Adobe Dreamweaver CS3: More Than Meets the Eye

Nowadays there are so many choices when it comes to coding for the web. With a vast array of different editors in its arsenal, the Internet is loaded with "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) editors, text editors, and HTML editors being the most popular types. Many coders claim that nothing is simpler or better than Notepad (Win) or Textedit (Mac) for coding web-related material. However, there are those of us who would prefer a little boost from a helping hand when coding. That's where the WYSIWYG and HTML editors come in. For those of us who prefer a little help, the majority claims that Adobe Dreamweaver, formerly Macromedia Dreamweaver, CS3 is the best of the business; but why is it so?

Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 has evolved over the years and I have had the advantage and blessing of seeing it evolve from version 4 to MX to 8 to CS3. Naturally, it has improved drastically, but moreso from MX to CS3, going through two versions before completing its perfection. Much of this is due to the improvement in its web rendering engine, a part of its WYSIWYG section. Now Dreamweaver is able to display just about all CSS and JavaScript completely correctly and this adds to why so many people agree that it is the best editor. On top of that, when you want to preview your website in a browser, it's simply one click away with the browser preview feature.

Personally, I believe the greatest highlight of the program is its ability to automatically complete tags while you are typing them with its simple yet so very effective popup box where it displays a list of choices to complete your tags; all you have to do is scroll down the list and hit enter or click your mouse. And when you're done with your tag and its content, Dreamweaver can automatically close your tag and check to make sure every tag is closed so your code isn't incomplete. Keep in mind this technology has been around for a few versions but it is key in describing why Dreamweaver is the best editor.

Introduced in CS3 is the ability to add spry components to a website with the click of a few buttons. You can create tabbed menus that instantly load content without having to load a separate page for each tab. You can have collapsible panels as well as accordion panels and drop-down menus. The customization of all these new features is endless as I can see it, but keep in mind you must have a decent understanding of how CSS and JavaScript work, not so much on the JavaScript though but it is helpful.

CSS and JavaScript features have been updated as well to the new web "standards" that people are pushing for so tables can be a thing of the past if you let them. It is relatively simple to code a full website without the use of a single table and with the use of xHTML/CSS only.

Overall, I can see no downfall with the use of Dreamweaver in creating web content as long as the user remains smart; please do not just use "Dreamweaver layers" to position elements. It just creates bigger viewing problems and messy code. If you try to go into using Dreamweaver knowing absolutely nothing of HTML or PHP or any coding language, you WILL have problems. However, learn a little-become a beginner or intermediate coder-and Dreamweaver can be the best program that you've ever used. It speeds up coding a great deal as opposed to writing it with a simple text editor.

In conclusion, the newest version retains the program's unique and powerful earlier developments as well as improves on old problems and bugs and adds newer features to make it useful for coding to newer web standards. A superb product and well-deserved investment for any designer/coder-10/10.