So, this is my first Blog entry. I decided to start a blog today because i now have 200 posts woohoo! Anyway on to the subject. Does Dreamweaver really weaver dreams?

To be honest I don't think there is a simple answer to that. It really depends on how far your dreams go. I for one like my websites to look as good as possible because when I look at a website to buy something I know that one of the first things that I think is:

Would I buy something from someone who has put this much effort into their website?

• in this case http://www.myatt.co.uk/ NOPE, - just a list no real quality.:-|

and

• in this case http://www.dabs,com YES - you can search, sort and comment.

Now they both could have been made in dreamweaver but I think I am pretty safe in saying it would be more likely that the first website was created in dreamweaver. This is because it is mainly HTML based and none dynamic. Whereas the second website is a very clever dynamic website with very little none dynamic content. That does not mean to say that it would be impossible to create this website in dreamweaver but I know I ain't gonna try!

Now calling the software Dreamweaver is all well and good until you find out that even Macromedia didn't use dreamweaver to build there website. Of course I don't know whether this true but i would be willing to place a bet.

i think that as far as simple pages go it is great but as soon as you start mixing together css and highly graphical interface it just makes me want to give up all togther. This makes web design one of the most frustrating, yet rewarding things to do.

I still use dreamweaver because it is a perfectly good piece of software but I really can't be done with the way it displays things in its actual "design" view because this is so unreal to what it looks like on the web. I have to say i normally end up editing the code and previewing it in a browser. I bet most of you would do the same.

Conclusion:

Goods:

1. creating a basic page.
2. adding css and syncing with the stylesheet
3. adding pictures, flash and other media to your content.

bads:

1. Creating a interface based page.
2. Adding CSS to set where things are on the page using z-index as well
3. table html just brakes every time you merge something

UGLY:

1. the html it created is not VALID even by it's own standards
2. the validation in dreamweaver misses errors.
3. You can create great looking pages and they will look like the worst website in the world in the design view.

I hope you can agree and find some good advice in there.

thanks for reading

I learned html with no software, just using text.
When I "discovered" dreamweaver I was glad I learned it the hard way.
But why spend all that dough on dreamweaver if you can get for free a software just as good called NVU?
It still has some inoffensive bugs, but I got to like it better than D.W.
It runs on any platform and it's more fun to work with then the $$$weaver.
Just google NVU and try it.

While I agree that Dreamweaver's Design View is a far cry from what one actually sees in the browser, it does provide important design feedback for text, font, color, and layout -despite its own set of nuances. After all, its a quasi browser of its own yet needs to maintain a certain level of interaction (drag and drop etc.). There are also tons of extensions for Dreamweaver. To design or modify 90% of my sites I use opensource WordPress (more then just a CMS) and ThemeDreamer plugin to accelerate my development. Throw in wpthemerkit to jump start everything and your flying!
Dreamweaver + http://www.themedreamer.com + http://wpthemerkit.com/ = turbo development from scratch.