Rating: 
Summary: Dreamweaver and Fireworks Studio
Review: I read all the reviews on Dreamweaver and Front Page and found Dreamweaver rated consistently higher than F.P. and with a whole lot fewer HTML errors. I upgraded from a shareware program called Actual Drawing by Pysoft Inc. Going to Dreamweaver and Fireworks fromActual Drawing was like moving from the stoneage to the 22nd Century. I found Dreamweaver and Fireworks loaded with lots of bells and whistles. It does have a learning curve to deal with but once you get past the first hurdle, it all begins to steamroll and use of the programs gets easier and easier day by day. My research shows that professional web designers prefer D.W. over F.P. hands down. I could not find one professional web designer that would endorse F.P. Each one I spoke to advised that F.P. is good for the person who wants to put out a personal web page or a company that wants something simple to work with, but for serious web publishing get D.W. D.W. requirements are a Pentium 166 or faster. I run it on a Pentium 133 and it is a little slow and will cause system lock ups when you ask it to do more than the processor can handle. I highly recommend Dreamweaver and Fireworks 4 Studio for those serious about putting together a good web page with lots of zoo zoo's and zam zam's restricted only by your imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I strayed away from Macromedia a few years ago after becoming disillusioned with the Director series. After just having had a horrible experience with compatability while using Microsoft web-editing software, I decided to purchase Dreamweaver and see how far the company had come. I am absolutely blown away by the power of this studio - it has singlehandedly replaced about seven different programs I was using, and making sure your content is accessable to all web users is a snap. The design tools are as simple or complex as you want to make them - I prefer to handle layout through the WYSIWYG editor, but I often need to insert custom tags and script. Both methods are simple and intuitive, as if the software always knows exactly what I'm trying to do, and it's helping me along the way. The seamless integration with Flash and Fireworks media (etc.) is a bit of a plug, but it's wonderful if you're other Macromedia products (incidentally, picking up Fireworks along with this is a great idea). Support through the Macromedia webpage and the built-in tutorials - as well as the expandability of the program through extensions - is also excellent, and the FTP and site management is wonderful for someone as disorganized as I am. I can't recommend this product highly enough for any web designer, from the novice to the advanced. Proficient developers that commonly use ASP and Java may want to upgrade to the UltraDev version to avoid too much custom code.
Rating:
Summary: Dreamweaver--My dreams come true!!
Review: I was an everyday/all-day user of Dreamweaver 3, Fireworks 3, Flash 5, and Freehand 9--so when this upgrade of Dreamweaver/Fireworks came out, I was more than thrilled! Before Dreamweaver, as a beginning website builder, I had been coding all my pages using Word Pad and HTML--hey, it's free. With Dreamweaver 4, no more importing HTML files from other programs and cleaning up the code. Even though I am only webmastering a website about my family--Dreamweaver 4, Fireworks 4, Flash 5 and Freehand 9 have made my site look better than the other personal pages that I encounter on Netscape and Geocities. You can do much without being an HTML pro or web design professional, and the browser preview check is always a hepful feature--I have to worry about IE and Netscape functionality. Fireworks 4 allowed me to create cycling gif banners for my site--with a little Javascript code. The programs are easy to learn--even if you have never used Dreamweaver or Fireworks (in that case buy the full package not the upgrade)--by just reading the instruction manuals and playing with around the tutorials. I recommend Dreamweaver 3 and 4 over other WYSIWYG editors, especially FrontPage, and for non-Adobe types it's the best out there. I am a non-Adobe type because the software packages are nutty-priced--even with my educational discount the price of the full suite package equals that of a year's tuition study at a small state college.
Rating: 
Summary: Step up from FrontPage, Step down from GoLive/Photoshop.
Review: I've been developing web sites since 1995 and I have tried absolutely everything for web development. I keep coming back to this as the solution. I tried Microsoft Front Page, but that took so long to learn to get past the basics, and I had so many problems with uploading sites and especially individual pages that I concluded it is just not a professional tool. The system for creating templates can speed the creation and update of your web creation tremendously. I have done over 400 small business websites with this product and think you should start with this one, and learn how to use it really well. It is the best. I now have other designers working with me and we can all use this tool and co-operatively design websites and control content. Great integration with other products and technologies too.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Awesome
Review: I've been doing web development since 1996 and, to be honest, I fought tooth and nail against giving up Windows Notepad as my web development tool of choice. Microsoft FrontPage really ruined web development software for me and I pretty much vowed to avoid such applications in the future. Fortunately, my boss insisted that I use Dreamweaver and even sent me off to classes to learn the nuts and bolts. And now I'm hooked. Dreamweaver is simply awesome and I can't imagine ever going back. Whether your a novice or professional, you'll come to love Dreamweaver's simple interface and ability to tackle otherwise tedious tasks -- such as Cascading Style Sheets, tables, layers -- with ease. Adding Flash, Shockwave or Java is as simple as it can possibly be. I took classes on Dreamweaver, but only because my boss insisted. The software is pretty easy to learn, though those with web development experience will have a fuller understanding (and respect) for the capabilities of the product. The single most powerful part of Dreamweaver is the use of templates, which allow you to use the same look and feel across multiple pages and have all those pages updated when you make changes to the template. This alone will save you hours! Another great thing about Dreamweaver is that creates clean HTML. This is something that any developer who has ever had to edit the HTML directly will respect -- especially if you've ever tried to make sense of FrontPage HTML nonsense. Finally, the FTP application in Dreamweaver is outstanding. It keeps track of every page, graphic, link, etc. in your site and any change to any of them is cascaded through the entire site -- automatically updating links where necessary. With a simple click of a button your site is uploaded to your webserver. There are so many features I haven't covered, but with the little I have this product is worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Tested it: now buying it.
