GypsyPilot's Full Review: Adobe Dreamweaver 4.0 Full Version for PC (DWW40D0...
"Beauty comes at great effort and pain", I heard that line sometime back in college (or from some vain folks I know). I built my 7th website with this application and am very happy with Dreamweaver's tools and flexibility which allowed me to translate my vision into code. I just wish it had been easier. It took me one month to become comfortable with the basics of Dreamweaver and I'm still working on it.
First, a segue for most of you. If what you want is a tool to build a simple and great-looking website, Dreamweaver 4.0 will very likely be MORE than you need and the learning curve will be steep. If you're building just a simple personal website to share information and photos, consider this shortlist first:
1. Microsoft Publisher: The Wizards and templates help walk you through sophisticated site creation. About $105.
2. Easy-Web-Editor: Surprisingly capable and powerful WYSIWYG editor. 30-day trial shareware is free. Full version is about $50. Find it at http://easy-web-editor.net/
3. Adobe Photoshop Elements: A pared-down version of Photoshop with all the serious photo-editing tools you would need and use. It has a simple website gallery creator. About $80.
4. Adobe PhotoDeluxe: A good array of the most-needed photo-editing tools with a very user-friendly interface and simple web publishing tools. About $48.
These are the only 4 simpler applications I've tried. There are more but I cannot recommend them from experience.
Okay, back to Dreamweaver. If you're still with me, you had better be serious about your website. This is AT LEAST a $300 investment in software, books, and time.
Dreamweaver 4.0 does no hand-holding. It does provide a tutorial and good help files, but there are no Wizards to guide you. It is capable however of embedding all forms of multimedia, rich-content, and applets. Tools for Java, Javascript, ActiveX are included. It, of course, supports Flash so you should pair this software with Macromedia's Flash 5.0 (for web-based animations) and Fireworks 4.0 (for image-editing). These two additional applications will seamlessly integrate with Dreamweaver and automatically launch as needed. A nice touch.
For hard-core HTML coders, Dreamweaver allows you to edit in HTML code alongside its WYSIWYG interface. This allows you to see how your edits affect your pages. It's been great for me when embedding Javascripts. Dreamweaver also cleans-up redundant HTML code. It's not as effective as a good human coder, but it certainly cuts HTML bloat.
The most difficult part of Dreamweaver is learning its basics and exploiting its rich array of features. There are a couple of basic-to-intermediate books out there that I can recommend.
1. Dreamweaver 4.0 for Dummies, (ISBN: 0764508016) - I found this the most helpful book for starting out.
2. Dreamweaver 4 for Windows and Mac: Visual quickstart Guide, (ISBN: 0201734303) - A very good alternative with lots of visual how-to's. Crisp and concise.
I don't want to ramble on. I think you get the picture. Dreamweaver 4.0 is HARD-CORE. If you're prepared to earn your stripes learning this application, you'll be rewarded with the ability to create some of the most amazing websites your minds-eye can see.
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