Adobe Dreamweaver CS4

I've just upgraded from Dreamweaver 8 to the Adobe CS4 version. First let me say that all of the wonderful reviews for Dreamweaver CS4 are true - it's just about the best product that money can buy to edit and develop websites. If you want to know why this is a good program go read those reviews - they are accurate. One of my job-titles involves web site design - I've been doing this since the mid 1990's so I've used most of the commercial programs out there at one time or another and the Dreamweaver line of software is a solid product that enables you to build wonderful creations ... BUT: Some of the 1 star reviews are spot on too - this is not a product for beginners because of one major flaw - documentation. Basically Adobe expect that you'll always have an Internet connection to read the documentation - THERE IS NO MANUAL SUPPLIED WITH THE SOFTWARE (not even a PDF version) and the on-line videos assume that you can hear ... so if you're deaf - this is a very unfriendly pro... Read more

I've been using Dreamweaver CS4 for the last few months. It has some cool features but for me it's been too hard to use to make it worth switching to from Visual Studio. Things I find difficult to use are: * It shifts the text area up and down a line when it displays syntax checking errors as you type. Lines of code are usually not yet correct while you're still typing and it's distracting. * The Find dialog pops up over the code window, often hiding a search result. Finding and replacing text is a common task and you spend a lot of time moving the dialog out of the way. * Control-Up and Control-Down aren't available. * Control-Left and Control-Right don't jump in correct whole word increments so you jump around with the arrow keys more than you should need to.

Dreamweaver CS4 is the best version of Dreamweaver I have used. The new Live View mode is great. In the past you have been able to see what your site looks like but it never worked that well. The Live View mode uses a rendering engine like a web browser so the view is very accurate. I have had problems with Live View and server side languages like php. I think these problems are related to my test server being a remote server. If you run a local test server this will greatly reduce your issues. The code hints are also improving as the product matures. Great product... I recommend Dreamweaver to everyone looking to build sites.

Since its initial release in 1997, Adobe Dreamweaver (before Adobe, it was a Macromedia product) has become the industry standard for website creation. When Adobe bought Macromedia in 2005, many hailed it as the beginning of a bright new future, full of love and harmony, between the Adobe suite of products like Illustrator and Photoshop and the former Macromedia products like Flash, Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Four years later, that bright new future has finally come to pass for Dreamweaver. So, what does CS4 bring to the table that we haven't seen before? The first thing long-time users will notice it that the user interface has been overhauled and now it looks much more like every other product in the Adobe suite of products. This means tabs, windows and menus all look like you would expect them to look in an Adobe-platform product. Best of all, moving betweens Adobe applications feels effortless and natural, but you'll still be able to find your way around it you have been using D... Read more

The installation went smoothly. After looking at some Lynda.com "movies" on this product,I am totally overwhelmed. The Adobe product came with no user documentation at all. This company seems to believe in unbundling everything for $$$$$$. When I actually use, then I might change my mind --but so far Adobe is not that customer-friendly. Try dealing with Adobe customer support! It's not good at all.