Macromedia Dreamweaver 4.0
a) Pros
The layers feature. You should convert to tables just before uploading the document, but for the actual creation of the site, you shouldn’t bother with tables until you are all done. Internet Explorer supports tables, not layers. The brilliant thing about layers is that you can move things all over the place and reposition them to your heart's content. Can't do that as easily with tables.
The site map navigation. Once you've established your root folder and home page, every item you add, be it object or webpage, is automatically included in the map. Link it, and you start to create a hierarchy that’s very easy to see and manage. Relative links show up in black, absolute in blue and broken links in red, so it’s simple to tell if you've got a problem. You can expand as much, or as little as you want. For very large sites, it might make sense to collapse the tree; you can always expand it if you need to.
The HTML editor is very easy to get to and manage. For some functions, it’s absolutely essential.
The template feature. Dreamweaver gives you the ability to create a template file in a vector-based graphics application, such as Adobe Illustrator, or Macromedia Freehand, and then import it to your blank page as a 50% gray image. This template allows you to position your layers on a pre-designed image, and tweak them if need be.
b) Cons
A steep learning curve. It takes a while to learn the basics of this sophisticated program, and you still feel a little lost at times. There is so much you do not know. For people with little or no programming experience, it really is a daunting program to learn.
Some of the features, like the Form Editor, are not particularly intuitive. The software assumes that you already know how to write code, and will have to tweak it in the HTML editor. This program is not for beginners. The way it handles frames. Because some browsers don't support them, but if they did, Dreamweaver is not the program to use to learn how to use them. We've tried to create frames in Dreamweaver, and have not been very successful. We had much more success with Front Page.
