Microsoft abandoned Front Page several years ago. They have something new
called Expression Web. I've only used Dreamweaver for several years now.
Expression web seems to be regarded as competent but MS centric.
Probably the real key to picking a web authoring/editing program is to first
pick a technology: html + css, php + mysql, wordpress, drupal, etc.
The second thing is to make a realistic estimate of how big your website
will be and if there are any special needs such as shopping carts, forums,
etc.
If your website is small say < 100 pages, html + css is probably the best
code-your-own choice since the learning curve is shorter. A CMS choice
(wordpress, drupal) would also be good.
For html + css, Dreamweaver can speed coding up but may not add a lot of
value for a infrequent user. The design view has gotten weaker and weaker at
correctly displaying a web page. It only takes one click on the toolbar to
pop the page up in a web browser but you could also leave a web browser open
with the page loaded and would only need a single click to refresh the view.
Dreamweaver is fairly good at supporting various technologies. There is a
live view button which will feed data from a database etc enabling the whole
process to be debugged (mostly) in Dreamweaver.
If you want to have a large on-line store that you don't want to be spending
a lot of time creating web pages for then a database driven website would be
better. Looking at the various CMS offerings might locate something you
would be happy with. The biggest problem with the CMS offerings is the last
100 yards. You might invest a lot of time learning the system, building your
web site, only to find you can't go the last 100 yards. You should also
assume that you will want to get help from forum members etc to go from 75%
to the last 100 yards. You could probably integrate any existing pages you
have into a CMS website if you were willing to change their look to be more
consistent with the CMS pages.
If you pick a CMS, then you may well find that Dreamweaver is even less
helpful. If you are already committed to writing your own html, getting
proficient with Dreamweaver would be like learning to use a complicated
power tool to make a daily task quicker. If you intend to keep your web site
small and aren't wanting to spend a lot of time updating your web,
Dreamweaver might not be worth the cost.
A text editor which displays color coded keywords and helps automate code
formatting could be quicker and easier for occasional html coding.
Good luck,
Jeff Keller
-----Original Message-----
From: John Hermanson [mailto:omtech1@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Subject: Re: [OM] Dreamweaver
Is Dreamweaver still considered the top choice in website creation? I'm
looking for a serious program and wonder what others recommend.
___________________________________
John Hermanson | CPS, Inc.
21 South Ln., Huntington NY 11743
631-424-2121 | www.zuiko.com
Olympus OM Service since 1977
Gallery: www.zuiko.com/album/index.html
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