Front page or Dreamweaver?

Question

Which is the best, MS Frontpage or Dreamweaver? Why? What do you use? Easiest?

Answer 1

Front Page uses proprietary coding which adds a lot of weight to the final code. The Dreamweaver in WYSISYG mode never displays right for me.

I prefure Homesite. Once you learn to hand code in HTML it is very easy to use. Homesite makes it easy to switch back and forth from coding to viewing in an actual browser.

Answer 2

The answer really depends on you. If you are a business owner with a limited budget (which means you can't afford to pay a web designer) or a 'beginner' who is doing it for fun, I would suggest FrontPage. FrontPage in my experience was easier to learn. But, if you want to be a web designer/developer then go with Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver caters to the professional designer and professional programmer, rather than catering to the beginner.

Answer 3

Don't use FrontPage. It doesn't produce good code.

WYSIWYG editors like FrontPage and Dreamweaver are not good.

If you want to make web sites, you should learn HTML. It is just as fast to learn HTML as it is to learn how to correctly use Dreamweaver.

Check out the free HTML tutorials, and free web site creation programs below!

Answer 4

I personally have never used dreamweaver, but i have used front page. It's very easy AND QUICK to create a website, but me like many other's out there.....i'd rather create a web page using code, u will have a much better control over the design and layout of your page.

Answer 5

DW is a more robust tool for serious Web development.
People who don't know how to use DW can still contribute content.

FrontPage just seems like a way for someone, who already knows how to use Microsoft Office products, to make Web pages.

If we use FP, they will need to know how to use FP. FP doesn't offer the protection of code that Contribute would.

Productivity is going to slow down while the developers take the time to learn the new product. We have been using DW for years and know a lot of its ins and outs.

(5) DW is the industry standard.

Anyway, any insight you could offer would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 6

Best:

Dreamweaver

Why:

Because any web related work you want to do professionally, Dreamweaver is the best software for (I've used GoLive, Frontpage, even TextPad). Below might be too technical, and may require advanced knowledge of Dreamweaver to accomplish, but here are some of the advantages of Dreamweaver.

1) Clean code. If you like to hand code your website, it is the best software because it will:
a. autoformat your html to your liking so it is easy to read
b. NOT insert excessive useless code.
c. It autocompletes a lot of the tags for you. Also, if you want to adjust the attributes of the html tag, a list of all attributes is available as you type!.
d. gray out comments, templates, uneditable html of the page.

2) Can see code/design view simultaneously (one on top, other on bottom). In Frontpage, this is not possible (as far as I know) and you have to change views to see how changes in one affected the other.

3) The tools available to visually design in Dreamweaver are amazing. You can create professional quality pages without knowing html/css/etc. and yet write pages that have better code and are more visually appealing than most web developers can hand write.

4) Easy linking to any page within your site. You just have to point, and click to a file. No messing around with crazy paths like "rootfile/somefolder/other_files/mess.html." Also, it automatically updates any links that changed if you move a file within dreamweaver. (Of course, it asks if you want to do this). This makes maintenance of a website SO much easier and faster that it is unbelievable.

5) Incredibly powerful find and replace features. You can search by tag, by source code, by text and even by entire files! All these searches support regular expressions. This is a little technical, but if you a good web developer, you should know these. I have personally used regular expression searches on entire sites and have saved my company a ton of hours they wasted updating manually. I got to just surf the internet for a while because of this. AWESOME!!

6) Ability to select any item in design view and see it highlighted in code view. So, if I highlight an image/text/anything, I don't have to look through a massive amount of code to make a single change.

7) Ability to create Dreamweaver templates. These come in very handy if you want to design your site based off a template.

8) Ability to work in a group setting with file check in/out features. Ability to add design notes and send email to fellow developers. Ability to ftp to remote server and see what is live, what is not right from your dreamweaver view. Ability to "cloak" certain file types so they won't upload when you post your changes live.

9) Ability to remove bad code by programs like "word"

10) Ability to check your site for broken links (internal only) and create accessibility reports.

11) Ability to see all of your assets (imgs, colors, etc.) in one place.

12) Autowrite css (stylesheets). Make stylesheet creation, maintainence, editing, REALLY simple.

13) It allows for editing of server-side languages like ColdFusion, ASP, PHP and can connect to a data source for your database.

I can seriously think of 20 more reason right now.

Easiest to learn:

Dreamweaver. Because you can just use it as a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) program with NO knowledge of html and use it like MS Word. Yet, learn html slowly and customize things as you go deeper in ALL of what Dreamweaver can do. (And the amount that it can do is amazing and at first not very obvious). I mean, there is a learning curve if you want to be an advanced user and you won't be the first time you use it.

Answer 7

Neither, but if I was forced to choose - Dreamweaver. The code FP puts out is a nightmare.

Answer 8

I have not used either in a while. But Dreamweaver was my favorite because it was not only good for great wysiwyg design it also had lots features for the more hardcore designers.

Answer 9

i use dreamweaver. never liked front page to be honest. started using GoLive about a two years ago also. like that one too.

Answer 10

Notepad or JEdit.