I miss written review on dreamweaver which is supposed to be in flash mx link.but its ok I written new one on dreamweaver mx on older versions 3’s link.
Dreamweaver MX is first choice of any web designer.why?Since it’s Old released version 3 Dreamweaver Team beats thier opponents Adobe Golive and Microsoft frontpage.Current Version MX is much more improved and still it is fully customizable that let us modify it’s menus and keyboard shortcuts etc.Well in this review I will also point you to the free alternatives of the dreamweaver, Because Software is costly so we definitely need some free alternative.
Well what makes Dreamweaver so diffrent?
Well this question will be easily answered by any web designer who uses dreamweaver a lot.Well to squeeze more information from Dreamweaver software I concentrate on some must have features that web designer needs.I will also comapre Dreamweaver with Adobe’s Go live and MicroSoft- Frontpage to let you undersatnd the power of Dreamweaver.
Layers:-
This feature is one of the best I think for any designer.Why?check it out on Dreamweaver. Then you will understand where other softwares like Adobe golive lacks.Moving Layer to any part of the page is not so easy with Adobe golive but it is easy with Dreamweaver.And I hardly doubt latest realese of frontpage support it or not.Layer feature can also be used to convert your layers to tables, when you satisfied with arrangement of site.This feature is fairly simple to use.
Tables:-
Tables are useful in making a web-page that carry lot of text so aligning is important for those pages.Handling tables is very difficult with Adobe Golive but it is easy with MS frontpage & Dreamweaver.Dreamweaver can create, modify, colour tables also row and column level manipulation is also possible.You can add table within table without need to stretch your page.This happens worst with GOlive a lot.
Frames:-
Working with Frames in MS Frontpage & Adobe golive is easy.But frame handling job makes so simple with help of dreamweaver.Any novice can work on frames site after reading the tutorials on the web.If you are novice with frames just check out thier help file to know how frame works as thier help file is made with three frames.Frame inspector shows you how your frames are arranged and how they will work.Well these are the some points I found common with any web designing software.But Let’s Checkout Errors first.
Errors:-
When compared with Adobe go live 4.0, GoLive installed succesfully on pc, changes file association of windows notepad.Notepad’s text document works wrong, clicking on text file it will tell you the above path is wrong and it will even open the Notepad window.But warns you every time you open it.It wants you to open text document through GoLive.Uninstalling Golive and reloacating the path for notepad will solve your problem.
This Error never found with Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage.
Well dreamweaver got one best feature that I think adobe golive and frontpage both lacks, Dreamweaver can cleanup MS WORD’s HTML if you created page first in MS WORD.
Now let me tell you about its other features.
Features:-
Object pallete let us Insert objects like Flash, Images, Roll over menu, activex, java applet and other server side includes.etc.Yes you can insert layers and tables from this pallete.
Property inspector is useful for editing properties of selected elements.Well Adobe Go live also shows this type of infromation and it is also easy to use.Front-page also carry properties for tables in this way.
Templates feature is also nice addon if you think you are working on same background but with diffrent text data.You can even edit tags wihtin the quick tag edit panel.
Making forms is bit difficult for newbie’s but Checking some cgi websites like cgispy.com etc.let them know how form works.
Timeline ?:-
Timeline can be used to create animation that do not require external plug-ins as timeline uses dynamic html to change layer or source of image after intial loading of page.This is excellent feature.
Publish feature:-
Publishing your website is very easy as FTP client can be found within the software and it works with most of free hosting services.If you think you want diffrent software for FTP then don’t go for Softwares like Cute_FTP or WS_FTP just point your browser to the https://zipgenius.it and download free utility ’’FTPGenius’’.if you want a free FTP utilty, then this is the only Free one you want.
Misc:-
Help file supplied with dreamweaver is good for newbies as well as advanced users to know about software and it’s New features.And Mystery Still I Don’t know How to Use Sitespring........
Alternative:-
This software is expensive so Amatures/Self employed Peoples and Freelancers can’t afford it.
So my advice for such users is to download some other softwares like IMS Web Dwarf from https://virtualmachines.com
Works simmilar to Netobject’s Fusion.
Or Hvrsoft’s html editor from https://hvrsoft.com (Check this site if it is still freeware)
Or try this DHE Editor https://hexagora.com/en_details_dhe.asp
DHE Editor Works between Frontpage and Dreamweaver.But Frontpage is easy to use because We use MS word A lot whose features can be found in Frontpage.
Well send me E-mail if you know any better free-editor than mentioned above.I would love to hear from you.
Well for Designing Newbies there is one good site to learn graphic-animation-Web designing from tutorials.
Check out https://trainingtools.com/
For Mac users I think dreamweaver is better choice than Adobe’s Golive Or old SiteMill or PageMill application.
Well if you jumped from version 3 to directly to MX then you will confuse about Panel sets, then you and I have same problem We need to practice on this.
Finaly This software is excellent for Web Designers with stretched budget.
Go for it.:)