Hello,
Just to give a little background, I'm a novice web designer at best that has a couple of websites as a hobby. I've always been intrigued by Dreamweaver, but have never been able to justify spending $400 bucks on a hobby.
Well, just recently I've been able to purchase an inexpensive copy of Macromedia Studio MX 2004 on Ebay (totally legal, I called adobe myself and registered). I've been playing with Dreamweaver for about 3 months now, and to be totally honest, it's hardly more than a fancy text editor to me right now.
OK, maybe I'm missing something right now. Obviously, something that's been this popular for this long must have something to it.
I've got a couple of books. They have chapters on Frames.... but I don't use frames. Chapters on tables.... but I'm trying to stay away from tables because I'm learning CSS. Chapters on CSS..... cool, but do I really need this much firepower just make CSS sheets? Even a chapter on Forms, nice, but again, Dreamweaver seems a little bit of overkill just for forms.
But then, I saw a chapter on Databases. Now you've got my attention.
I guess this is the main question of this post.
I would love to be able to make a database for my site, so the "Books" section of this site caught my eye.
Now, the first thing that I noticed is that the book, <i>Beginning Dreamweaver MX</i> is rather dated (2003).
So, would this be a good book for a beginner? Also, do I need a programming background to even use this book? Or, is it ok just by itself? Do you have any other suggestions? Any advice would be very appreciated.
And ............ how about a little pep talk to keep using Macromedia. I just feel like I'm missing something, but like I said, the little I've done with it could have been accomplished with any text editor.
Looking forward to hear what you guys have to say.

Phil from Loreauville

Hi Phil,
nothing wrong in what you say. I come from a programming background, so I'm happy to wade into code, in fact it's one of the things I really like doing.
In many ways DW is just a text editor, but then it's a good one for most things. The version you have is not the best for rendering css - showing you a preview of what you page will actually look like. I know someone who uses arachnaphila www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/ and has a mega busy site that needs a dedicated server.
You didn't say whether you were using the mac or pc version, if you happen to be on the mac, then have a look at cssedit, it's shareware and at $30 is much more valuable than DW. It only does css but it's magic (IMO)
As far as database goes, DW is really good at the basics, that is helping you set up a connection to a database (mysql in my case as I avoid anything MS), then doing selects and updates.
Where I think it's lacking is when you want to throw in a few lines of your own code to do something special.
Overall I like DW but there's nothing that you can't do without it. My analogy is a power drill, you can drill holes with a hand drill just as well, but on the other hand with a power drill you can make lots of holes in the wrong places and hit pipes and power cables so much more easily.

On another note - as far as text editors go on pc I really like notepad++ for its layout and syntax colouring

What do others think?

Thanks Alan. And sorry, it's the PC version I'm using.
You 're right. Dreamweaver does lack in the CSS editing department, but I find myself doing the CSS I use like I would in Notepad. Just straight hand-coding..... which can be done effectively in Dreamweaver. Overall, I do find text editing much quicker with Dreamweaver. It's some of the other things that I want to look into as well. As well as the database end, I'd like to explore the site management tools it offers.
I've heard of Notepad++. Quite a bit as a matter of fact. Before Dreamweaver, I was using a program called HTML Kit. I really liked that program. It had a built-in FTP program that was just a dream to use. But it hadn't been updated in like 5 years. (Come to think of it, other than Dreamweaver, what HTML program has been has been updated in a major way?)
I'm not giving up on Dreamweaver yet. I've been searching for a site like this [DMX Zone] to get a feel for what can be done. Hopefully something will rub off.

Phil From Loreauville

hello again Phil,
this is a really useful place to hang out
In the management area the synchronisation is good in DW, it tells you which files are different - I have one client who likes to do most of his own updates, so I can go to the site and sync so that my copy is up to date, that's helpful. If there is more than one working you can use the check in and out system, but people forget the check the files in once they have finished with them then you don't know what to do.
Templates are good as you can make a change and all the pages get updated, saves a lot of messing.

In the end it's getting the job done and whatever works for you and makes it fun as much as possible <img src=../images/dmxzone/forum/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>this is a really useful place to hang out <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>
That's what I've been looking for.
An all-inclusive Dreamweaver site with active members that can turn me on to all the possibilities of Dreamweaver and Studio MX. I really need all the help I can get.
Funny you should mention templates. I actually have the day off from work today and if the wife and kids leave me alone I plan on pulling out these books and getting jiggy with some templates.

To help you in your quest, here is a good place to go: www.webthang.co.uk/tuts/tutorial.asp
Cheers,

Javier