Dreamweaver Review

In my Advanced Internet Production class, we are back to working with Adobe Dreamweaver, which is an web page creation program.  Back in the day, I remember when I used to dabble a bit in HTML coding myself, just for fun of course and not very much, but I do remember what a pain it was to try and sort through layers and rows of monotonous code, and then lest you make a typo error, you hope that everything doesn’t get corrupted or misinterpreted along the code reading.

Adobe's Dreamweaver icon

Therefore, when I was introduced to Dreamweaver last year, I was completely dumbfounded. It really makes website creation and editing a breeze!

However, Dreamweaver, though a great tool, has to be learned. One of the hardest things about learning Dreamweaver is learning how to edit using the program, rather than knowing what you want to edit. I find that I do better if I use split screen mode so I can see both the viewer and the code. And I still don't understand many of the upper level capabilities that Dreamweaver is able to do. 

One of the best things about Dreamweaver though is that once you understand how to use and how to use for what ever you need it for, it makes web editing go by quickly without having to type in the code. You can make a very basic website in less then 10 minutes if you know what you are doing.

What works well for me with Dreamweaver, is that is allows me to get in my zone and once I know what I am doing, it just works. However, what I think is difficult is that every time that you want to make a change to your website, you've got to take it down and edit it and then re-upload to the server. Many times what the biggest problem is, is that though Dreamweaver is an improvement to straight coding, there are already web-based web editors that allow even easier functions such as drag and drop and change features with a mouse click. The sad part about Dreamweaver for me is that it's slowly headed out of style instead of headed toward more dramatic and interactive web sites.