Is Dreamweaver redundant?

[stevedeer]

I’m using it, but just to input css and html. Has it had its day?

[jamygolden]

According to me: yes. Look at anything else. I suggest SublimeText2.

[SgtLegend]

I agree 100% with @jamy_za, i recently ditched my $30 a month subscription for Dreamweaver for a once off $50 license fee which i use on both my Mac and Windows machine and haven’t looked back since. The software itself is 100x smaller, contains a lot better functionality and native plugin support rather then all that screwing around you had to do with Dreamweaver.

[joshuanhibbert]

By the time that Dreamweaver loads up, you have opened Sublime Text 2, made the changes you had in mind, saved, and shut the program.

[Paulie_D]

Discussions about DW tend towards the sort of discussions about OSs and browsers.

In general if you like it and it works for you at a cost you like there is nothing wrong with it. By all means try other things as suggested but go with what you are happy with.

[jamygolden]

I agree with @Paulie_D and I also think you’ll be ‘more happy’ with other text editors if you’re happy with Dreamweaver.

[GMB]

I used Dreamweaver at first but have since switched to using just TextMate, which I much prefer.

[OniLinkCR]

It is, as others have stated, a matter of preference. I use Coda.

[djpic]

I use dreamweaver and have been for years. Partly because the new version has really good support for PHP along with the CSS and HTML, plus has an FTP client and template support (which allows to build a master template for a web site, if I need to add a menu item, change the template and is populates down). Those are the reasons why I use it. I have kept an open mind for other better all-in-one solutions but as far as I know, textmate, sublime text, etc. don’t have all of this support integrated. Plus if you are already purchasing photoshop / illustrator, it comes in a nice, fairly inexpensive bundle.

[J4B]

I used Dreamweaver for years … and was recently persuaded to try Mirabytes Web Architecht ….

And I love it, so light, offer everything you would need that DW offers … at an eight of the price

I need a visual reference, I know I must be the only one on the World that don’t use FF during build phase…. but hey, we all have our quirks

[TreeTopStudio]

I’ve also been a Dreamweaver user for years but recently have found myself using it less and less. It’s still great for creating templates as mentioned by djpic but the css support and has fallen behind. When I started using Programs like Adobe GoLive (Yes.. I was the one person using GoLive) and Dreamweaver the HTML document was King and CSS was secondary. The times have changed and now for a designer CSS is King but Dreamweaver still focuses on the html document.

In my humble opinion Adobe needs to completely rework the the UI to make CSS creation and editing the focus.

[davidlab.be]

If you have tried Phpstorm or Sublime Text 2 this would be a non thread. Phpstorm is simply an amazing work of art and Sublime is a close second. Both can be run on pc or mac. I am a mac user and have used Coda and yes Textmate…they are good but are not even close to the top of my tool box.

[scriptsconnect]

As many others have said, it is all about personal preference. I personally have not used Dreamweaver in about 8 or more years, and even back then I seldom used it. To me, it is far more than it needs to be, and has a lot of problems that you can avoid by learning how to work with an editor and native web browser side by side. In my classes in which i teach intro to web design and development, I teach using Dreamweaver, for I think it is a great medium for beginners – but the people I’m teaching are a bunch of Art majors. If they were computer science majors, I would steer clear of Dreamweaver completely.

As for my own work, I’ve been using NotePad++ for years now. I love how lightweight it is. Whether I’m doing CSS, HTML, PHP, .NET or anything else, I stick with NotePad++, which is my personal preference. I’ve tried Eclipse, but it is too sluggish for my taste.

Someone in this thread mentioned something about Sublime Text 2. It too is a great program, and is incredibly lightweight.

In the end, it is what you prefer. I suggest trying out a bunch of different solutions – there are a lot out there. UltraEdit, NotePad++, Sublime Text, Eclipse, Microsoft Visual Studio, PHPStorm, etc. And if you like Dreamweaver, go for it. But if you do, and you are a UI developer, please learn how to use an external browser and not rely on the design mode Dreamweaver provides you :)

Happy designing and coding!!

[jamygolden]

@J4B Textmate and SublimeText2 have ftp support via plugins and Coda has it built in. It’s not exclusively a Dreamweaver feature.

[tobeeornot]

The worst thing about DW is the wysiwyg but I have found it really helpful as a relative learner.

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