The Studio MX 2004 package includes new "2004" versions of Macromedia's Dreamweaver MX Web page editor, Fireworks MX Web graphics editor and Flash MX interactive animated graphics creator. Between them they provide you with everything you need - bar the required skills and technical knowledge - to create thoroughly professional Web sites of all kinds, from simple static HTML pages to huge, database-driven sites utilising scripting languages such as ASP, JSP or PHP.

Studio MX 2004 also includes the invaluable Freehand MX vector drawing and illustration package. This latter is not a new version, however, instead being exactly the same program that has been available stand-alone or as part of a "Plus" version of the original Studio MX package for a while now.

If you are a professional Web designer, don't already have Studio MX and are thinking of moving over from competing Web design packages or bundles from other vendors, just buy it. Now. You won't regret it. Dreamweaver MX 2004 is the best Web site editor available, and Flash MX 2004 is the best Flash graphics creation package available - though this isn't surprising since the Flash format was created by Macromedia.

Fireworks MX 2004 is also excellent and is one of the best applications on the market for editing graphics for the Web. It isn't bad at photo editing and re-touching either, though it just can't compare with Adobe's Photoshop in this respect.

Finally, although it isn't quite as powerful as Adobe's Illustrator, and despite not being a new version like the other components in the package, Freehand MX is a worthwhile component in the Studio MX 2004 package. It is invaluable for creating base graphics for use in Flash and provides all the vector drawing and illustration features that Web designers will ever need.

Strangely enough, despite it not being a new version, it is the inclusion of Freehand MX that really makes it worth the price of upgrading to Studio MX 2004 if you already own the original Studio MX.

Yes, the MX 2004 versions of Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash all include plenty of new or improved features and tools, are even easier to use and integrate with each other much more tightly than ever before. A built-in spell checker and CSS support in Flash, a nifty facility to cut and paste tables and formatted text from Word and Excel into Dreamweaver with almost pixel-perfect accuracy, and more powerful bitmap handling in Fireworks are all worth a special mention.

But all in all we can't help feeling that there are simply too few really outstanding new features in any of the new versions. In contrast, Freehand MX is a huge leap ahead of the non-MX Freehand included in the original Studio MX - it is far easier to use thanks to its slick new interface and offers a wealth of new tools and options.

Unless you make extensive use of Freehand, there aren't quite enough new features and facilities in Studio MX 2004 to fully justify upgrading if you already have the original Studio MX. It's a complete no-brainer if you are a first time buyer though; Studio MX 2004 is quite simply the most complete Web design bundle available and offers outstanding value for money compared to individually buying the four main packages in the bundle.