Dreamweaver Review and Comparison: Is Dreamweaver the Right Choice?

Dreamweaver CS4 is the industry standard for website design professionals all over the world, who demand the absolute best in terms of features, integration, compatibility, and usability.  Dreamweaver is the standard for web designers, web developers, online visual designers, and a number of other Internet creation professionals.  Dreamweaver has been around for many years, however CS4 is the latest incarnation and improves on its predecessors in a number of ways.  Web content can now be previewed and tested twice as fast than in a browser, by using the new Live Code feature that is built-into this new Dreamweaver title.  Dreamweaver offers its users the absolute best in so many ways, and the steep initial learning curve is more than made up for by the professional interface and rich feature set.

Live View may be the newest and most exciting feature in Adobe Dreamweaver CS4, but it is by no means the only feature that makes Dreamweaver unique among its competition.  Dreamweaver CS4  has a new user interface, allowing you to work faster and smarter with a dynamic workspace switcher.  The new Ajax and JavaScript frameworks also allow users to work with scripts more efficiently, with increased support for JavaScript core objects, primitive data types, and JavaScript frameworks.  HTML data sets are another new feature of Dreamweaver CS4, allowing users to build dynamic websites without having to learn XML or extensive database management.  There are a number of other great new features included with CS4, such as Adobe InContext Editing, Photoshop Smart Objects, and a Related File Navigator.

Dreamweaver CS4 is a complex application that allows its users to work exactly how they want to work.  Web designers can work with Dreamweaver visually in Design view, or hand code in Code view, with many users combining these two approaches.  The brand new Live View also allows users to see their design in-process exactly as it would be seen in real browser conditions.  Dreamweaver CS4 is the professional standard in web design, and has great support for a number of web-based technologies such as HTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, and PHP among others.  Dreamweaver also integrates well with a number of other web and design technologies, including Photoshop, Flash, Fireworks, and a number of server-side development technologies.

Dreamweaver may have a steeper learning curve than many other web design and development environments, but serious designers see this initial effort as an investment in their future.  The integration, flexibility, feature set, and support that Dreamweaver can offer users is second to none, and it is likely to remain the professional web design software of choice for many years to come.