Rating: 
Summary: best ever...
Review: best group of web design ever! make ANYTHING... little experience needed easy to learn!!!
Rating:
Summary: Definitely the way to go
Review: Having become adept with another well-known web development package (let's call the company that makes it "Brand M") I became disenchanted with the odd bits of HTML code that crept into my increasingly-complicated website design. "Brand M" is easy to use, but it can sometimes put weird HTML stuff on your page that is damned hard to figure out how it got there, why it needs to be there, and even harder to remove if it behaves oddly. A friend recommended I jump to Macromedia Dreamweaver. I decided to spring for the entire studio as you also get Coldfusion, Flash and Freehand. I also got the "Solutions Kit" which contains a tutorial for learning Dreamweaver. This is by far the best package of web development software I have tried. (I've used about four or five over the years.) For one thing, the split screen feature (part of the "roundtrip" structure of Dreamweaver) allows you to type in a WYSIWYG window while seeing the actual HTML tags appear above. This reinforces the learning process, which is good because though WSIWYG is convenient and easy, you need know know HTML tags to de-bug, update and edit your site in ways WSIWYG editors cannot do for you. The lower left status bar in the main window shows just what HTML tag you are currently working on. While the Dreamweaver work window can look sparse and the icon button look confusing, the tutorial quickly sorted this out for me. The learning curve is steeper than with the "Brand M" web software, but the power of Flash, the ability to code without the software adding funky HTML tags you didn't want and which are hard to debug is worth the price. Macromedia makes several upgrade pathways available to the purchaser depending on how many previous products you have bought. This preserves your investment in Macromedia. The Solutions kit is essential if you are new to Macromedia, and it also includes an e-learning tool for developing e-learning applications. This is really a bonus and one I can use at work. Macromedia sends a lot of helpful communications, so it pays to register the software to get on their users list. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone who is determined to learn web design and HTML.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely the way to go
Review: Having become adept with another well-known web development package (let's call the company that makes it "Brand M") I became disenchanted with the odd bits of HTML code that crept into my increasingly-complicated website design. "Brand M" is easy to use, but it can sometimes put weird HTML stuff on your page that is damned hard to figure out how it got there, why it needs to be there, and even harder to remove if it behaves oddly. A friend recommended I jump to Macromedia Dreamweaver. I decided to spring for the entire studio as you also get Coldfusion, Flash and Freehand. I also got the "Solutions Kit" which contains a tutorial for learning Dreamweaver. This is by far the best package of web development software I have tried. (I've used about four or five over the years.) For one thing, the split screen feature (part of the "roundtrip" structure of Dreamweaver) allows you to type in a WYSIWYG window while seeing the actual HTML tags appear above. This reinforces the learning process, which is good because though WSIWYG is convenient and easy, you need know know HTML tags to de-bug, update and edit your site in ways WSIWYG editors cannot do for you. The lower left status bar in the main window shows just what HTML tag you are currently working on. While the Dreamweaver work window can look sparse and the icon button look confusing, the tutorial quickly sorted this out for me. The learning curve is steeper than with the "Brand M" web software, but the power of Flash, the ability to code without the software adding funky HTML tags you didn't want and which are hard to debug is worth the price. Macromedia makes several upgrade pathways available to the purchaser depending on how many previous products you have bought. This preserves your investment in Macromedia. The Solutions kit is essential if you are new to Macromedia, and it also includes an e-learning tool for developing e-learning applications. This is really a bonus and one I can use at work. Macromedia sends a lot of helpful communications, so it pays to register the software to get on their users list. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone who is determined to learn web design and HTML.
Rating:
Summary: The best I've used.
Review: I have used many products, from straight editors like TextPad and NoteTab to Cold Fusion Studio and Microsoft FrontPage. I have their strengths and weaknesses. I personally prefer Macromedia for it's suite approach of tying the products together for high powered web development. I especially use Dreamweaver and Fireowrks extensively together. Dreamweaver also can handle ASP, JSP, PHP and ColdFusion development. Then you also get Flash, Freehand and ColdFusion Developer to boot. Tell me another that works with all and has all the powerful tools that Macromedia has and I will definitely be interested!
Buy it before December 31, 2002, as it goes up after that. It's now... on Macromedia's site and about... at Amazon after rebates. It's a great investment. There's also a cheaper Macomedia web design product out there now called Contribute. I paid an introductory $99 to check it out for my daughter who is also starting to build web pages at 6 years old. So far it seems easy to use for people who don't want to get into the coding side of things. The Macomedia Studio MX suite is definitely the way to go if you have the money. It's well worth it!
