The state of Web design tools has gone through endless improvements since the Internet came into being. Simple text editors turned into display editors with context highlighting. From there, advanced editors began to show live previews of what code would look like inside browsers. Previews were not always accurate, but they have grown to include animations tools and keyword manipulation.

One such design tool that is among the pack leaders and is available for the big three operating systems, Google (News – Alert)'s Web Designer, recently received an update that includes a new events system, publishing to the DoubleClick Studio and Google Drive, as well as a new "page" paradigm, timeline, and Web components.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the update is its interactive features available through the events system. Website developers can write their own custom JavaScript actions, for instance, and Web Designers will play those actions along a timeline directly alongside any other custom or predefined actions listed. The timeline itself now also includes support for animation scrubbing and auto keyframing, and those features should make it easier for designers to create animations within Web Designer.

Developers creating ads can publish their work directly to the DoubleClick (News – Alert) studio because the program itself can automatically add studio enabler code and associate their ads with appropriate advertising campaigns. Furthermore, collaborative projects can easily make their way into Google Drive through direct publishing to user accounts.

Google also makes note that all Web Designer components, including 360 Gallery, Carousel Gallery, Swipeable Gallery, iFrame, Map, Tap Area, Video, and YouTube (News – Alert), have been rewritten as Web components, so developers can use the components in their HTML pages. Addition of the Gesture component provides mouse and touch gestures, and Tap to Call allows phone call initiation to predefined phone numbers.