Dreamweaver or....?

[NicoleDean]

Glad to help, Wendy. We saved so much money on software by ordering there. It's worth jumping through a few hoops to prove you're a student.

[wade_watson]

I've never spent much time with Dreamweaver, but have gotten by fine with Microsoft FrontPage for HTML design. Kompozer can be useful, but it had some nasty bugs that can cause more problems than it fixes. You don't want to use it to edit existing stylesheets directly or it will screw things up.

FrontPage has now been replaced with Microsoft Expression Web. I've not used it, but you might want to look at it also. Since most of us are used to the MS interfaces from office, it tends to be easy to get up to speed in their products. Expression Web looks like very good to me and will be my next WYSIWYG editor.

Wade Watson

[lindastacy]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I downloaded a trial version of the latest Dreamweaver and I'm in agreement with Lynn... not sure I need any of the new features and rather than learn my way around a new version for what I need, I think I'll stick with my ancient version. I'm sure I can come up with something else for my holiday gift wish list.

I've used FrontPage extensively and would never start a new site with it now. Besides all it's quirks, it's no longer being developed so I wouldn't recommend it. I haven't tried Expression Web and given my bias I probably never will.

[webmann]

Most of what I have now for web sites are blogs but I still have a few clients from before my heart went wacky on me. I started their sites with Dreamweaver and still use DW to update them.

I use XSitePro for any sites I have that aren't blogs now. It's a pretty cool editor but I would never try to use it on an existing site. I only use it to create and maintain new sites as I have had real headaches trying to convert or import a site and have it work properly.

[SSMockingbird]

I use DW all day long at the salt mines, and use it almost exclusively for anything HTML/CSS/PHP related.

Three features that I hope are in your older version: Templates, Save to Server, and the Sync entire site.

Saves oodles and oodles and oodles of time to make one change and update multiple pages, modify images locally and just update all with one click, and not have to fumble and bumble around looking for directories etc.

Most of which can be setup and monitored through the Manage Site menu interface.

Once you are comfortable with the basic features, add these to your bag of tricks.

Use what works best for you, but as you get more and more comfortable try using additional features.

[Clay Franklin]

I love Dreamweaver. I especially like the web development package with photoshop and adobe pro. If you are a student and don't use it for commercial purposes you can get a discount rate.

Also DW CS5 will be coming out very soon, so I would suggest you wait a few weeks and get the latest version. I am saving up for it now.

[cadehugue]

i think Dreamweaver is the best one personally i also use it.

[John P]

Also DW CS5 will be coming out very soon, so I would suggest you wait a few weeks and get the latest version.

Yes DreamWeaver CS5 will be released on April 12th. I just bought the Adobe CS4 Master Suite about six weeks ago after waiting several months to upgrade. Now they are releasing CS5, Grrrrrrrrrr

Anyway the software is amazing, especially PhotoShop CS4

John P

[dominicfilip]

Dremweaver is the best.. i prefer it only..as its the most realible.

[StephenT]

I had DW and used it ow and then. Since my sites are all Wordpress, I don't have too much call for an editor. When my computer crashed yet again this last week, I lost DW. It was a borrowed program and now it's gone. I had bought coffecup html editor some time ago and I still have it. It works for what I need and is a darn sight cheaper!