Macromedia Dreamweaver - Software Review and User Report
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Macromedia Dreamweaver is one of the most powerful WYSIWYG HTML editors on the market. It lets you produce complex web sites without having to type the code and even corrects and explains code errors that you make (not that you make any, to be sure). It was a relatively easy to use tool in the early days, but is now becoming more and more sophisticated and hard to get the knack of. The Macromedia Dreamweaver's strongest direct competitor, Adobe's GoLive, has a slightly less intuitive interface and less thorough back-end database integration, whereas Microsoft FrontPage is targeted at the massive market of slightly less demanding, occasional webpage creators.
With the MX version, Macromedia Dreamweaver is becoming progressively a tool for professionals, targeted specifically at www developers and designers. The amateur users should stick to the 4.0 version - or, easier still, they can simply choose the Version 4.0 interface at startup. Boy, do they feel smart now ;D! A thoroughly revised version, a completely redesigned, daunting interface - and they still master it! Then, a tiny trivia quiz flashes (or is it swishes?) through their minds:
How do you continually rise your prices, slowly passing from the hobbyist to the upper professional niche, and still retain your amateur customer base (far more numerous and appetizing than the narrow professional market)?
Exactly! You give your amateur users a stripped-down interface, so they continue to feel "at home" with your product and keep on buying it instead of resorting to the competition and/or to shareware.
Suddenly, the amateur users don't feel so darn smart anymore :(!
Anyway, the two other interfaces are called Designer (it looks like Macromedia's standardized MX interface you may already know from Fireworks MX and Flash MX) and HomeSite/Coder. After selecting the interface, you then decide between three work modes, Code View, Design View (WYSIWYG) and Split-screen View (showing both views at once). In each mode, the top of the screen is occupied by the tabbed Insert toolbar and the shortcut-button toolbar. The Properties Inspector at the bottom allows you to alter the properties, such as color or size, of any selected object. The Design, Code, Application, Files, and Answers tools in the right-hand frame allow you to, say, connect to online support or edit/apply Cascading Style Sheets.
Version MX combines the features of three stand-alone Macromedia packages: the power of the UltraDev application developer is complemented with the best features from the ColdFusion Studio 5 and from the HomeSite HTML editor. From the latter, it has inherited automatizing editing tools such as Tag Choosers, Code Hints and the Snippets Panel, which speed your coding toil. There's a downside to all this automatization, however: sometimes, particularly when creating simple markup tags, you may find it easier to just type the code in the Windows Notepad (as I'm doing right now ;), rather than delve into Dreamweaver's intricate menus and tool panels. Anyway, to assist you when entering code, pop-up Code Hints suggest applicable tags/attributes. The Snippets Panel lets you save frequently used pieces of code, so you can reuse them instead of retyping them every time. With Tag Choosers (for HTML, CFML, ASP.net, JSP, and other languages) you can add tags to your document. Dreamweaver's ColdFusion and UltraDev integration, on the other hand, allows you to create robust, interactive Web applications that can exchange information with a server-side database: very useful for, say, a heavy-duty online store that has to process forms, allow customers to search for specific products, take shopping orders etc.
Software Review - Pros
A productive coding environment with hints, autocompletion, and code coloring/highlightning;
the Split view and JavaScript Debugger;
handy HTML and script references;
intergrated Flash builder;
complete ColdFusion, ASP, PHP, and JSP support. Integration with UltraDev lets you build database-driven, dynamic Web applications;
it is cross platform;
it is loaded with advanced features enough to please even the most sophisticated user, yet simple enough to let you make a simple page in just a few minutes;
supports 23 languages;
the MX's Version 4.0 interface closely resembles Dreamweaver's previous lean'n'clean interface but includes all of MX's new options. It makes learning Designer much simpler, so that you can jump easily between other Macromedia MX applications.
Software Review - Cons
The MX interface is almost impossible to harness - at least in a reasonable amount of time;
as with Macromedia Flash, the toll-free phone support expires after 90 days;
the jump from v4.0 to MX means: instead of 110 MB you will need 275 MB hard drive space; instead of a Pentium 166 MHz you will need a Pentium II 300 MHz processor; and instead of 32 MB, you will need 96 MB system RAM;
the site reports features leave a bit to be desired.
User Report - Tips, Tricks and Tweaks
Buyer's Guide Tips
Apparently, the privilege of having a complete, well integrated package that virtually eliminates the need for any other Web Site editor, comes at such a price that it makes you wonder: wouldn't I be better off with a bunch of not-so-well-integrated separate tools from different makers? Shareware, maybe? Well, here's a fact for you: if you're an occasional hobbyist on a low budget, the answer is definitely yes - but if you're a serious professional, it is a resounding no: particularly now that you can get Dreamweaver 4.0 for Windows for as low as $265; although it might be wiser, in the long run, to purchase Dreamweaver 4.0/Fireworks 4.0 Studio Win, a blasting two-barrel combo at a convenient price ($353). It all depends on what your needs really are ;P .
The prices are heavily discounted. Although the books are all very good, I can personally recommend Inside Dreamweaver X for a more in-depth discussion, and Sams Teach Yourself... for a first, although not superficial, approach to Dreamweaver programming.
