DreamWeaver MX and DW 4?

Is it worth the upgrade?

[bossmanty]

I'm thinking about buying MX..... Is it worth it?

I'm not currently desinging any sites for customers just personal use...

Also, are there major difference with Fireworks MX?

[txbakers]

I downloaded the trial of MX, and the first thing I tried to do was create an ASP.NET page. It didn't work. There were several errors, and no way to get help.

Apparently there is now support for PhP as well, but I'm not up on that language so I can't tell you how MX treats it.

All in all, though, I think Macromedia makes good products, and if you can get an educator price it's worth staying current. I wouldn't pay full price for it. I hardly ever use my 4 any more.

[DaveAtIFG]

Trial version here as well. I'm just getting my feet wet (only damp so far!) with MySQL/PHP and MX has been a real blessing for me. I'm still buried in things to learn and will be for months but, using MX, I can at least build things that work NOW.

I've encountered a few not very serious bugs. Experience with DW3 and 4 leaves me confident that MM will release an updater soon and most bugs will be swatted.

just personal use...

It's pretty costly for any use IMHO! :)

[piskie]

From DW2, DW3, DW4/UD4 and now DW-MX there has each time been (IMO) a 25% enhancement in facilities and usefulness. So depending on what you have to pay for the upgrade, you can judge if it is worth it for an overall improvement of 25%.

However in the case of going from DW4 to MX, you will have the addition of ASP, PHP and Cold Fusion. So it depends on the value you put on these extras as well.

I have been using Dreamweaver and Fireworks MX for some time and rate them highly. Fireworks MX however is not as big a leap from FW4 as MX was from DW4.

Hope this helps.

[Krapulator]

I've got the MX Studio and I think its great. As with all WYSIWYG editors you still need to debug and streamline code by hand as you go (especially any server side code). However the code view has pretty cool color coding and maked it a ****load easier to find mistakes

[cyberfish]

I think DWMX is great.
It does seem less stable than DW4, but that could be just me.
As for usability, I tried the new "maximized" interface for a while, but I found myself back to the traditional "floating" windows.

[BlobFisk]

I've just finished my 30 day Trial and I'm back to DW4 until I can buy MX - I really liked it, not too bad for my ASP stuff and I liked the new GUI... although, I'm going to have to get a bigger monitor to work with it!

[curlykarl]

"I'm going to have to get a bigger monitor to work with it"

Definetly need a bigger screen size, other than that I think its great. I have just upgraded to Studio MX ;)

I like to PHP goodies, I have never used PHP untill I upgraded, it seems fairly easy to use.

[caine]

The answer is YES, for a more involving visual development environment, and if your planning to move into Dynamic SSI, based sites, as MX makes it alot easier, both in apllication development and integration.

The other thing is you will need a monitor of a reasonable size.

At work, i use a 17" @1280*1024 and MX, with the full visual studio kills the workspace area.
At home, 19" @1600*1200 and MX is excellant, the environment makes everything quicker and smoother.

When it comes to learning either 4 or MX, i would personally recommend 4, as its a heck of a lot easier to get your head round, then once a reasonable level of competency has been gained, move onto MX.

[Jon_King]

A resounding yes!

I would buy it for just the new 'no floating pallets' GUI option.

Besides, if you or the company of which you are part, plan to stay in the web business, I have found staying current with software is generally a good practice. For when has being current or ahead of the curve not served you well? (There are some exceptions with buggy first releases... this is not one of those)

[SmallTime]

Better than bigger screen, is two of them. I love the floating pallettes, main work area on one screen, source text on another, arrange the palletes around them.

MX a good big upgrade from 4, less so for Fireworks but still an worthwhile improvement.