I am thinking of getting dreamweaver software, I am just going to start learning the program but checking out adobe site I see Fireworks and Contribute, as a novice do i need these programs too or will i be fine with just dreamweaver? If you already use dreamweaver and had the option to get fireworks and contribute would you get them?
Ok so I guess it really depends on what you are going to be doing. Dreamweaver is for coding obviously. I really like dreamweaver because of the live preview and code snippets. Fireworks is for images as I am sure you know, but you should really asses how much you are going to be using it. It is a $300 program, and there are many alternatives out there. I personally use photoshop, but I know a lot of people don't like it because it's more for photo editing, and not image creation due to the lack of vector support. I also use Illustrator, which is a really nice all around application, and that shares a lot in common with fireworks. So you definitely will need some sort of image creation software, just shop around a bit before you decide on fireworks. If the site is going to be pretty simple, there are actually some free solutions out there... and no MS paint does not count. As for contribute, I would never personally buy this application unless the site was updated extremely often (more than say... once a day) because if you are writing the site, you should understand it pretty well and it should take you no time to add some content, especially if you are good at coding and have most of the formatting in a style sheet. I have recommended it for clients however with no web experience, because it is pretty easy to use. One gripe about it though, just like dreamweaver, the formatting it does really sort of sucks. It will change the look of your code, and after a while it starts to get to you, but that is just me... my code has to be perfectly formatted and laid out the way I like it. That brings me to my next piece of advice. Do NOT use dreamweaver's building features to build a site if you want to be taken seriously. Being able to add tables via dreamweaver does not make you any type of web designer. Those features are there for mom and dad, not for serious web designers. Dreamweaver is a very powerful application and has some great features, but the built in builder it has pretty much is worthless if you want to have any type of site that is taken seriously. So take the time to learn the basics of HTML and CSS and start from there. You will be happy that you learned it from the get go and not having to re-learn it after teaching yourself from dreamweaver.
Thank you so much for your input, since i am just setting out to learn dreamweaver your words are priceless, I finally got up the nerve to turn on my dreamweaver application last night and was quite impressed at how user friendly the cs3 version is. I say user friendly because I started out using templates just to get an idea of how it worked. So once I get comfortable with the program I definiately will be using the creating websites from scratch. I have illustrator and photoshop which means I really don't need fireworks and I am pretty good with code and really will not be creating complicated websites at least not now, so i guess I dont really need contribute either. The option I had was to get those two or just indesign. Thanks for your help, I will look for you when i really start learning to use dreamweaver i am sure I will have questions. Thanks
I'm a little late on this post, but I would say "no" to both Fireworks and Contribute. I use Fireworks exclusively as my web image editor, but you could use any other program that can export gif, jpg or png files. Contribute is just used by people when they want to edit their websites but not deal with the complexity of Dreamweaver. It's not meant to be a full web editor, just a partner product for Dreamweaver designed sites.
Ya since you already have illustrator and photoshop, I would recommend not getting fireworks right away unless you feel you need it.
I have the master suite and I have used fireworks in the past and also use photoshop. Fireworks is nice because its made simply for the web. I use photoshop for things tha tI can't make in fireworks or require more tools.
thanks netridge, i got the design suite, will be learning photoshop, illustrator (which i dont really like) indesign, flash and i hope to God I dont still prefer frontpage when I am done. thanks for sharing
^ not a bad idea to save some money, but not as powerful as they could be. Tabs, I don't think you will be going back to frontpage anytime soon
I own Dreamweaver. I don't use Dreamweaver. It was given to me but only installed it once and never used it. The Gimp is great for the web. Not perfect but does anything most people would do for the web, and then some. Most people don't use everything in Photoshop anyway. Inkscape could be better but it's "good enough". But I'll put vim up against any editor you can throw at it (except emacs).
OMG... What have I gotten myself into, I promise I will not bother you all until I can at least code in frame or whatever it is called. Thanks for all the support I will not let you down. See later,