Rating: 
Summary: Very Very good
Review: Dreamweaver/Fireworks is the ultimate combo. It is very easy for newbies to learn and has plenty of features to keep ever the most demanding web designer happy. I am a web designer who was using FrontPage 2000 and had been hearing some very good things about Dreamweaver/Fireworks. So several of our designers tried it out and we instantly switched the whole office to it. I feel the interface is very easy to learn. This product is perfect for web designers of all skills and abilties.
Rating: 
Summary: Step up from FrontPage, Step down from GoLive/Photoshop.
Review: Dreamweaver4 and Fireworks 4 - lets drop the term 'Studio' as irrelevant - are probably excellent tools for many people. My own learningstyle and design methods never did quite manage to sync with it though. With regard to DW, I found the much-touted split-view window extremely annoying, yet not so annoying as the floating pallettes which clutter the screen, using up precious real estate. I much preferred the interface of Adobe GoLive 5, with its tabs for source code, preview, etc.With regard to FW, I found it counter-intuitive and, of course, there was the matter of the floating pallete. Here again, I prferred the Adobe product, Photoshop 6, even when taking the price difference into consideration. If you are 'into' using the not fully supported PNG image format for all your web graphics (as many are) then you will likely find Fireworks valuable as it is does PNG quite well. 'Studio'? I don't know, but to me that implies a great deal more than two applications in a box (and on one disk so you can't readily sell one and keep the other). Personally, the term 'Studio' evokes something closer to an Integrated Developement Environmaent (IDE). Sure there is a level of integration between DW and FW but I just don't find that it merits the label. [Caveat Emptor - for those looking to upgrade, the new Macromedia MX line does have its own Studio but that is a significant dollar adjustment as an upgrade (you are paying for Flash MX, ColdFusion MX, and Freehand)- there is no option for an economical upgrade for just the duo of DW and FW (you'll have to upgrade them both separately for what the MX Studio upgrade runs anyway. If you are interested in the other applications in the new Studio MX, then the it is really a great deal, but for those who just want to upgrade their DW4/FW4 STudio, it's a bit much.] I tried Macromedia because I've been a loyal Allaire Homesite coder for years and wanted to experience the new and much vaunted Macromedia DW/FW 'integration'. In the end it just didn't strike me that the two applications were so well-integrated or so time-saving or so feature-rich (especially considering the drain on resources if you're running Homesite, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks at the same time on a Win ME system) that they warranted the expenditure. So, in conclusion, this review, like most, reflects the unique circumstances in which I experienced this product and embodies my own idiosyncratic work-flow preferences which may very well be different from yours. For hand-coders with Windows ME who just want the occasional extra speed or functionality which DW can provide, I would say that the price in terms of money, screen real estate, and memory may not be worth it. For those who are truly interested in a WYSIWYG visual development environment I would recommend the combination of the new Dreamweaver MX and Adobe Photoshop. And for the non-professional and/or thrifty individual, I would recommend the combination of the Namo Web Editor and JASC's Paint Shop Pro. But, that's just one opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Almost perfect integration between the 2 Apps
Review: First of all I must say that i am a user of both this tools for quite some time and they do help me. I'm what you can call a coder, I like to know exactly what is written in the source code so that I can change it to my behalf. The problem with frontpage is that the code generated is very confusing and doesn't work very well on all browsers (although frontpage2000 improved a lot). With Dreamweaver 4 you can insert your code directly and see the effect on your webpage happen simultaneous or do the inverse, insert the things you want in your design view with macromedia's simple menu and subwindow system. The code dreamweaver generates is probably the best you can get using WYSIWYG web page builders. Fireworks is a graphics application almost totally directed to constructing and manipulating imagens for use in web pages. The interface is very simple and intuitive and the tools that are offered give you the power you need. The integration between the two applications is very simply and well done. This is suite to be used by both the beginner and the intermediate user. If you wish to construct dynamic webpages using Active Server Pages you should look for Macromedia Ultradev 4 or use Visual Interdev (included in the Visual Studio package).
Rating:
Summary: Stupidly Discontinued!
Review: Get Macromedia Dreamweaver 4. They have turned this once great web design package into a hybrid cross of something that looks like Netscape/Flash and called it Dreamweaver MX 2004. I used Dreamweaver MX 2004 for a month, uninstalled it and went back to Dreamweaver 4. It really is that terrible and the work space is terribly cluttered making it very hard to work within. Bottom Line -- Get Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 instead if you can find it. Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 is a very good web design package that knocks Dreamweaver MX 2004 for ten. You will simply hate Dreamweaver MX 2004 when you install it on your system. I nearly barfed after a month of using that *new* completely hostile and non-user friendly piece of unstable and slow excuse for a web design software program. Get this instead ... if you can find it...
Rating:
Summary: Easy to Use!
Review: I am not a Web developer by any means. I work in a hospital lab and needed to develop a departmental Intranet. I thought this would be easy until I talked to our IS people, the ones who really know what they are doing. Then I purchased Dreamweaver/ Fireworks Studio 3. WOW, did this help. I find version 4 even better. Do you like the cool multielevel pop-menus in the navigation bar? I do and for the life of me could not figure out the java codes to create one. Not a problem here, Fireworks did all of the work for me. I also tried Microsofts Frontpage 2000. I am a big fan of Office, but like all things Microsoft they required certain items to be installed on the server that our IS dept didn't allow. I highly recommend this product for "newbie" web developers.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely impressed
Review: I bought this item based on the user reviews for it, and this time I was not disappointed at all. This is a great program, and it is on the leading edge of web development. If you buy this software, and lack webdevelopment experience, I strongly suggest that you buy books to go with it. It'll only help you use all of the powerful features within this software.
