I work for a very large multinational and 18 months ago they decided that they needed a global intranet site. They gave me FrontPage 98, and told me to go and produce a site. (Ouch!!!)

Since then, I have started producing more internal sites for the company, and have started on my own web site to try and further my skills. (I had already learnt HTML etc before using FrontPage 98). Initially this was produced using FrontPage 2000, which as we all know does produce some odd effects - it isnt a bad programme, but does tend to produce a lot of Microsoft savvy code etc. This can become troublesome.

3 months ago I decided it was time to invest in the Macromedia software, and I havent looked back. Dreamweaver is very easy to use, but does take some time if you have migrated over from the likes of FrontPage. The interface is completley different to any MS products, and you have to get used to splitting any tables, rather than just drawing extra lines like you can in FrontPage etc etc However DW3 really comes into its own when you start using the commands. You can use the history palette to record any actions you have done recently and save these as a command (similar to using Macros in Excel). These commands can then be replicated on each page if you need to repeat the actions.

Amongst the many superb features is the ability to change layers to tables. You can create your page layout using layers, and then convert them to a table. This ensures that your site is compatible with older browsers, and it helps you to layout pages. Templates is another good feature whereby you can design a template, and apply it to the pages you design - if you want to change the layout later on you simply change the template. This is similar to how CSS works.

It is still important to learn HTML but with Dreamweaver you can create some great sites, as it gives you a good visual foundation for laying your site out, and sorting the navigation. Com
bine this with the integration with Flash and Fireworks and you have the ability to design some cutting edge stuff - all you need now is the imagination, and web design savvy. Learn the little things about web design, as well as the technolgies, and Dreamweaver will help you along.

However if you have used WYSIWYG programmes before you should easily get into Dreamweaver - all I would say is dive in there - go straight from your old programme into DW3, and dont look back.