[SOLVED] Dreamweaver - What d'ya think?

Hey guys!

As some members know, I'm into websites and I am in process of building one. Up to now it's been me and notepad.

But today, my school gave me a copy of Dreamweaver 2 (schools get free stuff).
I was delighted and was able to use it a bit before my mom became suspicious...

It definitly helps more than a basic notepad, but it is still a bit complicated. Powerfull, of course, and loads of features I'm going to discover.

I would like to know what you think of Dreamweaver and if you have any tips about using it.

Thanks,
Fire Cat

In before the Notepad purists...

I like it quite a bit. I am way, way beyond those days when I had an interest in coding html by hand. I like ironing out bugs and tweaking by hand, but for all else a WYSIWYG editor is a life(and time)saver. And as far as editors go, DMW is definitely the best I've experienced.

I like it, but for now I think I'm only going to use it for adding text and formatting as well as cleanning the code, while doing the design manualy.

Though, it has great features. For example, the most usefull one I find is the preview in IE or FF in any other browser.

I envy you guys who can do website design. Either it's my ADD or patience, not sure which, but never been able to sit down and really get with it so to speak.

FC - when you get done I would really like to see some of your web designs.

suspicious? Are you still grounded from using the computer? You got it from school - sounds a lot like homework.

I use Dreamweaver all the time, so it's got a big thumbs up from me. The WYSIWYG feature is excellent, plus it's so much easier to edit code manually in DW.

I also like to correct errors and clean up code manually, but when you're trying to visualise complex tables or just have a quick overview of what you've coded so far, it's a real time saver.

That is precisely what I do as well.

Fire Cat - You'd better be careful, sometimes HELL hath no fury like a Mother upset, especially if you're saying one thing and then doing another.

Believe I know from first-hand experience!

We just don't want to see a news flash on CNN about a Mother throwing her son into the Zuiderzee!

Actually, I got Dreamweaver from a request of my father. He wants me to help him use it for some of his stuff. That's why I got permission to try it out and mess around with it, and I used the occasion to clean up a bit my own website. But I still keep my own copy of DW on an unknown USB Key...

I understand how to change text formating, color, add links and comments, add scripts and tables and other things, but how do I make a simple div? I have to start of from notepad before being able to do any other editing in DW. As I said, I still have to do the main UI from scratch in notepad.

I have tried Expression, which is OK for my low requirements. Experimented with
Sharepoint designer. I have two websites which I built myself and, during that process, I learned enough (not vey much, I'm afaraid) not to return to the over simple FrontPage.

"For example, the most usefull one I find is the preview in IE or FF in any other browser."

Isn't that in most, or am I misunderstanding you?

"I envy you guys who can do website design."

No envy required, imho. I am top level dumb with coding. That's why I use the proggies mentioned - they do all the hard work.