Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 review

Moreover, Dreamweaver's coding capabilities go far beyond the basics of HTML and CSS. To begin with, Dreamweaver is already looking ahead, making it simple to ensure that your code complies with the stricter future requirements of XHTML and XML. Even more powerful is its coding support for the data-driven markup languages ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, PHP and ColdFusion, complete with full tag library support and online references. Even better, you can work with all these languages to retrieve and display dynamic content directly within Dreamweaver's main visual environment.

Of course, if you're just setting out to become a web author all these technologies seem a long way off and seriously intimidating. The central point, though, is that with Dreamweaver there's no ceiling. You can start working with HTML/CSS in the wysiwyg Design view and as you become more experienced begin working directly with the code. Then, if you hit the limits of static HTML/XHTML/CSS, you also have the choice of all the major alternative routes to producing your pages dynamically.

Ultimately, it's this that makes Dreamweaver stand out. To one extent or another, all the other wysiwyg web authoring apps from Web Easy right through to GoLive are constantly fighting against the fact that web pages are built on code. By embracing the fact and working with the Web's underlying architecture rather than against it, Dreamweaver provides the most efficient and effective interface and workflow and enables its users to produce the most efficient and effective sites.