Rating: 
Summary: The best Web Design Software Period
Review: Now Macromedia has been known for their web design software but dreamweaver BLOWS all other web design software out of the water.(Yes even Frontpage)Dreamweaver is the best tool for anyone who wants to create a professional website in a couple days. Now if you want to make a small website about your dog then I wouldn't buy this program. It does have quite a high price but compared to the other web design softwares it's cheap. I have tried Coffecup,frontpage,hotdog,coolpage, and a whole list of others but dreamweaver is the best. The new split view allows you to edit in HTML and WYSIWYG! Who WOULDN't buy this product? Another Great Product from Macromedia(If you still don't trust this review let me tell you something. I am a fifth grade student and I still find dreamweaver one of the easiest to use programs on the planet. Now will you buy it?)
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.
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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: Enough new features to be worth the upgrade
Review: The DW/FW 4 Studio upgrade is well worth the price. Dreamweaver seems to have gotten the lion's share of the new and exciting features which takes this WYSIWYG editor to a new high. The latest version:- Allows you to create flash buttons and text banners from DW. A very nice feature which is easy to use and, in the case of the buttons, has enough variety for any style of site. The only downer is lack of access to .fla files for the buttons which makes producing a non-flash graphic a little harder than it needs to be. - Has a (finally!) good raw code editor built in. Many Dreamweaver users are accustomed to flipping over to Homesite if one needed to edit raw HTML. While having Homesite around is still a good idea, Dreamweaver 4 now features a really good integrated code editor (no more popping open another window) and a split WYSIWYG/code screen. Additionally, a HTML code reference is now available. - An Asset Manager now tracks all types of web media, making it easier to keep track of what goes where. - Integration of the Extension Manager, which allows you to download and install all of the additional features written by Dreamweaver users to make life easier. Fireworks still works pretty much the same way, but the integration with Dreamweaver has been improved. Adding behaviors to slices and hotspots is marginally easier, but not overly so.
Rating: 
Summary: Bounds above Dreamweaver 3.0
Review: There is so much new in this software from Dreamweaver 3.0 I could never list it all, but there are new extensions to easily allow you to intert, CGI, Java, Cold Fussion and much more. Rather than with Dreamweaver 3.0 you had to go to a totally different HTML editor to even insert all of those special features. The interface is the same, even though the menus are a bit more complex and confusing. One huge problem I have with it is that it seems to crash constantly, where I need to restart the computer. It also loses the website definitions that I have, so I must re-enter the definitions.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely the best
Review: This has to be the best Web Design program yet made. Simply outstanding, allows even the novice to learn how to create outstanding web pages. I used to use FrontPage 2000, and I can honestly say that I will never ever go back (and I am a die-hard MS lover). Dreamweaver kicks FrontPage's butt on ease of use and design.
A killer program, honestly.
Rating:
Summary: The absolute be-all and end-all of HTML web design software.
Review: This is it. People who have been using it for years know it, and people who are just discovering it are realizing: Dreamweaver is in a class by itself. Version 4 is the best yet, much better than it needed to be considering there wasn't any competition as it was. From beginning web-designer to experienced coder, this is one POWERFUL program. Combine it with Fireworks 4 (Macromedia's much better version of Adobe's Image Ready) and you haved it all. Dreamweaver allows you to: -meticulously organize your sites, make master templates for page uniformity, use Cascading Style Sheets to easily customize and format various page elements, the ability to convert the CSS atributes to HTML tags for use in older browsers, update entire sites with one click, view your page in html code view OR wysiwyg OR at the SAME TIME (you can drag open a table let's say and watch the code get written like x-ray vision, OR, conversely, edit the underlying code while watching the effect on your page in front of your eyes), covert tables to layers and back again, edit graphics in Fireworks without having to enter Fireworks and re-export your work (a VERY VERY VERY timesaving feature), insert frames, tables, Flash buttons, rollovers, swap images, and other JavaScript behaviors with a simple "drag and drop". Dreamweaver will automatically clean up messy HTML (deleting extra font tags for instance) as well as debug JavaScript behaviors. The code that version 4 writes is MUCH cleaner than version 3, and any ...programmsers have TOTAL access to the code