Why shouldn’t I use Dreamweaver?

[ktomasso]

I’ve noticed throughout the web design community that Dreamweaver as an HTML and text editor is not very popular. I understand that a lot of people swear by TextMate and Coda, and I’m wondering why people prefer them over others.

I am asking this question, not as to start an argument for Dreamweaver over other platforms, but to gain insight about other programs that may warrant a switch.

I am a front-end guy with little to no server-side knowledge, so using PHP or other programs to call common elements isn’t really an option. I like the Library item feature of Dreamweaver.

Keep in mind that I am, in fact, hand-coding 90% of my sites, and not using Dreamweaver as a WYSIWYG editor in Design View.

What are your thoughts on Dreamweaver, TextMate, Coda, and any other HTML editors out there (P.S. I’m running Tiger on a Mac, so Espresso isn’t an option)?

What combination of Text editor and FTP client do you use?

What are the benefits of keeping them separate?

What are the best features of your preferred program(s)?

Anything you can add to help solve this debate is helpful. Thank you all in advance.

[TheDoc]

I use DW at home and at the Office. Most of the office uses DW, and I think one person uses BBEdit or some such thing.

I’ve been seriously contemplating using Coda at home (we run on Windows at work), but haven’t had any problems with DW so I don’t really see any point in switching tools at the moment.

[Rob MacKay]

This is completly a personal thing to each individual – although I am sure there is some kind of snobbery for some people…

DW is an excelent peice of software, I used it for many years. The only reason I moved away from DW was it was just so heavy and unessersery, I just prefer working in a lighter environment. Notepad++ is my new weapon of choice, I found its better for me just because I found myself tripping over DW far too much.

I like Notepad++ because its very lightweight, it has a very nice FTP, online editor, so you can edit files live. Excelent colour highlighting for code, clear and clean. Everything I would want and need.

Thats about it really. If you use DW and like it, why stop? Its a good bit of software. (im on a PC btw lol)

[ktomasso]

I don’t really have too many complaints about DW, but I do admit that it’s a heavy program (especially when you’re running additional programs in the Adobe Suite). I could definitely stand to benefit from some better code highlighting and more intuitive auto-completing, but the ability to create templates and library items is really a must for me. Other than PHP or any other server-side language, do any of these "lighter" programs have the ability to update common elements on multiple pages at once?

[AshtonSanders]

I use DW. I have no complaints. I’m a pretty front end guy to. I haven’t done many "apps" or large php programs so it’s perfect.

I save a file, it automatically uploads the file. Time is saved.

"ktomasso" wrote:

… but the ability to create templates and library items is really a must for me.

Please. do not use DW templates. They are the bane of my existence. A very simple replacement is using php includes to include a header and footer (and other "library items"). This saves on all the unnecessary and ugly code the templates insert and you don’t have to upload all of the files every time you change the template. Just upload the header.php file, and all of the webpages are instantly updated. Time is saved.

Sorry bout the thread-jack

[Meshach]

Dreamweaver is alright if you use it in code view only. If you want to call yourself a web designer don’t use WYSIWYG mode.

[Author]

Posts