Dreamweaver VS FrontPage

[kardtp]

Up until 1 month ago, I designed sites using raw HTML coding. I have just begun using Dreamweaver for the past month and I am really impressed with it! I just recently got a job as a Web Designer, and my boss wants me to use FrontPage, since that is what they have. I have been trying to learn FrontPage, but I really don't like it. I want to convince him that Dreamweaver is the better product, but I don't feel I know either application well enought to give exact reasons why Dreamweaver is better. I'm wondering if I just like Dreamweaver better since I have just learned it, or if I am on target as to how I feel about its capablilities. I have my own reasons why I like DW better, but I would like to see how others feel.



If anyone has used both programs, and can give me an opinion about how the two programs stack up, please drop me a note! Thanks!



Kristi

 

[rycamor]

I used Frontpage for 3 years, until Dreamweaver came along and I was a convert instantly.<br>
<br>
The difference in philosophy between the two is a perfect example of Microsoft's approach to everything: shield the user from any possible good that can come out of learning more than just the graphical interface.<br>
<br>
Frontpage has its place, I will say, but its not for the serious web developer/designer. The main value to frontpage is that it can be a server-integrated tool (if your server is running the Frontpage extensions), which means that the designer can prepare basic forms and other server-side scripts from FP's own templates, without learning any code. This is OK in some circumstances, but anyone who wants to do something more serious with the site will soon be bumping into all sorts of limitations, which will require circumventing the carefully prepared experience Microsoft wishes you to have. And if you are not running the Frontpage extensions, you will be even more limited.<br>
<br>
Not that you can't do a good site in Frontpage, but FrontPage, in trying to &quot;help&quot; you, does all sorts of favors like rewriting your code without asking you, or simply ignoring your corrections of it's HTML mistakes (yes!!! they occur). And let's not even discuss its increasingly bad record at cross-browser compatibility.<br>
<br>
Dreamweaver, on the other hand, is not a server-integrated tool. It is intended as a powerful, but straightforward HTML/DHTML/Javascript tool (essentially a browser pragramming tool) It's capabilities in these areas is way ahead of Microsoft, and thanks to customizable extensions, is constantly being added to, by Macromedia and thousands of individuals worldwide. It's interface allows you the quickest access to any HTML object or property that I have ever seen. Best of all, Dreamweaver doesn't rewrite your code unless you want it to, and that feature can be turned off completely. I found that while helping me put pages together quickly, it did not &quot;protect&quot; me from learning HTML but actually facilitated it by making the code so accessible.

 

[Arnimation]

Dreamweaver is the best web designing tool on the market. Arnie Lee Boich
Arnimation
albjr2000@hotmail.com