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: Far Beyond Frontpage
Review: I have used both hand coding HTML and MS Frontpage for the past 4 years and recently I looked into Dreamweaver. I have found that DreamWeaver is by far better than Frontpage. As with any program it takes a commitment of time to learn but it is much more user friendly and has built in functions that Frontpage does not even address. Escape the Gates vortex, you will be glad you checked out DreamWeaver.
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: Perfect
Review: I'm very impressed with this product. I used FP 2000 since it came out and I grew to like it. Then FP 2002 came out and completely destroyed itself as a professional HTML editor. I decided to give DW 4 a try for one week just to see if I could switch without problems. It took two days of using the product before I realized that it is the very best HTML editor on the market. The "Site" features are amazing and very powerful. DW just has so many little features: rendering SSI, custom hot keys, advanced search and replace etc.. It has decreased my dev time by 50%. Even though the interface [is not cool], the program is so powerful that the interface doesn't seem to bother me anymore. Buy this program!!!
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: Best Of The Best
Review: I've used many different web editors including not at all, and this is by far my favorite. It combines ease of use with advanced technologies. You have you choice of two ways to edit, you can use a Microsoft Word style screen that you just type or you can edit using strait HTML.
It lets you make new and edit existing websites, and does not take credit for your work in the source. It's the web editor for the beginning all the way up to the advanced website designers. It out weighs all of the top web editors such as Front Page. I would highly recommend this program to any and all web designers. It is more than worth its hefty price tag.
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Summary: The most powerful website management program
Review: If you have used Dreamweaver before, you know its possibilities. However, if you had a brief adventure with Adobe GoLive, or have been a longtime user of Microsoft FrontPage, and finally if you are new to HTML, you might consider reading this review, which is tailored for you. REMARKS FOR HTML NOVICES
There are many ways to learn HTML, and you probably heard that there are programs which allow you to construct web pages using a visual, graphical interface, instead of monkishly writing the code. Whereas you can start from scratch, purchase a HTML compendium and then use a pure text editor to write your own code, it's not the most efficient way of doing things. Dreamweaver offers you a powerful interface, which combines all possible ways of doing the same thing. First of all, like many editors out there, it has a mode of workspace, which allows you to write the pure code. If something is wrong, it will highlight the erroneous tags and text commands you have typed. It offers tools, which clean up the code you wrote. Whatever you coded, you can always switch to 'visual' design mode, where you see what you designed. In other words, if you drew a table, the design mode will show you a table as it will look on the web, and then you can click the "code" button to see how Dreamweaver used HTML to write correct information about that table. This way, you can quickly and efficiently learn HTML, because you see it at work, and can stop at any time to see why this was coded in such and such way. The uniqueness of Dreamweaver is that it offers you the third mode, combining both the design mode and code mode. Clicking the third button, your screen is split horizontally into two windows, and in one you see the code, in another you see the real thing. In the code window, Dreamweaver simultaneously codes whatever you do in the visual window. In effect - you see the changes made in real time, which is even better for learning HTML. That's not all! The latest version of software offers a small panel, a little window, which can be hidden and shown at any time, using the launcher, a small set of icons on the status bar. There, you can look at any HTML tag, and get a full explanation (Reilly Reference) of what it does, and all possible switches and parameters used for a given tag. Also, any option called from the menu of the program has a handy HELP button, which will take you directly to the part of extensive help system of the program, where you are presented with all explanations, including screenshots. This means you will not have to search yourself, since as a novice, more often than not you won't know what you're looking for. Dreamweaver makes it easy. There is no user-friendlier program for novices that Macromedia's Dreamweaver. It's also inexpensive. PALETTES and ERGONOMICS: Dreamweaver offers incredible set of tools for a seasoned web-designer. The same thing can be done in many ways, depending on your level of proficiency. Just like Adobe's GoLive, Dreamweaver uses floating, customizable palettes of tools - but where the two programs differ, is the actual ergonomics of palettes. In GoLive, it's very hard to work normally, unless you have two-monitor system. If the palettes are hidden, you have no way of using them, since many commands are not available elsewhere. Wherever you push the palette, it jumps back when you switch from code view to design view. In Dreamweaver, palettes stay where you want them to stay, and each palette has tabs, which save space, offering different set of tools depending on a tab. They take little space, and can be called into the screen in many ways, not to forget the always-present launcher at the task-bar. CSS, LAYERS, OBJECTS, EXTENSIONS: Dreamweaver offers incredible integration of HTML with CSS. Instead of formatting each paragraph by hand, you can specify a set of settings once, and then simply attach a CSS file to your document, and everything will be formatted according to the specification. You need to do this once, and then updating a 300-page website requires... changing a small text file, which you can do by hand, or using a very easy CSS edit tool. If you think of expanding your site from a one-page site you wrote in FrontPage, you will find it extremely useful. Sophisticated code can be virtually "drawn" in Dreamweaver, using layer view. Drawing a table with a mouse, adding an overlapping table with pictures, scrolling text areas, and many DHTML goodies is a snap. The program will translate your drawing into proper code. Using a palette, or a menu, you can insert objects of any type, including applets, JavaScript, Flash movies, Flash buttons, encrypted email links, and images. Dreamweaver includes a special extensions manager, which installs numerous extensions available via the Macromedia website. This allows a user to add commands, tools, scripts, objects, templates, and many other tools. VERIFICATION: The program forces you to write good code, and if you work in design view, it will generate excellent HTML code, which will be hassle-free for any browser. You also have a wide array of verification tools, including HTML cleanup, World Wide Web specification verifier, and last but not least, browser compatibility tool, which allows you to double-check cross-browser compatibility. This way you can ensure that everyone will see what you intend them to see. That's what past FrontPage users will find invaluable, since they are probably used to complaints that their FrontPage-generated output is messy, error-prone, and incompatible. Another verification tool is the site management menu, which can be accessed directly, or via the launcher, which opens a separate window, where you can modify the navigation, check and modify the links sitewide, replace links, text and anything.
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