If you’re working on building a website you are probably in need of a web designer to help you do the job. Is Dreamweaver the right tool for you? Let’s find out.

Dreamweaver can be a great tool for web design depending on your knowledge of how to use it. According to many users, it is a complex tool with lots of great features. However, that also means there is a steep learning curve that might make using Dreamweaver hard to master.

Still not sure whether Dreamweaver is right for you? Here are a couple more details that might help you decide!

The Perks of Dreamweaver

 

Let’s face it, whether or not Dreamweaver is right for you often depends on what you need from it. However, regardless of what your goals are, it is a great program to use. Here are a few great reasons to use it!

Dreamweaver was created in 1997 by Macromedia. While you are creating the visual aspects of the site, Dreamweaver will work quietly in the background.

You can simultaneously work on the visuals while the program writes all the code for you or vice-versa. Dreamweaver also comes equipped with a visual interface. This means that you can have both the line view and the code view open at the same time so you can see how the differences you make are implemented. For many users, web designing as a more visual experience is preferable to the alternative.

It has built-in FTP(File Transfer Protocol) which means you will not need to purchase or install any kind of extensions to transfer files to your website’s server. Dreamweaver’s file management is extremely helpful because it can be difficult to keep track of all the files you install when creating a website. The program will keep these organized for you while you work so you do not have to worry about it!

Dreamweaver allows you to easily create and manage media queries visually and intuitively. Media queries are functions that instruct the web on what to do when a visitor to your website is using a specific device or screen resolution to view it.

Dreamweaver also allows you to directly check the website you’re building in various browsers installed on your PC. When you want to view your website, Dreamweaver even generates a QR code which enables you to check the site not only from your PC but your mobile as well.

Dreamweaver allows you to auto-complete your code, plus it comes with spell check and syntax check. This means you do not have to type all the HTML into a text editor separately which can take an annoyingly long time. Also, as mentioned before, Dreamweaver is a very visual tool. It lets you lay everything out, which is a feature that most people find very helpful. Once everything is laid out, you can generally move a lot faster than you would otherwise. Plus, you do not have to worry about the code is using a template. Dreamweaver takes care of that while you can focus on the fun stuff.

The Drawbacks of Dreamweaver 

 

As great as Dreamweaver is, there are, unfortunately, a few flaws that we need to talk about. You will be glad you knew these before investing! Firstly, Dreamweaver can be expensive, especially for college students studying web design. Its programs can cost anywhere from 10 dollars a month to 30 dollars a month, and if you are trying to pay for tuition, housing, and other things, it is simply not practical.

Additionally, because of its complexity, Dreamweaver is often difficult to use. The moment you start it up, there are 50+ items on your screen that will all be screaming for your attention at once. For many users, this is a tad overwhelming, especially if they are just getting into web design. 

Dreamweaver does not do much to educate new users on what good web design actually is.  So while you have access to templates like bootstrap frameworks it does not advise you when you’ve created bad web design.  To cover that, use this article where I’ve written a list of 20 common examples of bad web design.

Adobe Dreamweaver is not browser-based. Your website might look differently in Dreamweaver than in a browser because the browser might interpret input differently than the program does. It sometimes will not matter if you did everything right because you could still get a disappointing outcome based on how the browser changes Dreamweaver’s input. This can be fairly frustrating, especially if you have put a lot of time and money into your efforts. Also, though it is a direct, WYSIWYG program, this label is not always true. Because of this, you cannot rely only on the design view for rendering because it might look different in the browser.

Since Dreamweaver was designed to please as many users worldwide as possible, some code snippets are extremely long. One field could potentially take 15 lines of code validation and that can be highly inconvenient, especially if you are after a streamlined site. In fact, you could very well be better off writing the code by hand instead of waiting on Dreamweaver to do it for you. Global styling can also be a big problem. If you are using an older version of Dreamweaver and you use the properties bar in your text, you will very likely add an undefined document style to your code. If this happens more than once, you could potentially develop multiple undefined styles that will interrupt your global styling.

This is more of a nuisance than anything, but your first instinct, once you are done with a paragraph, is probably to hit the enter key. Doing this will probably not ruin your site, but it can make the code more difficult to read than it would have been otherwise. Dreamweaver’s design to be as helpful as possible can also make it a tad unnecessary. It was created to help various users with various users, so it comes equipped with a lot of tools and features.

Unfortunately, most users do not need half of what Dreamweaver offers so they end up paying for a lot of what they do not need to access what they do need.

Finally, Dreamweaver is probably not the best tool for someone who is trying to learn how to code. It is handy for beginners in many other respects, but since it does most (or all) the coding for you, it does not greatly encourage people to actually learn how to code themselves.

Other Web Design Tools

 

Whether Dreamweaver is a good or bad tool to use for web design can only be determined by what your individual needs are. For some people, it works, and for others, it does not; it’s as simple as that. If, after reading this you have decided that Dreamweaver is not for you, there are a few alternatives that might help you on your web designing journey. Here are some of the best web designers of 2021!

1. WIX. WIX was rated at an outstanding 9.8 on the star scale. With over 500 designer templates and great SEO and social tools, WIX is a very popular option, plus it offers a series of plans from free to premium. It has over 135 million users which says a lot about its credibility. Its templates are easy to edit, and it comes equipped with an innovative drag and drop builder and advanced design features. You will not likely regret using WIX.

2. Network Solutions. With a rating of 9.3, Network Solutions is not to be ignored. It has over 200 options for easy editing and customizable templates that are extraordinarily designed. It is affordable, has a free domain name, personalized email address, and large sets of free images. Millions of people use Network Solutions which has been on the market since 1979.

3. Square Online. Rated at 9.1, Square Online is another great website creator. It offers a free domain with the purchase of a plan and does not require you to have any coding skills. You can use it on any device, plus plan rates start at $0 a month (which is a nice perk if you’re on a budget). They serve small companies and restaurants particularly well, and provide a lot of eCommerce options.

4. web.com. Web.com has a 9.0 rating and offers premium eCommerce plans. It is generally geared toward small companies and they require absolutely no startup fees. It has a fairly simple interface that offers a build-it-for-me option as well as experts who will build you a custom site. They offer SEO and website design coaching, and there are always experts on hand if you need help building your site. This is very helpful because it means you do not have to hire a third party to instruct you through your web designing process.

5. WordPress. WordPress has a nice 8.9 rating and is constantly gaining popularity. It has beautiful custom designs, has secure hosting, and offers 24/7 support from staff members. It offers a free plan unless you choose to upgrade for SEO tools, security, and customization. WordPress is versatile and flexible so that users can create websites at their own pace and wherever/whenever they are comfortable.

6. Squarespace. Squarespace has a rating of 8.7 and boasts 70 different templates across a large range of categories. It also offers a 14-day trial without credit card information before starting the standard plan at 12 dollars a month. They also offer 24/7 support with one-hour email responses as well as plenty of options for eCommerce integration.