Dreamweaver VS Frontpage

[Seedler]

I'm thinking about starting a small to medium website, and I'm new into web designing so mostly I'll be using templates to save time.

I was just wondering...Should I start learning Dreamweaver 8 or Frontpage 2003? I have both softwares, and I know they both get the job done, but I just don't know which one is better in my situation.

So all you veteran webmasters out there, which one should I learn?

[erRor67]

Dreamweaver over frontpage definetly... Frontpage blows really hard.
With Frontpage you pages look all n00bie and the code gets sloppy really quickly. Then sloppy code doesnt parse correctly in certain webbrowsers. So you end up getting IE looking correct but Opera and FIreFox look like shit. Dreamweaver is a lot nicer. More features and clean code.

Also, make sure to learn HTML instead of just typeing all the text and shit.
A good simple text editor would be nice too. That way, if you need to make quick changes but do not want to boot up Dreamweaver just load a text editor and make the changes..
I recommend Notepad2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html)for that. Its a stand alone program, no install, no spyware. You can even replace Windows' Notepad with Notepad2. Notepad2 has tons of features over Notepad (sytax highlighting etc).

[Barbarossa]

Dreamweaver over frontpage definetly... Frontpage blows really hard.
With Frontpage you pages look all n00bie and the code gets sloppy really quickly. Then sloppy code doesnt parse correctly in certain webbrowsers. So you end up getting IE looking correct but Opera and FIreFox look like shit. Dreamweaver is a lot nicer. More features and clean code.

Also, make sure to learn HTML instead of just typeing all the text and shit.
A good simple text editor would be nice too. That way, if you need to make quick changes but do not want to boot up Dreamweaver just load a text editor and make the changes..
I recommend Notepad2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html)for that. Its a stand alone program, no install, no spyware. You can even replace Windows' Notepad with Notepad2. Notepad2 has tons of features over Notepad (sytax highlighting etc).


Great post. I totally agree.

[Seedler]

Dreamweaver over frontpage definetly... Frontpage blows really hard.
With Frontpage you pages look all n00bie and the code gets sloppy really quickly. Then sloppy code doesnt parse correctly in certain webbrowsers. So you end up getting IE looking correct but Opera and FIreFox look like shit. Dreamweaver is a lot nicer. More features and clean code.

Also, make sure to learn HTML instead of just typeing all the text and shit.
A good simple text editor would be nice too. That way, if you need to make quick changes but do not want to boot up Dreamweaver just load a text editor and make the changes..
I recommend Notepad2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html)for that. Its a stand alone program, no install, no spyware. You can even replace Windows' Notepad with Notepad2. Notepad2 has tons of features over Notepad (sytax highlighting etc).

Thx for the tip, but do I really have to learn HTML? I mean Dreamweaver boots up in about 2 sec on my comp anyways, so is it actually useful to learn HTML?

[tesco]

Dreamweaver over frontpage definetly... Frontpage blows really hard.
With Frontpage you pages look all n00bie and the code gets sloppy really quickly. Then sloppy code doesnt parse correctly in certain webbrowsers. So you end up getting IE looking correct but Opera and FIreFox look like shit. Dreamweaver is a lot nicer. More features and clean code.

Also, make sure to learn HTML instead of just typeing all the text and shit.
A good simple text editor would be nice too. That way, if you need to make quick changes but do not want to boot up Dreamweaver just load a text editor and make the changes..
I recommend Notepad2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html)for that. Its a stand alone program, no install, no spyware. You can even replace Windows' Notepad with Notepad2. Notepad2 has tons of features over Notepad (sytax highlighting etc).

