The Bottom Line: With a little reading and help via the internet, you can do just about anything with DW 4.
Easy to use and pays for itself with just one website.
cgman's Full Review: Adobe Dreamweaver 4.0 Full Version for PC (DWW40D0...
Have you ever just wanted to jump right in to making websites, either for yourself or profit? Well, now you can!
I paid the retail price of $319+tax for this software. I figured,in order to pay it off, I can build 1 website. Just by charging $35 per page for a 10 page website, will pay for itself, but those of us in the industry know that even a 2 page website will pay for the software.
I have built 3 websites with this software, so far. I feel the beginner can even use it straight out of the box. Although, the interface and finding options does take a little getting used to. What I found that helps me is to set up a dual monitor system and place your tools on one screen and your workspace on the other.
This software, despite popular belief, is NOT WYSIWYG. Nothing is that easy... I think. Dreamweaver 4 is close to being a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) html editor, but it's not. Although it does a pretty good job as to where forms, pictures, and the like will go, its still up to you to tweak the site to perfection.
Dreamweaver 4 (DW) has an integrated site manager so that a group of people can work on the same site. This feature is really helpful at making changes to your site with a snap of the finger. Let me elaborate. If you name your link page as "lynxs" and later decide to rename the file to "links," DW will ask you if you want to update the other files in your website that have a link to this file you just changed the name. By updating those files, it re-writes the code to acommodate the name change.
DW also has an integrated FTP (file transfer protocol)program. You first define your webite and plug in the required information to your ftp server and VOILA! You are connected via ftp to your web server.
Using synchronize on your site with your webserver, you can choose whether to place new files from your computer to the internet or retreive files from the web. If you change your homepage and your links page, you can easily synchronize your computer files with those on the web with about 4 clicks of your mouse.
Using DW not only lets you create content for the WWW, but you can also create interactive cd roms for use in business meetings or for a business portfolio. By editing an autorun.inf file, you can even have the cd autostart in most pc's.
With macromedia extensions, you can basically keep "upgrading" your DW 4's functionality. You can create a web photo album, create a search form, or create a course builder.
Checking compatibility for lesser versions of internet browsers is a breeze. Also using more advanced features like CSS (cascading style sheets) and the timeline for DHTML can be easy with a little reading in the manual.
In conclusion, DW 4 is very easy to use, even for the beginner. With a graphical interface, you can easily navigate through the program. Since there isn't enough room to share all the features with you, I wish you good luck with building your website.
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