Dreamweaver

If the preview release of Macromedia's Dreamweaver is any sign of things to come, this is an app that has an excellent chance of becoming the dream tool for professional web developers. While a great text editor such as TextPad will likely remain the best choice for the routine maintenance of existing web sites, there will also continue to be a need for more advanced tools that facilitate the design of new web sites and the addition of critical new features like Dynamic HTML, Java applets, and cascading style sheets (CSS) to existing sites. Macromedia Dreamweaver is one app designed to combine the best of both worlds by offering an advanced visual HTML editor and an integrated HTML text editor in the same package. Although this is not entirely evident in the current preview release due to its lack of an internal text editor, the good news is that the official release of Dreamweaver will include Allaire's HomeSite 3.0 as its built-in text editor. While the text editor side of the equation will (eventually) provide you with the flexibility and control needed to maintain web sites of any and all sizes, the visual mode of Dreamweaver presents you with all the tools necessary to create high-powered, advanced web sites that are both attractive and informative in nature. The visual mode also helps to make Dreamweaver one of the more graphically attractive clients in its category. The visual editor's interface combines a quick and efficient WYSIWYG display with 3D icons that represent more advanced tags and hidden attributes like scripts, comments, and embedded content. Dreamweaver is also a total web solution package in that it integrates the dual editors with site publishing and synchronization tools. Once you create a new page or update existing ones you can automatically upload the page or pages to your web site without having to leave the Dreamweaver interface. Dreamweaver is at its best when helping you integrate the latest HTML features into your web pages. The client makes it easy to add advanced features like Dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (including layering), absolute positioning, scripting, plug-in modules, ActiveX controls, Java applets, and Shockwave content (including Flash and Director-based media). Dreamweaver also offers a set of visual design tools for creating forms, tables, and frames. A JavaScript Behavior library that allows you to create animations, sounds, alert messages, and other applets using pre-generated JavaScript coding is another of Dreamweaver's unique attributes. The Behavior library even allows you to add your own customizable behaviors. Additional design features include a repeating element library that makes changes to repeated content in all the pages of a site (allowing you to change all the headers and footers for your site at one time, for example), Dynamic HTML animation timelines for creating sophisticated animations that run in 4.0 browsers without the need for plug-ins, a browser verification tool that identifies pages that won't work in a specific browser and reports the tags that are causing problems, and an HTML inspector window that allows you to see the HTML code generated in real time while you work in Dreamweaver's visual mode. Another beneficial aspect of Dreamweaver is that it preserves the content and structure of your HTML code for pages that were created in other editors. This contrasts with a client like FrontPage which has the tendency to add its own coding and make unnecessary changes to your existing content. Although only in preview release, Dreamweaver already shows the potential of becoming the consummate tool for the design and maintenance of professional web sites. The only downside to what could possibly become the tool of your dreams is a price tag that does its part to ensure that your feet will remain firmly placed on the ground. Expect Dreamweaver to sell for just under $500 after an initial release period when the product first ships. But if you do decide to buy the client during its official release, you'll be able to take advantage of Dreamweaver's introductory street price of $299 for an easy savings of more than $200. While still somewhat expensive, when you take into account all of Dreamweaver's advanced features and its inclusion of Allaire's HomeSite 3.0, the $299 price tag seems...well, almost dreamy. Pros: Total solution for professional web design, support for nearly every advanced HTML command imaginable Cons: Somewhat pricey, still rather slow when compared to standalone text editors For the latest information on Dreamweaver, check out: http://cws.internet.com/32html.html#dreamweaver