to customize it how they see fit. You can preview your work in as many browsers as you have on your computer, and then FTP to your server right from Dreamweaver in the best FTP interface on the market. Dreamweaver automatically keeps track of all updates to any page or graphic and asks you if you would like to update other pages. For sites that will be worked on by a team there are many features to organize the work flow such as "Check In/Check Out" that keeps track of who did what to what part of the site as well as leave comments for other parts of the team. There really are too many features to list here. Fireworks 4 has a new "button editor" that makes it ridiculously easy to generate rollover buttons or the currently trendy "dropdown menus". I personally don't like them, but they are there to use. Included are a bunch of really useful effects such as bevel and glow. The best part about this program is that vector graphics REMAIN as editable vector graphics EVEN AFTER YOU APPLY EFFECTS. You don't have to permanently convert your graphic to a bitmap first. This alone is worth the whole program. You can also set the program to use all your Photoshop plug-ins (although using SOME of them DO require you to do the evil conversion from editable vector to bitmap). Fireworks also feature "selective" JPEG compression for optimizing certain parts of the SAME image with a different JPEG compression setting (let's say 30% for a background and 70% for a detailed foreground). What other program does that? Fireworks is also THE animated GIF software. You can make them as many frames as you want as well as set the duration of each frame. Overall I think that Fireworks 4 is not as totally developed as Dreamweaver 4 is, but it does what it is supposed to do, and works flawlessly with Dreamweaver. I can't even tell you how easy they have made it to produce 100% professional sites. The bottom line is: this package is the ABSOLUTE best web development software in existence. There is no equal. And for all you hand-coders who swear by BB-Edit or "anti-WYSIWYG" programs, you CAN entirely hand-code in Dreamweaver too. Just use code view. There is no reason to not use this program. Once you do, you will NEVER use anything else. You'll see.
Rating:
Summary: Makes creating simple webpages a snap!
Review: This is one of the most user friendly, easy to learn web creation software packages out there. It makes creating a website super-easy. It has numerous options which make otherwise tough Java items a sinch to insert. I've tried a lot of other programs out there such as Microsoft Frontpage, Adobe Golive, and a list of others, but I find myself sticking with Dreamweaver. Macromedia has taken a page out of Adobe's book and now with all their latest versions of software, have kept the user interfaces very similar, which makes it very simple to swap between Macromedia products. This is very helpful as I use Flash 5.0 quite a lot. All in all, if you want to get into making a website, definetly take this program into consideration, I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: easy
Review: though this is a good backup tool for hard-core coders who use notepad, if you're just trying to get a proffesional, clean, and good running website up and ready in days, not months, this is the software for you.
Rating:
Summary: Dreamweaver can get you thru the night
Review: When you think of the title of this software a certain song may go through your head; fortunately the song is ok. Agreeing with everything superlative that has been said before, but with one complaint that I am reporting more for Dreamweaver's benefit (hoping they read these reviews as they design the next version of Dreamweaver) than for you. When working with tables, often a column or row will collapse if you haven't promptly placed some content within it. Due to this, it is essentially invisible on screen, and only after you start getting weird effects do you realize that somewhere, some invisible part of the table is messed up. However, this quirk is the only aspect of Dreamweaver that I find fault with - and even with the difficulties, I find I am using tables quite often, and effectively. Before I upgraded to Dreamweaver, I was using a very simple WYSIWYG editor called Adobe PageMill 3.0. Although Dreamweaver's interface looked formidable in comparison (and there is much to discover in it!), it was in fact easy and intuitive to use, and now I can use java scripts and dynamic html and even, if I ever learn how to use Macromedia Flash (a distinct program available seperately), then I'll be able to import Flash content easily. In short, Dreamweaver enables everything you need to stay competitive (short of Flash, that is). Also, the guidebook that comes with the program is extremely well written and I suggest everyone take it to bed. Once you've read it, and gotten a sense of what Dreamweaver can do, I assure you that you will rarely IF EVER need to consult with the book or with the Help menus again. It is intuitive, but reading the book will let you know what Dreamweaver is capable of, an important prerequisite.
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