What our customer's say!

"More Crashes Less Work Done", This product consistently crashes multiple times a day. Usually javascript errors or unknown errors. Yes it does rewrite code incorrectly at times and has cost me more work lost than I could actually get done by using it. It is ust an overbloated text editor. Support is horrible. This product is a waste of time and has been since it first introduction. I only use it occasionally because it is slightly better than the most basic text editor and then I still cringe.

"You can do better", As a professional web designer and the web lead for my company, I chose DreamWeaver MX for our primary Web-IDE. It is a decision I have come to regret.

DreamWeaver makes many fine promises, but like a presidential candidate, once it's in the office, it fails to keep those promises. Let me give you some idea what I'm talking about:

Version control:
DreamWeaver's version control is very simplistic, and to be fair, DreamWeaver integrates with MS VSS and Macromedia's own versioning system, but using the built in version control with DreamWeaver can easily lead to overwritten code and lost files (as in lost forever). DreamWeaver does not play well with CVS or Subversion.

Stability:
DreamWeaver crashes at least once daily, sometimes with a warning, but usually without. Javascript errors abound. I upgraded my operating system from Windows 2000 to XP Professional in the hopes that I was seeing integration problems, but alas, the crashes continue unabated.

Templates:
The real reason I chose DreamWeaver was its sophisticated templating system, which would allow me to write parts of the code and farm out the content management to my colleagues, who use either DreamWeaver or Contribute (a WYSIWYG content-management partner for DreamWeaver). Unfortunately, DreamWeaver doesn't have a clear grasp of what is editable and what is not. We have noticed that DreamWeaver and Contribute both sometimes will prevent legitimate edits. What's worse, however, is that DreamWeaver will lose changes to regions that it incorrectly deems uneditable. Depending on the particular situation, DreamWeaver may or may not tell you that it has refused your change.

WYSIWYG/Contribute:
It's difficult enough to write code that works in more than one web browser, but if you want your standards-compliant, tableless code to look good in DreamWeaver and Contribute, you had better be prepared to spend a few more hours on each page.

Consumer: You can do better. You probably would save yourself an ulcer writing code in a text-editor.

Macromedia: You can do better. Fix the bugs. Make DreamWeaver standards compliant and integrate CVS and Subversion support into it.

"Dreamweaver MX 2004 - good for PHP, bad for people", I am a big fan of Dreamweaver 4 and have been trying MX 2004 because my DW4 broke. All i can say is it's a great for writing PHP scripts and not much else. Once i switch to design view, i am confronted with stupid things like the cut and paste feature messesing with my code.

If you Google the phrase "Dreamweaver 4 compatible editable regions", you'll find a hack useful in helping all who still stick to the old DW4 template syntex.

"Macromedia...you've lost my business.", Macromedia...you've lost my business. Other reviewers are right...Dreamweaver has become bloat-ware with too many features no true web-professional needs.

Once upon a time I loved Dreamweaver. It was a great code editor with a simple to use FTP client. But, I've had enough; Dreamweaver MX crashes on me 4X a day on average. I'm going in search of a clean and simple code editor. If I can find one that has some kind of code complete feature for XHTML, CSS and ASP.net, so much the better.

Furthermore, thanks to WYSIWYG editors, I fear that too many developers out there don't really know what they are doing anymore. If you're a novice, here is my advice: learn to hand-code XHTML & CSS for your front-end web development and embrace W3C web standards. I'm serious...do this and you will become a very valuable resource...maybe I'll hire you someday.

Always remember this: the code editor is not your tool; the code is.

"n00b prog", DW MX is a WYSIMOLWIG (what you see is more or less what you get) program, for n00bs who want to make a website. I'm a proffesional coder (html, php, asp, js, cgi, perl, css and i can also wark with c(++), vbs and pascal), and this program sux. If you want to make a website, go get yourself a book about html, later php and asp. If you make a website yourself in pure html, you exactly know what you're doing opposite to dreamweaver. I only use dreamweaver sometimes, to look up a tag, testing a php script or testing something on my html pages.
Conclusion: dreamweaver is defenetly NOT worth its price actually, it would be a nice program for quick testing if it was free.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Powerful morass of overwhelming features", I began editing HTML in 1997 with Dreamweaver 2. Shortly after that I swithced to Front Page, which was far more appropriate for the kind of web design I was interested in--the text content is far more important than the graphics and doohickeys. On the recommendation of various web developer friends of mine, I decided to buy and try Dreamweaver MX last June 2003.

