Once upon a time a company had a dream, a dream to make it possible for anyone to create a website. This company created a piece of Website Design software that would make it easy to view both the code and the visual appearance of a website side by side. The software would automatically generate website code for changes that were made visually on screen using design elements such as images, text, table layouts and more. As previously websites were created purely on a basis of writing code rather than visually being able to edit your web page designs on screen using visual design elements.

It was a powerful system that Macromedia created and named Dreamweaver, and it instantly proved popular in the website development community. Although the product is now owned by Adobe, it is no less popular, with new releases frequently updating the functionality of the software that we have learnt to love.

Dreamweaver supports a long list of different website development languages, from the popular HTML, PHP, CSS and Javascript, to the more obscure Wireless Markup Language (WML) and ColdFusion, amongst many other languages. This made the software ideal for website developers, especially as, in most cases, the code produced by this software is clean and easy to export to your website hosting, ready for the world to see your design.

Despite the obvious advantages that Adobe Dreamweaver does have to offer, there are some disadvantages that should also be considered.

  • Dreamweaver isn’t exactly the cheapest piece of software on the market. If you are just starting out into the world of website design, you might not want to make such an investment without being sure that you wish to continue.
  • Although the code it produces isn’t (always) unattractive, using any editor like Dreamweaver will prevent you from learning the coding skills that you would pick up if you were developing your websites from scratch. This can make it difficult should things go wrong; as you won’t know where to look to fix them!
  • You may find that it takes longer than you would expect to learn how to create a website using Dreamweaver, as the user interface is not necessarily user friendly. Don’t be surprised if, after some weeks, you discover that there was an easier way to do something that took a lot of time.

Although these disadvantages may put you off choosing Dreamweaver as your means to create your website design, you should always remember that it is a particularly powerful piece of software that can be used to great advantage. Many features can help you to create excellent website designs, such as the ability to use templates to create a consistent look across all of your web pages, so don’t write it off too quickly.

If you are still unsure as to whether to purchase Adobe Dreamweaver, it is worth pointing out that Adobe often offers a 30 day free trial of their most popular software. This is an excellent opportunity to discover whether Dreamweaver could aid you in the creation of your own websites.

At LogoDesignMonster.com we believe that currently Adobe offer the best graphic design and website design applications, however the article above was written to hopefully illustrate both the advantages and disadvantages of Dreamweaver. We personally believe that the advantages are far greater than the disadvantages provided by the software and that Adobe have done an excellent job in providing an intelligent and enjoyable website design application.