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Dreamweaver 4

Looking for the ultimate web design tool? Kai Chandler takes a look at Dreamweaver 4.

If you want to create a web site then one of your first decisions when looking for a tool is whether to take the design or development route. By that I mean using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) design tool such as Microsoft FrontPage or developing the underlying HTML code using an editor such as Allaire HomeSite or even Notepad. Among professionals, one of the top tools is Macromedia Dreamweaver which offers the best of both worlds. 

The latest version, Dreamweaver 4, is not for the faint-hearted. Although functionally extremely rich, having a feature list as long as your arm does not make for a simple learning curve but anyone making the investment, both financially and in terms of time, is unlikely to move to a different tool.

Of course, Macromedia do their best to help you come up to speed. Lessons, guided tours and tutorials are included with the package. Such is the popularity of Dreamweaver that beginner and expert alike will be well served by the third party books and computer based training material. Once you’ve mastered Dreamweaver’s user interface, using their complementary products such as the Fireworks image editor is relatively straightforward.  Dreamweaver and Fireworks have been designed to work together and in practice this makes for a very successful combination. There’s not enough space in this review to cover the functionality of Dreamweaver but instead I’ll focus on some of the top new features of the latest version, Dreamweaver 4.

Split View.  You can choose to display either the HTML code, the WYSIWYG design or both at the same time in adjacent windows. If you make a change in one view then the other view is immediately updated.  This is a really great feature which underlines Dreamweaver’s flexibility as both design tool and editor. You’ll become an HTML expert in no time at all!

Reference. Online reference books from O’Reilly for solving those knotty syntax problems. They cover HTML, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets and will save you buying additional reference books.

Flash Buttons. Pre-defined, animated Flash buttons can be included in your Web pages. You can also add your own buttons. Best of all is that you can do this without needing the full Flash product.

Synchronize Site Dreamweaver provides the FTP functionality for you to transfer files between PC and webserver. The new Synchronize feature allows you to synchronise the local and remote versions of your site and even delete orphan files on each site. Synchronize Site lets you update the remote server without tracking the modified files. Quite a time saver.

Keyboard shortcuts. You can edit, create or delete keyboard shortcuts. Ideal for the power user.  

Site reporting. Run prebuilt reports to check external links, or list files with combinable nested font tags, missing Alt text, redundant nested tags, removable empty tags, and untitled documents. You can even write your own reports.

Asset Manager. Organize assets such as images, scripts, URLs and templates for quick reuse. You can also store them as favourites.

So to sum up, Dreamweaver 4 is a superb product that combines the best of the design and HTML editing worlds. It’s not the easiest tool in the world but offers plenty of room to grow. Highly recommended is the Dreamweaver 4 Fireworks 4 Studio edition which bundles the Fireworks graphics editor and the Allaire HomeSite 4.5 HTML editor. 

Dreamweaver 4 is available for you to evaluate on a 28-day trial basis by downloading from here.