Dreamweaver vs GoLive vs MS Expression Web

[shamarkaleo]

Hi Web Guru Gang,

I'm writing to ask a question, and considering the strong feelings in the design world, I may be opening Pandora's box here.

My question has to do with WYSIWYG design programs.

In your opinion, which is the best to use? Dreamweaver, GoLive, or the new Expression Web?

Which has the most intuitive user interface?
Which produces the cleanest and most valid code?

If a person is going to learn one of these programs from scratch, which presents the smallest learning curve?

What have your experiences been-- good or bad-- with these programs?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Kelli S.

[davebarnes]

Kelli,

1. GoLive is not even in the running. Oh, why? Because it is Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe GoLive. Adobe has never supported competing/similar products for very long. GoLive is the walking dead. The Dreamweaver base is much larger. I know that Adobe made noises about continuing to support GoLive but just look at their history. They jettison products (PageMill, Persuasion, SuperPaint, ImageReady) at the slightest excuse.

2. I use Dreamweaver every day and have for the last 8+ years. In my opinion, its strengths are:

• WYSIWYG editing.
  Easy to switch between "design" view and code view.
  It does not rewrite my code. (With one small exception related to tables.)
  It "knows about" server-side languages such as PHP and ColdFusion.
  Supports CSS and Server Side Includes.
  Check-in/Check-out so a team of 2 or 3 can work together on the same website.
  Contribute. A companion editing product for people who want pure WYSIWYG.
  Runs under both Windows and Mac OS X.

3. I have never used Expression. But, in my opinion, Microsoft has a tough slog ahead of them.

• a. Every professional web developer hates FrontPage (Expression's predecessor).
  b. FrontPage was very popular with many amateur developers because it was much less expensive than Dreamweaver. This is not the case with Expression. It is a professional tool with a comparable price to DW.
  c. It runs only under Windows.
  d. Adobe sees this market as key. They will fight ferociously for the space.
  e. There is a huge amount of support from the user community for DW. Fpr example, http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforu...cfm?forumid=12 . Microsoft is just figuring out how to add user forums for their products.

Microsoft will bundle Expression with other "must have" products to lower the price, but Adobe will do the same. Microsoft destroyed Aldus/Adobe Persuasion by bundling PowerPoint into MS Office. Adobe will not surrender to that tactic again.

You asked three questions "user interface...valid code...learning curve" which I did not answer. Because they are not relevant to which product will still be standing at the end of round 15. Adobe will win.

By the way, Dreamweaver is very easy to learn. I recently taught two people (a research analyst and a headhunter) how to use DW to edit their own websites. And, I taught them via the telephone.

,dave

[sub_kovert]

wow....hold on now.....

Every professional web developer hates FrontPage

I think not,

every code editor suffers from the same problems, these are just 'tools' - use them as a base but please do not rely on any one of them

[davebarnes]

sub_kovert,

What editor do you like/prefer?

,dave

[JohneeMac]

Hand code everything in DW8, i find the code hints and css options pretty handy.

For anyone who is serious is web design the WYSIWYG i DW is the wrong way to go about things imo.If you are knocking up a site as a hobby then yeah sure thing but to produce good code that works across multiple browsers- nope

[sub_kovert]

What editor do you like/prefer?

Depends, for ASP I use Frontpage 2003 , PHP Dreamweaver. For html both and/or notepad & NVU.

Like I said though I think they need to be looked upon as tools, they all suffer the same problems.

[DCnotPC]

I keep falling back to Net Objects for quick design.
Anyone using Net Objects?

[shamarkaleo]

Originally Posted by DCnotPC

I keep falling back to Net Objects for quick design.
Anyone using Net Objects?

DC,
I've been using NetObjects ever since version 7 and have really liked it.

The reason for my post and my poll is that I'm going to have to switch to something more solid now that they're pushing Fusion 10. I've found Fusion 10 to be buggy and unstable and NOT worth the money.

It's unfortunate, because the NetObjects 9 user interface, etc, was really great, and they've got a nice accompanying site-update program for clients.

But because of the unstable new release, and my growing need for cleaner, faster loading pages free from bloated, non-compliant code, I really have to find something different to facilitate my designs.

Kelli S.

[Paul B]

I think there is a general misconception the Dreamweaver (and all wysiwyg/code editors) have something to do with design. You site won't look any better or worse using DW or Frontpage.

I have used DW for 8 years and have never deisgned anything in it. I design in Fireworks, or on a piece of paper. But I use Dreamweaver to assemble the pages. It allows easy coding and templating, but not designing...

Acually, if I were starting over today, I'd probably use TopStyle Pro to build sites and save $100s...