Member Avatar for Tangerinejoe

Does Dreamweaver create a lot of dirty code ? hence handcoding is preferred by most web designers. This is the answer most designers say is it true? or personal preference. But really do anyone code out there with so many options to build a website are available.

  • 2 Contributors
  • 1 Reply
  • 112 Views
  • 2 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by london-G

Dani AI

Generated

Short answer: tools don’t inherently make code “dirty” — how they’re used does. By “dirty” people usually mean inline styles, redundant wrappers, presentational tags (tables, <font>), and non-semantic markup. Those often come from relying on WYSIWYG actions instead of planning structure and separation of concerns.

As asked about handcoding vs Dreamweaver, and as pointed out you can code inside Dreamweaver, here are practical ways to avoid messy output and keep maintainability:

  • Work in Code or Split view; keep HTML semantic and move all styling to external CSS.
  • Use snippets/Emmet, linters (HTMLHint), and a code formatter (Prettier) so generated markup matches team style.
  • Avoid using visual-only insertions for layout — use CSS Grid/Flexbox instead of tables.
  • Validate pages (W3C validator) and use browser DevTools to trace where styles and elements come from.

Quick cleanup workflow for an existing page:

  • Remove inline styles and replace with classes, consolidate duplicated rules, collapse unnecessary wrapper divs, and replace presentational tags with semantic elements.
  • Track changes in Git so automated cleanup is reversible.

Small before/after example:

Bad:

<div style="color:#333; padding:10px;">Title</div>

Better:

<div class="title">Title</div>

<style>
.title { color: #333; padding: 10px; }
</style>

If control, accessibility, and long-term maintainability matter, many designers prefer handcoding or a code-first editor. Dreamweaver is fine when used as a code tool or for rapid prototyping, but avoid relying solely on its visual layer for production sites.

Member Avatar for london-G

You also have the choice to code in Dreamweaver. It's up to you to check the code and design together.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.