Dreamweaver CS3 vs. Freeway 5.0

frank777frank777
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I'm finally looking to move from GoLive to something more modern and ready for the future.

I got RapidWeaver as part of MacHeist, but I find it a bit too restrictive. I'm a WYSIWYG kind of guy.



Adobe, in their infinite wisdom, does not allow for an upgrade from their old web development program to their new one. This means I'll have to pay the full $399. for Dreamweaver if I decide to go that route.



I'm intrigued with the news about Softpress' new version of Freeway, which is out this month. Anybody here have experience with this product?



I'm less than enamoured with SoftPress' own site, which is text-heavy and lacks screenshots and clean design. Not a great advertisement for the software itself.



However, the Pro version is half the price of Dreamweaver and seems to have a lot of the core functionality.

Being an InDesign user, their appeal to designers who want to engage in web design is compelling.



Can anybody here vouch for this approach? Is there any good reason to pay double the cost for Dreamweaver?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    Yikes. If nobody wants to admit using Freeway, I may end up going with DW just to ensure compatibility with the majority.



    I hate the conforming-to-the-pack mentality, but I hate wasting money too.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    running with scissorsrunning with scissors Posts: 1,124member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Frank777 View Post


    Yikes. If nobody wants to admit using Freeway, I may end up going with DW just to ensure compatibility with the majority.



    I hate the conforming-to-the-pack mentality, but I hate wasting money too.



    i don't know if this will help or not, but i started out by cutting my teeth on web design/development with golive (or cyberstudio as it was known before adobe purchased it). i then used dreamweaver almost exclusively after i changed jobs and that was what they used. for the most part i got to the point that i liked it more than golive. just seamed like it was more flexible and allowed me to develop my skills beyond the wysiwyg interface. it got to the point that i began spending more time in the code view of the app. now i've recently made the move from dw to coda and couldn't be happier?due in part to it's lighter weight and more responsive interface. just seems to fit where i'm at in my evolution as a design/developer.



    that said, i never got into this biz thinking i wanted to learn markup or code, but the longer i did i would pick up tidbits out of necessity. next thing you know, i fairly comfortable poking around in code, if not writing it from scratch. so my one piece of advise would be to pick a product that will allow you to evolve your skills. relying too heavily on the app to do things for you will at some point come back to bite you in the ass.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    One area where Dreamweaver excels is code auto-completion. The design view also comes in handy when trying to fix IE issues. I tried to use Coda and for the most part I like it but I sort of got the feeling that it was basically a text editor with a khtml preview tab.



    Code auto-complete is almost a necessity when you are trying to make sure all your div tags are closed properly. I would love an editor that color coded div tags automatically so you could see where they start and end.



    I wish they'd use vertical tabs though. I tend to have a lot of file open at once and they keep wrapping off the end. I don't like this in Safari either.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    trobertstroberts Posts: 702member
    You might want to check out WebDesign by Rage Software for $29.95 USD. Below is a question from the RAGE Knowledgebase



    How does RAGE WebDesign compare with Dreamweaver and Golive or other WYSIWYG HTML Editors?
    • RAGE WebDesign is not like Dreamweaver or Golive in the sense that it will let you visually build an entire web site without touching the HTML source code. RAGE WebDesign gives you access to your source code so that you have full control of your web site, while providing code wizards to help you generate the necessary code for different HTML elements. You can add images, links, forms and even image maps without writing any HTML, but you do need to have an understanding of the HTML syntax to use RAGE WebDesign. Fortunately, RAGE WebDesign makes this really easy with its integrated HTML references, attribute editor and live side by side page previews.

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