Rating:
Summary: The best I've used.
Review: I have used many products, from straight editors like TextPad and NoteTab to Cold Fusion Studio and Microsoft FrontPage. I have their strengths and weaknesses. I personally prefer Macromedia for it's suite approach of tying the products together for high powered web development. I especially use Dreamweaver and Fireowrks extensively together. Dreamweaver also can handle ASP, JSP, PHP and ColdFusion development. Then you also get Flash, Freehand and ColdFusion Developer to boot. Tell me another that works with all and has all the powerful tools that Macromedia has and I will definitely be interested!
Buy it before December 31, 2002, as it goes up after that. It's now... on Macromedia's site and about... at Amazon after rebates. It's a great investment. There's also a cheaper Macomedia web design product out there now called Contribute. I paid an introductory $99 to check it out for my daughter who is also starting to build web pages at 6 years old. So far it seems easy to use for people who don't want to get into the coding side of things. The Macomedia Studio MX suite is definitely the way to go if you have the money. It's well worth it!
Rating: 
Summary: Bogus software
Review: I received CD-ROM that was not a used one as advertised, but a copy. Before trying to load it, I went to Macromedia's website to check the serial number and found that Macromedia didn't accept the number as valid. No response from customer service after one week of sending an email request for a refund.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have
Review: If you are a professional web designer, this is a must have. If you are a home user and want to design a personal site, this program will make it a lot easier than any other program. It may look more confusing than Frontpage - but you have to get into it to see that it's actually much easier and offers so much more. You also won't have "front-page" extension issues with the hosting companies.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have
Review: If you are a professional web designer, this is a must have. If you are a home user and want to design a personal site, this program will make it a lot easier than any other program. It may look more confusing than Frontpage - but you have to get into it to see that it's actually much easier and offers so much more. You also won't have "front-page" extension issues with the hosting companies.
Rating:
Summary: Cream of the Crop!
Review: If you are serious about working on the web whether novice or professional, you cannot get any better than the Macromedia products. I've owned the suite since the second version was out and, with the exception of Adobe PhotoShop, the Macromedia products are the ONLY thing I ever use. Dreamweaver MX continues the tradition of creating seamless code so you have to do very little tweeking - only if you know how and need to do so! It integrates the former Dreamweaver 4 with UltraDev 4 into one package so that you can create dynamic web sites. It saves me so much time in coding and I can trust that it will not add extensions that are not viewable by all, such as the Frontpage product. It has roundtrip HTML, meaning you can easily add your own code, modify existing code, etc. without any problems at all. The interface is quite interesting. No longer do you have pallets floating and taking up valuable screen real estate. Instead, it has moved to a more "tab" style architecture. This reduces the need for several small tool windows to be open at once. Instead, you have the tool bar along the top as a tab and along the right side are several windows that are minimized so that when you select the one you need, it simplly opens up. I believe that Adobe and Macromedia are going through some lawsuit about the windows, so, Macromedia merely improved upon the stale window technology to make it more effecienty and clutter free. I highly approve! Dreamweaver MX also has more robust features with added internal extensions to make your code bank stronger. The simple drag and drop method makes it so easy to use. I've used the MX version for about a month now (as a prerelease) and am thoroughly impressed. It's their greatest upgrade in many versions. Flash MX and Fireworks MX simply build more functionality and makes life much easier. Flash MX makes advanced scripting easier with more functions and item examples that are already mini-movie clips. The interface for all of the products are very easy to learn. I am a professional now, but have used the products prior to becoming professional and it has helped me to make my transition from professional counselor to full-time web developer a dream come true! If I can use it, ANYONE can!!
Rating:
Summary: It Keeps Getting Better...
Review: Macromedia is a web designer's dream come true! The redesign of the interface for MX is a tremendous step in the right direction. Many of the complaints I had with using Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks have been solved.
I do a lot of work writing custom Active Server Pages and Dreamweaver MX has proved very useful in painting HTML pages and cutting down the time in dealing with simple client-side scripts. Likewise, I am falling in love with HomeSite. The IDE it provides when writing server-side script is what Visual InterDev should have been years ago.
And Flask MX is easier and more intuitive, and more importantly, the new features like components and loading images on the fly are making my life so much easier.
| 
