FrontPage vs. Dreamweaver

Comparisions of features of the lastest versions?

[ControlEngineer]

I am interested in the differences of Front Page and Dream Weaver (whatever the lastes versions are), particularly in terms of features that one or the other has.

Any insights would be helpful.

[caine]

apologies for the late answer - however a hard question for most to answer.

the problem is that there are 4 main camps regarding HTML coding:

1. The DW club
2. The FP club
3. Smaller Wysiwyg's - Homesite, NVU for Linux, etc.
4. Pure HTML TCE or Notepad coders

Certainly there are advicate's for all but not for a cross between DW and FP, though a cross between 1,3,4 or 2,3,4 happens, rarely is someone that is good with DW or FP, going to be good with the alternate.

I.E. I personally like Dreamweaver, and find FP a pain to use, as the last time i used it was in 1999, where as my Co-moderator pageoneresults is an FP expert, and thinks it rule's.

There is alot of opinion regarding what is best - personally i would suggest downloading the demo's and going through the tutorials of both, and see what works for you - all of the other issues that get raised about them - seem to come down to either a lack of knowledge of the product or personal opinions about feature's and ease of use.

Realistically i don't think there is much in it at all!

[Jay_R]

Well, even though, I'm still an inexperienced web designer, at least in my opinion, I'll offer what I’ve found. I used to write HTML in notepad and eventually upgraded to Textpad! Recently I started working on a larger and more complex site. I think the whole thing was done in FrontPage, so I tried working with it in FrontPage for Office XP.

I found my experience with it to be better than expected, but still somewhat clumsy. And I felt encroached upon by the application as it kept sticking its meta generator tag in. It just felt awkward to me. And those darn Webbot includes kept giving me problems, even though I never touched them.
So....
I downloaded Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, and instantly, I felt comfortable. I loved the quick split screen editing. I was happy with the code it generated, the browser verification, ease of use (for me), and on and on.. Anyway, I think I liked Dreamweaver because I like to work with the Code, I personally dislike the WYSIWYG approach, as, to me, unless you know the program, it generates unpredictable code. But, of course, I like clean, simple and stable code and I put my resources into getting that, whereas many people may not be so interested in good looking code as much as a good looking page. Overall Dreamweaver streamlined and sped up my production with all its built in coding features, no longer did I have to constantly pick up my reference to check the attributes of a tag, they were right there when I typed it for me to choose and modify.

I have noticed that pages that render ok in FrontPage tend to explode (expand horizontally) in the built in WYSIWYG editor of Dreamweaver. I’d sure like to find out why, it would make my job a lot easier… And also, I would not be the least surprised if the features I bragged about in Dreamweaver are in FrontPage, and in fact, I know some are. It was just that I didn’t find all of them easily, even though I didn’t go looking. Dreamweaver seemed to have the things I found useful right in front of me, which is why I expect coders to be more impressed…

But I agree with caine, different people are going to different opinions. I guess I’d say, if you’re a coder, then try macromedia and see if you pick it up quick, it is saving me a lot of time. Otherwise if you are more familiar with the MS office way of doing things then maybe you will find FrontPage to be more suited to your tastes. It’s sorta like picking a programming language, it depends on your goals, your resources, and what your familiar with.
---sorry about the book....---
-Jay

[NeedScripts]

If you are trying to compare *latest* version, then anyday, anytime, FP beats DW.

Try to create anything via DW, and you will find it easier to do the same things in FP. I have tried using both, and will always recommend FP over DW.

NS

[yowza]

I vote for Dreamweaver.

If you are in love with Windows, then you might like FP.

However, your choice should be based on what you want to do with it.

I think DW blows FP away with CSS support.

If you are thinking of working in the field in the future it would look a lot better to say that you know how to use DW than FP.

[europeforvisitors]

It shouldn't be that hard to compare features between the two products. Just go to the appropriate sections of the Microsoft and Macromedia Web sites, see what the programs offer, and decide which features are of most value to you. (In practice, most programs have more features than anyone would ever want to use; what matters if whether a program has the specific features that you might want to use.)

But don't let features be the determining factor in which program to buy. Give even more thought to your needs and personal preferences.

If you're a freelance Web designer (or if you come from a Mac background), you're likely to prefer Dreamweaver--and it's likely to be the better tool for your needs.

On the other hand, if you come from an editorial and writing background (as I do), and if you're primarily interested in creating editorial-style Web sites that you'll be maintaining yourself, FrontPage is likely to be the superior choice.

I'd suggest trying both programs if there's a way to do so. I don't know if Macromedia still has a trial version of Dreamweaver available for downloading, but I do know that Microsoft has a version of FrontPage that you can try online.

[pageoneresults]

Here's a previous topic outlining some of the benefits and features of FP2003...

FrontPage 2003
Benefits and Features [webmasterworld.com]