As with
Dreamweaver 3, you also have access to the Macromedia
Exchange, which provides a couple hundred extensions for
Dreamweaver, some of which probably should have come preinstalled,
such as the Favorites extension. If you've been using Dreamweaver
and you haven't visited the Exchange, you're missing out. This
is a great resource and will absolutely make your life easier.
For the
new kids
For those of you previously unfamiliar with Dreamweaver, there's
really no goo place to begin, and I can't reasonably cover all
of the program's features here—not adequately, anyway.
Let me explain
it from a user's point of view. Dreamweaver looks and behaves
like a mature design tool. If you've used any desktop publishing
applications, it will be a snap for you to get used to this.
That's the background I came from, and I was up and running
in a day. Less than a day, really. A couple quick questions
to some of my colleagues, and everything fell into place.
If you want
to place a graphic, you click the graphic button. If you want
to place a table, you click the table button. Typography is
handled through a control palette like QuarkXPress or any other
page layout application. You create links by highlighting text
and typing or pasting a link in the same palette. (Or you can
use the little target tool to select open documents or documents
listed in your site files.) Colors, margins, alignment: It all
works just like page layout.
The Site View in Dreamweaver 4 (shrunk down to fit this page).
If you've
done some Web work and dealt with traditional FTP clients, you'll
be pleasantly surprised by Dreamweaver's site management capabilities.
You create a mirror of your site on your local drive and just
upload files by typing a command or clicking the "Put"
button. Dreamweaver automatically creates all the parent directories
and uploads the files to the right places. If you move a file
in your local site, Dreamweaver can automatically update all
the links within that document and all the pages that link to
that document. You can then synchronize your site to make sure
all the newest files are up on the remote server, and vice versa.
Again, I
can't cover everything here for those of you new to Web layout
tools. If you do decide to purchase Dreamweaver, we do have
our own support forum here at Digital Media Net. (We have one
for GoLive as well.) Stop by and see what users are asking and
saying. You will find all you need to know at http://www.wwug.com/forums/macromedia_dreamweaver/index.htm.
The gripes
No application is perfect, of course, so I'll lay down a few
of the problems I've had with Dreamweaver. These are common
to version 4.0 and 3.x.
