Start casting your dreams (Macromedia Dreamweaver 4)

Member Name: LisaW82

Product:	Macromedia Dreamweaver 4
Date:	11/02/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great set up, lots of features and easy to use

Disadvantages: Can look daunting at first

Whilst everyone knows that Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 is nowhere near being the newest version of Dreamweaver on the market, it does still have everything you really need to be able to create your own web sites from scratch and put them live on the internet. Obviously newer version in the Adobe CS series' will have more features and may have been made easier to use, but that does not take away from the effectiveness and reliability of the MX 2004 version being reviewed here.

Firstly, when opening the box, the installation is very easy and fast to do and the instruction manual, should you choose to use it, is comprehensive and easy to read. However, a quick search on the internet will find you lots of video tutorials for you to work through which, being a visual person, made it easier for me to pick up.

The software interface may look a little daunting at first but it reall is very clear and gets easier by the day once you start to use it regularly. There can be no doubting the power of Dreamweaver 4 and I can proudly say that I had a web site up and running within 3 weeks of buying the product. Obviously my newer sites are a lot better though as I start to integrate Flash movies and Fireworks into the proceedings.

If you are looking to use this as a coder or a designer it is definitely the program for you as you can easily use and switch between both set ups. You can even have a split screen mode which shows you both and as you click on an image or section of the actual design it will take you instantly to where that code is in the HTML / CSS mark up.

The site set up menu is also very easy to use and assuming you have bought your hosting and domain and therefore have an FTP password, you can literally press connect on Dreamweaver and drag and drop the files to the world wide web. It really is that easy.

To go through all the great functions of Dreamweaver 4 would take another 10,000 words or more so I will just leave you with a taster here and I think I have already wetted the appetite to buy this for anyone who was mulling it over. The great thing is that with newer versions on the market, the price for this version has shot right down as a result.

Summary: Still a more than adequate web design piece of software

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