Thx for the tip, but do I really have to learn HTML? I mean Dreamweaver boots up in about 2 sec on my comp anyways, so is it actually useful to learn HTML?
I recomend you make what you want in dreamweaver, save it, upload,done.
Then, try and recreate it using just notepad2...whenever you don't know how to do something just look over the dreamweaver code for examples. This will help you learn to do it yourself. :)

[Seedler]

Thx for the tip, but do I really have to learn HTML? I mean Dreamweaver boots up in about 2 sec on my comp anyways, so is it actually useful to learn HTML?
I recomend you make what you want in dreamweaver, save it, upload,done.
Then, try and recreate it using just notepad2...whenever you don't know how to do something just look over the dreamweaver code for examples. This will help you learn to do it yourself. :)

kk thx, I was just wondering and hoping to get away with not learning HTML at all, but now I guess I have to learn it after all...dammit this is going to take months...:(

[Chewie]

You don't have to learn HTML at all. You don't need to use a text editor to write your pages as code when you have Dreamweaver installed either.

Dreamweaver has an interface that allows you to choose between WYSIWYG, code or both simultaneously.
The code+WYSIWYG mode is useful as you can input code and see what it looks like as you go.

If you don't want to bother learning code, just use it in WYSIWYG mode; if you're slightly interested in manual coding or need to insert custom code use the split window code+WYSIWYG mode.

Whatever you do, avoid FP. In fact if you have it installed, uninstall it and remove the temptation.

[suprafreak6]

i just learnt html, its soo much better than frontpage and all that garbage...get this book from amazon, its like 4 bucks... lemme find it for you ill edit once im done

[erRor67]

Using dreamweaver you do not need to learn html. However, as you use Dreamweaver it would be wise to see how the code works. Like when you bold something check the code and see why its bolded. When you create address links or put pictures check out the HTML and see how its done. Thats how I learn html. Just started reading the code from pages I made. After that I started making little changes here and there and soon major changes. Writting HTML from scratch is really hard (ie just notepad2 and no Dreamweaver). I normally use DreamWeaver for creating a new templete and then start writting my own code.

[mr. nails]

i to use frontpage and it's retarded. it gets the job done, but the pages look gay as fuck. if i'm gonna dl dreamweaver what am i looking for? i searched for it, but lots of crap came up. i just want to dl the best one one time. what to get?

[erRor67]

Uh... Macromeida Dreamweaver 8 or if you want the whole package then Macromedia Studio 8.

http://www.macromedia.com

[dodgy368]

Dreamweaver over frontpage definetly... Frontpage blows really hard.
With Frontpage you pages look all n00bie and the code gets sloppy really quickly. Then sloppy code doesnt parse correctly in certain webbrowsers. So you end up getting IE looking correct but Opera and FIreFox look like shit. Dreamweaver is a lot nicer. More features and clean code.

Also, make sure to learn HTML instead of just typeing all the text and shit.
A good simple text editor would be nice too. That way, if you need to make quick changes but do not want to boot up Dreamweaver just load a text editor and make the changes..
I recommend Notepad2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html)for that. Its a stand alone program, no install, no spyware. You can even replace Windows' Notepad with Notepad2. Notepad2 has tons of features over Notepad (sytax highlighting etc).

Thx for the tip, but do I really have to learn HTML? I mean Dreamweaver boots up in about 2 sec on my comp anyways, so is it actually useful to learn HTML?

Yes it's useful to learn it, and very easy, have a look at this site for the basics http://htmlclinic.com/ they explain it quite well.
Wouldn't hurt to learn a little ampersand code which can stop web browsers reading the "controllers" so you can put your code on here for people to help you with.:)


ps, I like Frontpage but Dreamweaver is far superior.

[NeoTheOne]

Also Frontpage is being discontuined so there is no point in using it now.

[SeK612]

You won't find too many differences, a least on a simple level, between FP and DW both are WYSIWYG editors with similar basic features.

FrontPage is generally considered the easier of the pair to learn, especially if you've used to other office products like MS word.

As others have mentioned it does tend to mess around with the code a bit but for a basic web page it's should be fine.

DW is more complex but is generally considered the better product, adhering more to internet standards. As with front page you can create pages fairly easily with little or no knowledge of HTML, but for a more advanced and cleaner site a bit of studying and manual coding (done inside the Dreamweaver code window) works wonders :)