Dreamweaver was amazing when it first appeared on the market. I loved it, and like many Web designers, I embraced it because it was far ahead of the competition.
Dreamweaver MX, released by Macromedia in 2002, was my go-to HTML IDE for a long time. It was better than anything out there, and there were many tools competing for Web designers’ hearts. Adobe’s GoLive wasn’t horrible, and I used it for some websites, but even Adobe recognized that Macromedia had some good products… so they ate the competition.
The loss of Macromedia was a sad event for designers. It’s much like the self-inflicted struggles of Quark or Corel. You want someone to stand up against the Adobe juggernaut, but nobody seems able to rise to challenge. Goliath keeps winning against one David after another.
Dreamweaver is showing its age. Adobe didn’t really improve the product and in some ways has made it less and less capable over time.
With each update, I lose features. Snippets lost their “wrap around” making it more challenging to customize tags. The HTML formatting was crippled, removing hard-wrapping that improved editing in other apps. They included some JavaScript libraries, and then removed them. The design mode has added and removed features, and it isn’t nearly the “live” editing mode it should be (remote fonts pose a problem, for example).
Why is Dreamweaver the only major editing tool left standing?
Sure, I could use an XML/HTML tool. Or maybe a plain text editor with some basic HTML support. But, that would be a painful transition.
My websites use Dreamweaver templates, repeating regions, and other Dreamweaver-specific features. I have customized the keyboard, added snippets, and tweaked the IDE to my habits. The idea of losing 17 years of customizing pains me. It would be the same if I had to stop using Word or Excel, even though I love to hate those apps, too. I’ve simply invested too much time in macros and templates, making these tools fit my workflow.
The reality is that hand-coded HTML is a relic. I’m a dinosaur. People want a content management system (CMS), not HTML. They want a Word-like editor, without all that ugly tagging nonsense. Forget tags, ids, and style sheets. No, we’ll use WordPress or Medium and stop trying to learn what magic makes a page render properly.
I cannot say I blame users for embracing the “no-code/low-code” approach to website content. WordPress moved to its new Gutenberg editor because users don’t want to understand HTML. People want to type text, add photos, and be done.
Dreamweaver serves a shrinking market. It won’t be significantly upgraded, and I know that.
Still, I wish Adobe would fix a few of the annoyances.
The keyboard in code mode doesn’t always highlight text. The “remove tag” option sometimes requires saving a file and then removing the unwanted tags. The “notes” added to pages come and go and are changed when you upgrade (especially if you customized the status options for pages).
Dreamweaver is an old friend. He annoys me and angers me, but we understand each other.
Adobe has several products that limp along, barely maintained yet essential to a small group of users. Most of these were once proud products developed and sold by other vendors. Adobe, like a vampire, sucks the blood out of these products. Why? Because Adobe makes its money from InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop users.
At some point, Adobe will stop caring about Dreamweaver and won’t issue new updates.
It would be nice to be mistaken. Maybe Adobe is secretly planning the best Dreamweaver ever. It’ll be launched right alongside the new FrameMaker (including a Mac edition) and a better RoboHelp. And Captivate will be bundled with the Creative Cloud, finally.
I can dream(weaver).