From the article: What's Missing from Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver is a very powerful web editor. But there are still some features missing that would make it much better. Share your thoughts on what features are missing from Dreamweaver and how Adobe could improve it. And find out what other About.com readers feel about this powerful web editing tool.
Please include the version of Dreamweaver that you use in case the feature is added in a future version.
What's Missing?Background images for cells (tables)
- There are many arguments for CSS being a better option over tables. However, I still use MX 2004 for this feature when using images slices in Photoshop, and those pieces that require image roll-overs for buttons are a snap with that feature. CS5 expects you to use CSS or hand code the pieces back in. The major argument is cleaner code and less code by having pages refer to a master CSS file, and thus load faster. First, I can assure you that HTML, when done correct with images slices load instantly or just as fast as CSS equivalents. Second, my pages built within MX 2004 still work in all major browsers (April 2012). Third, if it still works, then why stop using it? I doubt this feature will ever find it's way back into the program, and so I will have to use both versions depending on my needs. Fortunately, the learning curve between the two versions was small.
- —Guest Click_mk2
Create Photo Album
- It's gone! Shame on Adobe for removing one of the most commonly used extensions. I am on a free trial of CS5.5 and probably will not buy it for this reason alone.
- —Guest John A
NO Html Validator
- No “HTML validator” !!! This feature is not available for Dreamweaver CS5 – I don’t know what they were thinking when they deprecated this feature.
- —Guest Gail
Pairing braces etc?
- I don't see that feature in CS5. Still using Netbeans so far. I agree with the above, Dreamweaver is more tailored for the design phase. The actual coding features fall short of other more real world IDEs.
- —Guest John
Dreamweaver Validator is Missing!
- Adobe dropped its (x)html validator from DW CS5. Apparently one can install an extension that will allow the validator to work as it does in DW CS4. The Adobe Exchange Extension Validator for DW5 is accessible through Window=>Results=>Validator once installed.
- —Guest Krikket
Better programming
- I have seen significant improvement on this recently; but the fact is that I get my web-apps coded faster with N++ or VIM than with Dreamweaver. Maybe the Adobe guys should take a look to MSVS to get a rough idea of what a programming IDE needs; because some webs are software engineering rather than artistic design (I have nothing against artists; it's just that it is not what I do, so tools for artists are rather useless for my work). To put an example, I have been working on an app port from raw C/Win32 to Web (Perl+JS): I wouldn't consider at all DW over a raw code editor for such a project. That, and the obnoxious handling of encodings and BOMs (a check to prevent BOM'ing a file that is fully ASCII would be a great improvement, especially when the BOM is garbling my attempts to dynamically generate PDFs, images, or even weirder stuff). Anyway, gratz to Adobe: nice tool for designers ;)
- —Guest herenvardo