Review: I've download the trial versions of Dreamweaver and Fireworks, and I thought they were great! They both work nicely with Flash 5, although a little less friendly with Freehand (I did not notice a CMYK export option on Fireworks, though I could have simply missed it).
Rating:
Summary: PROFESSIONAL RESULTS - MINIMUM EFFORT
Review: I've had this product for about 6 months. I originally started writing web pages using HTML code. What a pain. I have used several web page development programs, but, the Dreamweaver 4/Fireworks 4 is the ultimate tool. I was up and running with it within a matter of a couple of hours. It's easy for the beginner to get cracking right away. However, for the more experienced web page designer, these programs are the ultimate in allowing your creativitity and productivity to be maximized with minimal effort. I just can't say enough. It is now my EXCLUSIVE development program.
Rating:
Summary: best of the bunch
Review: The best web site design tool on the market. After using frontpage for 2 years, I can say, without a doubt, Dreamweaver is number one and will be my only site design tool in the future. Cant beat the price for both applications.
Rating:
Summary: Saviour of All Web Geeks/ Gurus, Designers, & Techies
Review: The DreamWeaver / Fireworks combo is an Amazing & Wonderful way to design webpages, graphics, Retouch Photos, etc. I love my Adobe Photoshop, but nothing compares to Fireworks, for the Detailed work, converting Images to High Res/low K images that do not Bore surfers, waiting for the page to load (average give-up time = 30 seconds). With Fireworks, you can tweak your graphics, until they are Perfect, but keep the SIZE of the graphic down to a minimum, thus increasing your webpage hits, astronomically.
My wife is a Web Designer / Artist / Graphic Artist, who has trained at Lynda Weinman.com ( ISBN # 1562059491 ) in beautiful "Ojai, CA." My wife swears-by Fireworks & Dreamweaver.
Luckily, I learned a lot of the tricks of the trade & I was astounded at how-often I needed Fireworks & Dreamweaver in the profession I held (until I turned to IT), as a "Document Specialist."
In today's world of High-Tech, Online Docs, etc., even Administrative Assistants need Dreamweaver & Frieworks. As a Document Specialist, I used Dreamweaver daily, for a long time.
Fireworks, comes in-handy, as well, when the A.A.'s need to scan a Signature for their Boss, for documents.
Be the only person on your floor, who knows how to use Fireworks, and you will make yourself a much-needed employee. Your Signature scans will look better than everyone-else's and you may have a bit more job security.
Fireworks & Dreamweaver are not Just for Web Geeks & Gurus. Anyone who works in an Office environment should know these programs, and use them regulalry. Fireworks is the Greatest Graphics program I have ever used.
Rating:
Summary: Saviour of All Web Geeks/ Gurus, Designers, & Techies
Review: The DreamWeaver / Fireworks combo is an Amazing & Wonderful way to design webpages, graphics, Retouch Photos, etc. I love my Adobe Photoshop, but nothing compares to Fireworks, for the Detailed work, converting Images to High Res/low K images that do not Bore surfers, waiting for the page to load (average give-up time = 30 seconds). With Fireworks, you can tweak your graphics, until they are Perfect, but keep the SIZE of the graphic down to a minimum, thus increasing your webpage hits, astronomically.
My wife is a Web Designer / Artist / Graphic Artist, who has trained at Lynda Weinman.com ( ISBN # 1562059491 ) in beautiful "Ojai, CA." My wife swears-by Fireworks & Dreamweaver.
Luckily, I learned a lot of the tricks of the trade & I was astounded at how-often I needed Fireworks & Dreamweaver in the profession I held (until I turned to IT), as a "Document Specialist."
In today's world of High-Tech, Online Docs, etc., even Administrative Assistants need Dreamweaver & Frieworks. As a Document Specialist, I used Dreamweaver daily, for a long time.
Fireworks, comes in-handy, as well, when the A.A.'s need to scan a Signature for their Boss, for documents.
Be the only person on your floor, who knows how to use Fireworks, and you will make yourself a much-needed employee. Your Signature scans will look better than everyone-else's and you may have a bit more job security.
Fireworks & Dreamweaver are not Just for Web Geeks & Gurus. Anyone who works in an Office environment should know these programs, and use them regulalry. Fireworks is the Greatest Graphics program I have ever used.
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