I too use Dreamweaver on a daily basis. Although I am a designer primarily, when coding, the 'code hinting' is a very helpful feature. In addition, the 'code hinting' cuts development time a great deal. Dreamweaver is not unique in this regard, but since I have grown up with it, I tend to stick with it.

The major issue with Dreamweaver is that if you rely on it to make Javascript, DHTML or other types of 'specialised' code for you, Dreamweaver tends to add a great deal of extraneous code into your documents and sometime that code ends up making your site fail W3C standards for both HTML and CSS.

If you are going to use it, be sure you know what you are doing. Learn to code with notepad first, then use the 'code hinting' to speed things up once you know what you are doing.

Nicely said - my sentiments exactly. Dreamweavers code hinting makes my job so much easier. I think it can be daunting to make the jump to code after years of WYSWYG but as soon as you do the quality of your work gets much better.

Totally agree with you. We use DW CS4 (at last, after having been stuck with DW 8 for ages!), and apart from the file-management side of things (which is always time-saving, but not essential), I find there are a few things I couldn't live without (disclaimer: I haven't had the opportunity to try any web design alternatives):
- code hinting... and now with JavaScript! :)
- colour coded code... a small, but VERY important thing that isn't unique (even notepad++ has it), but is SO useful.
- and now with CS4, the brilliant associated files are at the top, a simple button click away... no more having to spend time looking to see which css/js file goes with whatever html page. Yay! Seriously brilliant.

No-one should trust any WYSIWYG coding... it's always bloated, non-accessible and just plain sucks. Get yourself some decent beginners books in css and xhtml and do it the right way.... unless you just want to create a site for your cat.

Now, if only Firebug could be jammied into DW as well :) And MeasureIt .

I tried CS4 but only briefly. Photoshop ran like an absolute dog and I my machine is no slouch - optimised for high performance modern gaming. I found it rather amusing that I can play Crysis smoothly with all the details maxed out @ 1680x1050, but Photoshop CS4 struggled when I panned around a simple bitmap. What the heck is going on Adobe?

Anyway, Dreamweaver CS4 performed OK but as I only use it for the code hinting I'm not interested in switching to it permanently.

I'm nothing without dreamweaver but I come from a print design background and am just starting to get into web design. Any tips to get me out of using the wiswig?

W3C schools. Learn to code by hand - it's easier than you think.

I've been using CS4 for about three months now at work on a newly built machine and frankly I'm concerned. Like MS Office, CS4 is packed with unnecessary items and is a complete resource hog. Frankly if I had the option to go back to CS3 or even CS2, I would.

Adobe should spend their time getting their act together on proper memory and resource management and fix up the interface and usability with Flash before adding all of the crap they keep on packing in.

I mean really, do we need the healing brush, history brush AND the clone stamp tool. Aside from some minor differences, they are essentially the same tool.

Since taking over Macromedia, the quality of Adobe software has really gone downhill. A lot of work needs to be done.

100% agree with you. I use Dreamweaver on a daily basis at my job, but only in code view as I have yet to find a better alternative on PC. I wish I could use a Mac with Coda or Textmate :)

The funny thing is that back when I was in school, I learned web design on Dreamweaver MX using only tables and .gif spacers with the WYSWYG view. Thanks to my first "real" job and some great books (Web Standards Solutions by Dan Cederholm and CSS Mastery by Andy Budd) I can now code valid html and css by hand.

By the way great article and website!
Dt.

Eclipse IDE with (Aptana plugin) makes my life so much easier... sure it doesnt have the IntelliSense, but it makes up for it in other areas like awesome keyboard shortcuts which I think in the end save me more time..

the related files feature in DW CS4 is worth switching to alone.

Great article, I agree with you that a designer should not rely on WYSIWYG packages, I too use dream weaver but to check my code (only sometime). But what do you think of blog packages like Wordpress and Blogger. They are also WYSIWYG, how do we make sure that we are complying with standards.

Thanks
Kashif (08 9278 2786)

I've switched to Komodo Edit. It has great code hinting for almost anything including plugins for jQuery and Smarty. I still use DW for some old ASP sites I maintain, but I agree with the others DW CS4 is 3 legged dog slow. It's a shame though because Adobe still make great products. I love Lightroom 2, it's fast and has great set of features.

I don't see why there is a hating attitude towards looking at what you're making. Unless you have a photographic memory and I've only met one person in my life that claimed to.

I like that in Design View you can click an element visually and see what css attributes are applied to it along with a cleanly laid out specificity and overriding rules. Using design view doesn't mean I can't/don't hand-code, in fact just the opposite, using the css panel, you're typing your attribute manually while the Design View confirms what you've just changed (i.e. visually telling you that you've typed 1000px instead of the intended 100px).

Do you guys hit save and refresh your browser over and over? That to me seems like it would be the major pain.

Even if you use the pop-up css properties window, which I use to show my wife who is learning the basic attributes, that is still just another way of helping you get it done fast.

As for the other helpful features of DW, I love the parent wrapper listing in the status bar. But it would nice if it highlighted opposite ends of tags for code view as well.

BTW, I like your posts, but your photo makes you look like the creepy guy from LOST.

You think the web guy looks like Hurley? He's probably about a hundred kilos lighter and there's no physical resemblance at all. Put your glasses back on buddy :)

I think he means Benjamin Linus :) Hi Mike!

Ha! Well that's marginally better :-)

Hi Bob, nice meeting you tonight. And thanks for the vote!
Sorry I had to bail so soon - my youngest daughter is sick and was pining for me.

Let's meet up for the next event - I'll buy the first round.

Stay in touch - my email is mike@ this domain .com