First and foremost, when dealing with multiple sites, I do with Dreamweaver could remember which site I'm actually working in at the time. By this I mean that if I'm working on a story in Digital Media Designer and want to place a graphic, its Open dialog should default to the last directory I visited in Digital Media Designer. As it stands, it simply defaults to the last directory I visited, which may or may not be within the local site root. (Related to this, it would be a tremendous workflow enhancement to be able to assign and directories to particular operations so that when, for example, I try to place a graphic, the Open dialog would go to an images directory rather than an HTML directory.)

Second—and this is a Mac-only problem—there are very serious issues of file naming limitations. Let's face it, no matter how much you love working on a Mac, sooner or later you're going to have to deal with files uploaded from a user on a Windows system. A Windows user is not inhibited by a 32-character file name, as is the case with the Mac. So you might have directory upon directory of files named on a Windows system that you can't bring down to your local site because the file names are too long. It seems an uncomplicated matter to create a system whereby Dreamweaver would truncate file names upon download to a Mac system and then expand them (by way of cached file information) when reuploading to the server. Either this, or it should offer the ability to batch truncate on the remote server and update relevant links automatically.

Third, Dreamweaver still seems to have problems when cleaning up the HTML code in large documents. It tends to run out of memory and car's when removing nested font tags, redundant tags and empty tags all in one process. If you handle them one at a time, however, there seems to be no problem.

Fourth, moving files on the remote server can have devastating results. It's very easy to click and drag accidentally on a remote file, only to have all of your links to and from that file ruined. On the local site, Dreamweaver gives you a chance to cancel your action or update your links so that, at the very least, you're aware of the change you've accidentally made. On the remote, files can be moved without a peep from the program.

Finally, I'd also like to be able to have more FTP control from within Dreamweaver rather than having to open up a shareware application to set permissions for a directory.

The bottom line
Dreamweaver 4 is a remarkable achievement for a Web design tool. It's intuitive. It's quick. And it adds features that make it well worth the relatively modest upgrade price. Although I've cited several downsides to the program, its strengths more than make up for these. It's an absolute lifesaver for daily Web production, and I couldn't live without it. I give Dreamweaver 4 a strong buy recommendation.

Dreamweaver 4 is available for $299 by itself or $149 as an upgrade. A full version with Fireworks 4 runs $349. (Macromedia's also offering a $100 on the Dreamweaver 4 Fireworks 4 Studio through March 31.) For more information, visit http://www.macromedia.com.