I am first and foremost a teacher. Web development is a useful tool for me, but not my main interest. I keep three very large Front Page based web sites (all three are in the 100-300 page size range, and very much text based). FP really made this easy for me. Dreamweaver MX is targeted at those who develop sophisticated sites with active content--databases, forms, cgi scripts, media (Flash/Shockwave). It you are that type of developer, then it is clear that Dreamweaver is an excellent choice. FP is just not up to handling that sort of complexity and flexibility. But, if you maintain large html based sites that require rapid expansion and reorganization features with a minimum of training, FP is lightyears ahead--easy to learn, extremely intuitive, transparent and very fast. I can see that if I had started with DW-MX and built it from there that things would have been easier. A big part of the problem is that Macromedia has not created effective support for making the switch, and their product is definitely not as self-explanatory as FP.

Still, after a few hours I did figure out on my own most everything else that I needed to make use of the initially overwhelming displayed features. If you have some experience with HTML, it isn't that difficult to figure out. But it's definitely not a good choice for a beginner without some classroom training. It is an impressive package.

But, here are the real downsides: If you depend on FP's shared borders and navigation bars and themes, and your site is bigger than ten or twenty pages, then migrating your web site will be an unbelievable nightmare. Expect to have your shared borders altered and no longer controllable. Your site will be locked the way it was when you converted it, and new pages will not integrate into the FP navigation structure. You'll have to rebuild your whole site structure from scratch.
Further, as near as I can tell after spending about 12 actual hours probing the manual, help and just plain pushing buttons, I cannot find any feature that is equivalent to the combination of FP's theme, shared border and navigation bar feature. I find this to be highly undesirable. Therefore, Front Page is the superior choice for the beginner, and for the more advanced developer who wants a really streamlined and quick way to create and maintain a large but basic site without having to learn what cgi, asp, php, cold fusion, ODBC, test servers, etc. are all about.

Oh, and if you have Windows XP Home Edition, don't even bother, because Dreamweaver MX can't work properly without the server features included in the Professional Edition.

"Overpriced for what it is - Very Hard to Learn", O.K. I bought this some months ago on a colleague's recommendation. After a few DAYS of going through and trying to create a site I had a mediocre, confusing bunch of mish-mash. So I went back to square one for a few MORE DAYS. This software is really not for visual thinkers. If you are an artist or creative type - Dreamweaver's not for us. After a couple of weeks I tried FrontPage - it's worse.

I finally found a more visual and intuitive program called Net Objects Fusion 7, which I also have reviewed.

If you want to look at and learn complicated code without really seeing what's happening Dreamweaver is for you. For the more creative or artistic types or if you don't want to learn all the complex code I would recommend NetObjects Fusion 7. It's by far the best of the 4 programs I have used.

I suppose each has their strengths - Dreamweaver has alot of features but they are useless if it takes forever to learn to use them. That's time I don't have.

"You can tell men from boys by the price of their toys...", Used them all. Frontpage is an easy tool to use and can be extended as far as you would reasonably want to go with easy-to-use third-party add-ons. DW MX and DW MX Studio start at one or two levels above Frontpage and, therefore, have a steeper start-up learning curve and can reach "higher altitudes".

MX Studio is the finest package of software (WYSIWIG or not) I have had my hands on in over 30 years of bit-banging. With MX Studio, you can bring your coffee pot and "move in". Your whole computer is accessible from within DW MX. And armed with 4 more specialized development packages in the Studio to round out the product, DW MX Studio will stimulate your creative juices once you are "settled in".

The Studio is aimed at the professional or the cyber-hobbyist.
If you've got the spare change and the need to do it all, your choice is DW MX Studio. "Go for broke!"

"Awesome program, but be sure to update immediatley", I'm not going to go too much into the amazing robustness of this program. It is hands down the best wysiwyg + coding program out there. Even if you are a hand coder, it will help you be more productive. Be sure you have a lot of computer resources for it as it is still a hog, but better than previous versions.
**Mainly, I just wanted y'all to know to go to Dreamweaver's site immediatley after getting this program so that you can install v6.1 updater.** I was surprised it shipped as the older version.

"lol, some people...", okay, noob or not this prog owns everyone. it's worth every penny! unlike ANY microsoft products. from php integration to building flash buttons on the fly, this is a tool for any web designer who is serious about doing the right job. macro's for java scripts are build right in. want to list a form input box, and list all the days of the month but u don't wanna type em in. drag and drop a date input box and walla. mx comes with new compatiblity for mysql, the code engine owns me! from the file system to the wysiwyg editor. NOTHING comes remotly close to the power of dreamweaver mx. there is ONLY 1 downfall of mx, and that's the memory hogging. although that is annoying sometimes, it's a small price to pay for the time you do save and the complexity and level of design it offers. php isn't the only script language that is involved in dwmx either. i've heard asp, vbscript, js, java, and many more have been added to the list of powerful tools that are built into dreamweaver. i recommend this prog. to any developer who wants to get there feet wet with the best web tool on the market.