steve - 9:14 am on Apr 27, 2009 (gmt 0)

I used FP for years, before moving to EW. Recently I tried an evaluation version of DW CS4, and I've decided to switch.

For my needs DW is much better, for example:

DW has live view - a built in browser, which means I can see the effects of code changes on the fly.

Support for MySQL databases and php is built in, I can design pages to create, edit, delete pages in design view! Not good enough for deployment, but OK for 'proof of concepts'

There are hundreds of free extensions for things like php highlighting and code hints, and jquery (beware these use different versions of the base file, which can cause problems)

Design view can also display the content of php include files, very handy so see how a complete page will look.

Support for CSS is much better than EW2. Display of layouts in design mode is more robust - try designing a layout with negative margins in EW - it breaks! This is subjective, but the way styles are applied in DW is more intuitive.

Finally you can customise the display to suit how you work, for example I set up a floating bar containing the icons I use the most.

Disclaimer, this is meant to be a criticism of MS offerings. I've built many sites over the years with them, but I do think the latest version of DW is superior. Is it harder to learn for someone starting out? I don't know, it shouldn't be but the similarity of the layout to Word or Publisher might make EW appear more comfortable.