helps you align with precision and resize objects in relation to others on the stage.
- Centered stage — The stage is now centered by default, to easily move items off the stage and animate them in from any direction.
- Redesigned coordinates system — Elements are now positioned and sized in consistent coordinates, making positioning of objects easier.
- Align and distribute elements — Select multiple elements, and align and distribute them via new options in the Modify menu.
- Direct on-stage manipulation of element origin — The transform origin can now be altered directly on the stage, in addition to the properties panel.
Timeline
- Enhanced copy and paste of transitions — You can now copy and paste a transition from a single element to multiple elements, or vice-versa.
- Dragging of playhead away from the mark — You can now leave the Mark at the current playhead location, and move the playhead to a new position in one gesture. Just hold down the Alt/Option key while dragging the playhead.
- Smooth scrubbing of timeline — Scrubbing the playhead without snapping can now be done by holding down the Command/Ctrl key while dragging the playhead. This brings consistency with moving elements on the stage without snapping.
- Playhead time editing — You can now type into the timeline's counter to move the playhead to a specific location, or by dragging the numeric value up or down with your mouse.
Under the Hood
- Windows 7 update — An error on the Windows version that caused Edge to crash on startup has been resolved, no longer requiring users to change the display bit depth from 32-bit to 16-bit.
- jQuery update — Edge's animation framework now works with jQuery 1.6.2.
- Bug fixes — Miscellaneous fixes and improvements on existing features.
Features Introduced in Edge Preview 1 (8/1/11)
The introductory version of Edge focuses primarily on adding rich motion design to new or existing HTML projects, that runs beautifully on devices and desktops.
- Create new compositions with Edge's drawing and text tools.
- Import popular web graphics such as SVG, PNG, JPG or GIF files.
- Easily choreograph animation with the timeline editor. Animate position, size, color, shape, rotation and more at the property level.
- Energize existing HTML files with motion, while preserving the integrity of CSS-based HTML layouts.
- Copy and paste transitions, invert them, and choose from over 25 built-in easing effects for added creativity.
