I need to design a website. Web designing is not a difficult task, but to begin with you definitely require someone to show you the 1st step. The best software you can use is dream weaver; it’s a straight forward one as long as you have the basic idea.

I agree with having to know the 1st step, but i dissagree with dreamweaver, using a simple text edittor like notepad or my personal choice of notepad 2 is easier to use, doesnt us as much memory for the pc oh and the main part its free unlike dremweaver.

I don't know why dreamweaver would be the best software you can use. Learn the technologies starting with xhtml and css. Then you will know how to fix problems. When you run into a problem with dreamweaver, your stuck because there is not a "get me out of this mess" button.

Originally Posted by joder

I don't know why dreamweaver would be the best software you can use. Learn the technologies starting with xhtml and css. Then you will know how to fix problems. When you run into a problem with dreamweaver, your stuck because there is not a "get me out of this mess" button.

I must say, Dreamweaver may not create the best "code" but, it is very useful to the beginner who needs to see were things are and how they look in real time as changes are made.

It also offers easy site ftp and file management. (I still use it for that)

Before your so quick to tell someone new to just drop DW and go with notepad and learn to hand code (which will inevitably be a necessity) , how about listing advantages and disadvantages of both?

It just kills me the people that are so quick to jump on the hand code web 2.0 bandwagon as if it's the ONLY way to website. There are tons of options, and in my opinion DW is a great start for the newbie wanting to learn a little about HTML.

There is no "Get me out of this mess button" in either solution.

You don't learn HTML by using DW.

I use a seperate ftp client

I don't use notpad. It's a piece of crap even as a simple text editor.

I won't list the pros and cons because that would require paying money for a product I will never use.

EDIT:
At least if you know code, you know what you programmed and you can use references on the web. With DW and not knowing any code, you would be totally lost.

To each their own...

We are all entitled to our opinions I guess... and you know what they say about those...

Tell me why a someone would pay $399 for a program instead of learning HTML/CSS which they will need to do anyway? I'm not trying to be argumentative, I would just like to know. Why do A -> B instead of just B.

There are more things you can do with Dreamweaver than just write html.

I'm not going to go into to details for sake of argument, but... if there wasn't anything more to offer in Dreamweaver than notepad, why would millions of people buy it? I have used it for over 6 years now as my primary tool for managing websites.

Like I said, there are a lot of reasons one might use Dreamweaver. I'm not saying it's the best but, there are a lot of things it offers to speed up the designing process for me. This may not be the case for you.

Once again, it's a matter of opinion.

+ There are also worse editors that Dreamweaver... to name one ...umm umm MS Front Page.

No offence, but thats rather imprudent of youjoder, arguing against using a software that you havent used yourself....

Guys each to their own, and yes i agree you cant make a comment like that if you havnt used it, i have used dreamweaver before (no i didnt buy it, it was on my old schools pc's) sure it has advantages to just using an edditor like notepad and yes front page is the number 1 worst ever in my opinion.

The only thing i was commenting about was the comment made by nav123 which was : "The best software you can use is dreamweaver" im not saying never use it anyone who wants to can but mabye saying its the best is a little bit missleading people may be dissappointed after they have spent so much cash on it.

I agree it has good things like, easily being able to switch between code and design view rather than between a notepad and loading ie or fire fox, aslso the integration you can do with php for servers and the utility u can use to edit and save automatically to host, its by far not the worst but im dissagreeing with the fact that the comment was made saying its the best.

Now lets all agree to disagree

What annoys me is the die-hard Dreamweaver web designers who don't seem to have realised we are now in the age of CSS. I remember making a terrible tables-based web site at school for an ICT project and the markup was awful. Back then, I just accepted that that was what markup looks like - three A4 pages of tables, font colours and non-semantic rubbish.

I'm still learning HTML and CSS, and I can hardly call myself a pro of any description, but I agree with Joder about Dreamweaver. If you are thinking of going into web design, you need to get to grips with the code itself, rather than thinking Dreamweaver is a fine way of building a site.

I dont know about you but, when web design first sparked my interest, had I not had a program that helped guide me a bit, I would have never continued.

I agree, Dreamweaver is crap when it comes to the output code but, look at it objectively from a total beginners stand point. If you had been interested in designing webs, and the only option to do so was notepad, do you think you would have been interested?

Call me crazy but, from a ground level, I personally don't think there is anything wrong with using it as a learning tool.

I'm sure there are people out there that have NO idea how to:

structure a website.
add Links
add photos
add headers and footers
meta
name tags
ftp the site to the server
open a <div> tag and close one </div>

I am not a "hard core" Dreamweaver guy however, in context of the original post, for a beginner, I think there is nothing wrong with getting their feet wet with this program.

Learning how to code perfect right off the bat might seem like the best thing to do now that you have learned the hard way and had to go back and re-learn how to code right. Encouraging newbies to learn it right the first time around is honorable but, give the beginners a break...

Let's start a new thread called:

"How many in here learned to code websites by hand in notepad and generated perfect XHTML / CSS code?"

tis the question....

I didn't say I had never used it (past tense) but that I will never use it (future tense). I advice people who have criticized me (anions and cybernetic) in this way to read a post carefully before making obvious language mistakes. I have used it in the past but don't know which is why I can't make a detailed comparison. It wasn't the best way to layout a site. It liked absolute positioning which can look horrible since people use different screen resolutions. All the code it had to add because of the way a tool like that has to be programmed is ugly and would be hard for anyone to learn from.

When I started out I used a text editor. I also tried out Netscape Composer, Dreamweaver and Front Page. I found that doing things by programming was the best way for me. If some of you can get a site working wonderfully by using some tool like Dreamweaver, I wish you the best. But I certainly wouldn't want to limit myself to what dreamweaver can or doesn't provide.

Sydpix, no one starting out right away generates a perfectly coded site. Either using notepad or dreamweaver. If you or anyone else wants to use it fine, but don't perform a witch hunt on those who don't.

you can try frontpage it is simple

All I have ever done here is offer an objective view. I don't think I could be more politician like.

Sydpix, no one starting out right away generates a perfectly coded site. Either using notepad or dreamweaver. If you or anyone else wants to use it fine, but don't perform a witch hunt on those who don't.

Lol ! I don't witch hunt

Edited because Joder didnt like what I said and he scared the **** out of me by posing as an al-qaeda agent...

So anions I scared people away by pointing out the fact that you were wrong and misleading in what I said? Anyway, I am unsubscribing from this thread and will not reply anymore.

Yeah you did...

Hope to talk to you again

it is very useful to the beginner who needs to see were things are and how they look in real time as changes are made.

TopStyle does exactly this, but YOU have to write the code.

While I agree that DW is a good tool and has it's good points, I think it's not the best tool for a rank beginner who can't hand code, simply because rather than learning to code FIRST, they use the WYSIWYG mode and ..well, we all know what kind of crap code that results in.

I'm a firm believer in learning to hand-code FIRST, then later you can use the advantages that a program like DW offers. I've used DW since version 1.0, but I rarely use it today because it still doesn't do a good enough job of previewing CSS. I use TopStyle 99% of the time.

I think that if you use Dreamweaver, and don't use the WYSIWYG editor, it does offer a good way to learn the language. This is due to the nice feature that prompts you for tags/styles/etc.