16 Adobe Dreamweaver Pros and Cons

One of the flagship programs for Adobe is Dreamweaver. It takes your HTML or CSS chores and makes them easier while still being able to manage your files fairly easily as well thanks to their general user interface. For beginning coders, you can track the changes that you’re making in real time so you can quickly fix errors.

It used to be priced at $800, but today it can be part of a creative cloud single-app place for just $20 per month. Free trials are also available. Here are the Adobe Dreamweaver pros and cons that have been noticed while using this product for your consideration.

The Pros of Adobe Dreamweaver

1. It highlights your coding so that it can be quickly scanned.
This makes it a lot easier to determine where your CSS, PHP, Javascript, or HTML coding happens to be. If you like using dynamic languages, this is a definite plus.

2. It helps beginners understand what the coding actually does for a website.
The color coding also highlights what the specific commands can do for a template or page. This makes the learning process a lot easier.

3. Users receive code suggestions.
This is another benefit to the beginning coder. If you’re not sure what you should do with an image, a font, or a color, Adobe Dreamweaver can autofill suggestions with a drop-down menu directly in the code. Point, click, and you create code. It really is that simple.

4. You don’t have to switch screens.
Many programs will let you see your results in real-time. What many programs won’t let you do is see your page in real time on the same screen. With the code and design view in Adobe Dreamweaver, your coding is on top and your screen is on the bottom. Your sidebar then lets you navigate through the process.

5. Your coding is instantly checked.
One of the biggest struggles, especially when you first start coding, is to make sure your coding is valid. Accessibility issues and mistakes in the coding, even if it’s just a typo, can be nearly impossible to find when doing everything in a traditional way. Adobe Dreamweaver will highlight your mistakes, show you all of your issues if you wish, and check your accessibility with just a click of the mouse.

6. Creating content variations is easy thanks to a word processing interface.
If you want to add bold text into a document on Microsoft Office, you can just hit Ctrl+B to make that happen. In coding, you’d have to type I want this text bolded to make that happen. Adobe Dreamweaver lets you highlight the text you wish to modify and then uses a word processor heads-up display to let you make fast changes to that section’s appearance.

7. You can find and replace items all over your created site.
This tool allows users to find and replace items in their content, in their coding, or even within specific tags. If you need to update your coding to adapt to new widget or plugin releases, you can update hundreds of pages in just seconds thanks to this benefit.

8. Users can tab through files like someone tabs through internet sites.
The tab functionality incorporated into Dreamweaver makes switching between files much easier. Instead of going through multiple menu options, you can just keep your files at the ready. This is especially beneficial if you’re using the incorporated templates, either to plan out your coding or as part of your overall design plans.

The Cons of Dreamweaver

1. Adobe Dreamweaver isn’t browser-based.
How your coding looks within Adobe Dreamweaver can be different than how a browser interprets the code that has been inputted. This means you can do everything right, but still have a disappointing outcome because the coding isn’t responsive enough to meet cross-platform needs.

2. It takes time to learn the interface.
You’ve got access to more than a dozen different items when you’re first getting started with Adobe Dreamweaver. Depending on what files you may have open, you could have 50+ different things to look at on your screen. If you’re just getting started when it comes to coding, this can be very intimidating.

3. What you see isn’t what you always get.
This is where the design view proves that it isn’t a browser-based view. This is particularly bad when it comes to the absolute positioning of items you sometimes need to have. If you rely on design view for your rendering, you’re almost 100% guaranteed to come-up disappointed.

4. Your automatic coding options are non-specific.
Adobe Dreamweaver was designed to meet the most needs it possibly could for users far and wide. Because of this, you’ll find that many code snippets tend to be very lengthy. The validation of just one field, for example, may take up 15 lines of code. If you want a streamlined site, it may be better to write the code by hand instead.

5. Global styling can become a major headache.
If users happen to use the properties bar on their text within older versions of Adobe Dreamweaver, then it will almost always add an undefined document style to the coding. Do this enough and you could have several dozen undefined styles that interrupt the global styling of the site itself.

6. All of the many, many paragraphs in your code.
When you’re done with a line you’re typing, you hit “enter” on your keyboard, right? That natural habit in the design view will add a lot of unnecessary paragraph codes into your design. This doesn’t necessarily affect the site much, but it does make the coding a bit difficult to read. If you hit “enter” after inserting a paragraph, you’ll even get this code around your image.

7. Most users aren’t going to need a system that is this comprehensive.
Because Adobe Dreamweaver is designed to help as many people as possible, most users find that there are items contained within the program that they never use.

8. Does it actually encourage people to learn how to code?
If users aren’t careful, this program can take over many of the coding responsibilities someone may have. This limits the creativity that can occur within the design. It also means users won’t be able to code on their own if they don’t have access to Dreamweaver for some reason.

Adobe Dreamweaver can be a fast way to write code and design personal websites. With the changes to its cost structure, it is also a rather affordable method of doing so – especially for beginners who are just starting to learn how to code. Is it the right system for you? Evaluate these pros and cons carefully and you’ll be able to make a more informed decision.