Member Avatar for eXceed69

Is Dreamweaver a nice tool for design and web development? And it is a good tool for having a asp, aspx, php language for a page?

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The right answer depends on workflow more than on a single product. asked whether Dreamweaver is “nice” for web work; and already highlighted two useful perspectives: visual aids can speed pixel-level layout but can also obscure how HTML/CSS actually work, and some developers prefer strictly code-oriented tools. That tradeoff is the core decision point.

A few practical notes for server-side pages (ASP/ASPX/PHP) that are easy to miss when evaluating any editor:

  • Previewing dynamic pages requires a web server — opening a .php or .asp file directly in a browser will not execute server code. Use a local server and access pages via http://localhost/... to confirm server-side execution.
  • Keep a local project copy mapped to the same URL structure as production. Mismatched document roots, wrong include paths, encoding differences, or editing only over FTP are common causes of “it works on my machine” problems.
  • Test with the same runtime/version used on the host (PHP, ASP.NET versions), clear caches when changing server-side code, and verify file permissions and MIME types if assets fail to load.

Licensing and capabilities have changed since this thread began; Dreamweaver today is distributed through Adobe Creative Cloud, so check Adobe’s current feature list and system requirements before investing. See Adobe’s product overview and the product history for background:

Adobe Dreamweaver product page
Adobe Dreamweaver — overview and history

If learning fundamentals matters, treat any visual editor as a productivity layer on top of solid HTML/CSS/HTTP knowledge. If deadlines demand rapid visual work, a tool that speeds design-to-deploy can be valuable — but always validate and tidy generated markup, and keep a local server and source-control workflow in place.

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Member Avatar for MattEvans

The latest dreamweaver is quite good, but don't rely on the 'live-edit' features; if you don't know HTML they wont help you learn, and if you do know HTML you'll find them to be a hinderance.

As long as all you want is a syntax coloring text editor with a bit of code insight (i.e. it can list the attributes for tags and help with values like colors, fonts ) dreamweaver is a good tool.

I certainly wouldn't buy it for full price though..

For working with ASP/ASP.NET you'll probably want Visual Studio/Visual Studio.NET respectively, although neither are essential and you can write ASP certainly in any text editor. Same goes with PHP.

If all you want is a multisyntax coloring text editor, look at:

EditPlus: http://www.editplus.com/
Komodo:

Both for Windows; Komodo is probably the better of the two as it provides script debugging for a number of languages.. You gotta pay for both, but nowhere close to as much as you'd have to pay for Dreamweaver or VS.NET..

Member Avatar for eXceed69

I just want to know how good Dreamweaver is..i never change my notepad++ to other multisyntax coloring text editor. thanks for your comment

Member Avatar for MattEvans

Well, it's a 'well made' product; and I suppose it helps with project/site management aswell, so it's more than just a text editor. Basically, it's a text editor, a (nasty) live editing tool, an ftp client, a site manager, some wizards, a little collection of javascript examples, and assorted tools (like one to make regions on image maps).

But; personally I don't think it's worth the price tag. If I bought a copy for home use it would cost more than my PC did 2 years ago (it's a cheap PC), and all of the functionality it provides is available in the form of individual tools.

I guess, it's down to personal preference; do you prefer a consolidated tool and environment, or lots of separate tools?

Member Avatar for eXceed69

yup, I was curious on its environment.

Member Avatar for jbennet

I use aptana. Its opensource and baseed on eclipse. Has nice syntax highlithting, code completion etc...

Very dreamweaver like but without the WYSIWYG functions.

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