If you are designing a website, then this is the software for you!!
Rating:
Summary: Best tool a web designer could ask for!
Review: I can't say enough about this bundle. Whether you are a novice or a professional, Dreamweaver and Fireworks 4 will make your life a heck of a lot easier! As a professional, I rely on it to quickly work on new sites and update existing sites efficiently. It's ease of use, learning curve, functionality and abundance of free tutorials on disk and online make me wonder how Macromedia can price this so low! This is the definitive tool set for those wanting to make their web design much easier and quicker. Dreamweaver 4
This does not excuse one from not learning HTML, JavaScript, and more. However, using this, you can learn as you do it by reviewing the code. This is the tool I used to learn (since Dreamweaver 1) web design. I'm now making twice as much as I was a professional counselor with over a decade of experience at my first corporate job! If you take the time to work the tutorials and have patience, you'll master it quickly. If you aren't as patient, you can still put up pretty decent sites. Fireworks 4
My primary tool for web design graphics is PhotoShop and Illustrator. However, when I want to modify graphics while in Dreamweaver, I always pull Fireworks 4 to come to the rescue. It's quick, easy and makes life much easier. Support for the product is excellent and again, this is the premium tool for serious web designers as well as your hobbyist. Buy it, you'll be glad you did! Try the free trial period for 30 days...
Rating:
Summary: You will not regret spending the money!
Review: I have been a hand-coder of HTML for years, feeling that the visual web-development tools did sloppy work and wrote buggy code. Dreamweaver is now to a point that I have changed my mind. Fireworks makes sparkling images that look great on the web - and it lets you make them in a simple, direct process. I will be honest and say that I felt Dreamweaver had a rather steep learning curve, but once you get there you recover the big investment in training yourself many times over. So, this software is worth buying and worth the time to learn. Buy it and hang in there! You will be glad in the end and your webstuff will look better than ever.
Rating:
Summary: The best one-two punch for creating web sites
Review: I have taught classes and written class curriculum on the topic of web page generation, database interaction, and building web applications. When it comes to designing and building the standard professional web site with static pages (i.e., those that do not interact with databases in real time, which is most common professional "home page" sites), Dreamweaver is the de facto standard in the industry, and for good reason. This combination package is my favorite. Fireworks works as an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. While Photoshop is the ideal general image tool, Fireworks is designed specifically to help create web pages, and it provides automatic support and wizard-like features that make typical web design tasks automatic - such as building in multiple overlayed graphics effects, bursts, shadows, glows, 3-D, rollovers, etc. - but utomatically optimized for the web, rather than requiring you to thoroughly understand graphics optimization for multiple environments, including non-web environments. When you work with Photoshop, it takes some effort to make sure your cool Photoshop effect translates well to the web. When working with Fireworks, it's hard NOT to do that. Everything I've done in Fireworks always translates well. Furthermore, your work in Fireworks can automatically be imported into Dreamweaver in such a way that is more powerful than you would get with other tool combinations - the Fireworks/Dreamweaver transfer process will build Javascript code to support rollover effects and other features for menu support, dramatically speeding up the process. Dreamweaver is a drag-and-drop style HTML page design tool. In that regard, it can do the same things that the free Netscape Composer HTML design tool can do, but Dreamweaver does far, far more. You can work with layers, server side includes (SSI), libraries of Javascript effects (including your own - you can add to the library), and drag-and-drop HTML form design. You can build libraries of Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) styles, and apply them throughout your site, or pages, or as you see fit. Dreamweaver includes optional commands that will search your generated HTML code and format it, and strip out unused leftover tags. You can bring in HTML code that was generated from MS Word, and remove all of the unnecessary garbage that MS Word is known to do, which can dramatically reduce your file size. Dreamweaver includes some Javascript fixes that will address known browser problems, such as the "Netscape resize fix", but it will only include it if you wish. You can easily extend the menu to test your completed page in any and all browsers you have available to you. One of the most useful features for any web designer is the ability to survey the "Site Map", which is a graphic representation of all of your pages and their relationships to each other. Dreamweaver makes it easy to manage a site containing multiple static pages, and automatically search for hyperlinks that may be broken and need to be fixed. Anyone who has created large web sites will know how dramatic a time saver this is. As I said, I've been teaching classes in web design for years. I 've also run a company that offered web site hosting services. In my experience, my users and students who use Dreamweaver are consistently the most satisfied, and usually end up talking the MS Frontpage users into switching. Frontpage is good for getting a great looking site up and running quickly, but becomes very awkward when it's time to modify those sites. Other systems are a little too narrow, such as NetObjects Fusion, which is good for creating the standard business site of "about us / product list / contacts" combinations, but not much more. Dreamweaver seems to be the most popular choice for flexibility, ease of use, and extensibility. And it's my favorite, hands-down.
Rating:
Summary: Not just a WYSIWYG tool!
Review: I love this product! A lot of "serious" web developers overlook Dreamweaver, because it's classed as a WYSIWYG tool, but they're missing the boat. I started developing web sites years ago using notepad, so what I love most about Dreamweaver is being able to see the layout and the sourcecode at the same time, and being able to edit in either pane. The integration with Fireworks is really nice as well. The only bad thing I have to say is that I don't like some of the code that Fireworks tries to generate, as it can often be a bit bloated, but it's nothing that can't be fixed in Dreamweaver.
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