Dreamweaver alternative?

[chriskn]

I'm an IT Management Consultant who occasionally does a bit of web site authoring for my daughter (www.joknowles.co.uk) and in support of a charity I am a trustee of (www.cumbria-in-bloom.org.uk). (I didn't author the latter, I just make textual changes).
I currently use Dreamweaver MX bought back in 2002. I have just moved to Vista and tried to install Dreamweaver. It installed ok, but when I try to run it I get a "Xerces panic error", and the program closes. I have tried to get support from Adobe, but they're not interested (not surprisingly).
I don't really want to pay for the new version - particularly as we typically have to pay a lot more than is charged in the USA - but also because I can't justify it for the small amount I use it.
So, to the question,can anyone recommend an alternative tool that I could use, assuming I can't get around this error?

[123Racing]

You might want to try a free trial of a product from a company called Evrsoft

I've been using Dreamweaver for a number of years and found that the Evrsoft product is more than suitable as an alternative.

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[arvana]

You could also try the open-source and cross-platform Nvu. Not quite as good as Dreamweaver but certainly a good effort by the open source community... and it's free!

[chriskn]

Thanks a lot to both of you, both products look good. I've installed Nvu (heck I like the price!!), and have successfully accessed my local and remote files, so I'm going to give it a go with that. Thanks again for the advice.
Chris

[HHI_Golf_Guy]

If you're looking for a professional authoring tool, the new Microsoft Expression Web Designer is far and away the best authoring tool available (sorry Dreamweaver fans, but Microsoft actually got this one right).

If you just need a free, standard editor then Coffee Cup is a nice tool.

[southplatte]

If you're looking for a professional authoring tool, the new Microsoft Expression Web Designer is far and away the best authoring tool available (sorry Dreamweaver fans, but Microsoft actually got this one right).

If you just need a free, standard editor then Coffee Cup is a nice tool.

The Microsoft Expression Web Designer is a nice tool, especially for ASP and Microsoft oriented web sites, though in playing it would appear you can use other languages. I also have used the Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express which was pretty solid for being free.

I still prefer Dreamweaver as it has some nice tools I frequently use and integrate with Fireworks and Flash.

Nvu is a great editor as well on the windows platform having used it too.

[chriskn]

To Arvana - just noticed where you are from - small world, I'm coming over to Guelph in March to my niece's wedding. Don't worry, I'm not going to drop in on you!

[dburdon]

Chriskn,

I'm a NVu fan. And you're right about the price. I'm largely working in XHTML 1.0 strict using CSS and it does the job. Its got a few bugs and glitches but there's a good forum too.

[bj]

I know you said you're trying NVU, but since there may be other people interested, here's a good resource, though I think it'll be awhile before things are caught up to Vista.

css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=CssEditors

These are the editors the CSS-Discuss group recommends as supporting standards compliant code. Many are open source, but not all. TSW is excellent, but he's a one man company so may not be vista compatible yet. I've heard good things about StyleMaster as well, though I personally wasn't wild about it when I tried it (but I've been in the DW rut for MANY years . . . )

[shannonlp]

I use Dreamweaver and NVU I also use Zend Studio. I tried expressions and found it to create extra code which was meaningless.

If you don't want to fork out any extra cash for the upgrade give NVU a try. If I remember right it is backed by W3C.