Dreamweaver CS5

[brian setzer]

Is Adobe CS5 worth my time in learning to use. It is the program we used in school once but we only used common and simply features and it was CS3. I am wanting to learn to make websites and would like to know a good program to learn. I am sure everybody has their own preference. Just wanted some comments on CS5. Also how far should i go in upgrading my computer, size of processor ?, how much memory ? one or two graphic cards ? and so on. Thanks for any help

[bigdace73]

cs5 i run on my laptop and run nice

[moufoo78]

If you are willing to learn how to create a website you first need to learn html and css.
Dreamweaver may seem great but by starting with it you might make a lot of mistakes.

You should first find tutorials on the web (sorry but I don't know any good links as I am french and thus learning on a french website).

To develop a good site you need to know your basics so simply start with notepad++ giving you only basic code coloring and browser preview (only for html and css). This will allow you to make basic but good looking sites.

If you are willing to go further you will also need to learn PHP and SQL. This is a lot harder and you will need Xampp to emulate a server. (PM me if you need help with it).

Learning html and css is quite easy. But if you need a nice website try Wordpress you just need to upload it on your server and let yourself be guided.

As for the computer a simple laptop will do.

[FrozenTime]

I literally spent a whole semester in a class learning how to use Dreamweaver CS5 in a class. In my honest opinion, it's not worth it... The only feature that I found helpful was the Code and Design Split View, where you can edit the code and see what happens on the other side pretty easily (though refresh works just as well...). Other than that, it's really only useful for making simple, poorly designed sites if you don't know HTML / CSS. WYSIWYG programs like Dreamweaver really are bad for people starting out because they make messy coding, and for people starting out, they tend to grow dependent on them. Learn using Notepad first (it's free and extremely effective). Then if you want, use Dreamweaver as a tool to help speed up the process of coding (though I still code nearly as fast on Notepad). And as moufoo said, it'll word on a simple laptop (though on the school's Windows XP computers, it took a while to get the program started up).

[Jennacide]

Honestly, I have DW CS3 and well... if it's not broke why fix it? There just isn't reason enough for me to upgrade, cs3 does its job and does it well... *shrug* I dunno, I guess it's a personal choice really.

[jsnforum]

Hi, If you would like to learn on building websites- based on my personal experience- I think it's better to start learning html first then css. You shouldn't rely on wysiwyg applications though in my humble opinion since relying on these might give you some headache on tracing and fixing via the source code. :D

Hope you got what I'm trying to say though...
Anyways, I started learning here... W3Schools

[khopcraft77]

If you know your programming of the web well, then this tool just makes your work much MUCH faster. Otherwise, don't get it until you have practiced a lot. It will make crap out of a noob, and pro out of experience.
Of course some people might disagree.

[Jennacide]

It will make crap out of a noob, and pro out of experience.

I couldn't agree more

[frankfriend]

I entirely agree. Starting with html, using e.g. Notepad to write code, then testing it live, is a great way to learn. JSNFORUM's recommendatrion of W3Schools is excellent.


A good way to learn can be to look simple sites, and view the source code. This can be overwhelming, so if you just get loads of unformatted solid lines of code, just look at a different site.

Another good idea is to get a basic book on html out of a library or buy one, and work though it. Some of the Illustrated books are great - Look for Teach Yourself Visually HTML & CSS by Mike Wooldridge. It looks elementary, buit it is pretty solid.

[sankalpgarud98]

hi mate, if you want to learn a software to make website, dreamweaver is probably the best contender.
Your processor should atleast have 2 cores and 2gb of ram is preferable. However if you could get a quad core, that should be enough. If you plan to use photoshop and other adobe softwares as well, then they tend to take up and utilize more resources. In such a case, you may want to check a list of supported graphic cards. Dreamweaver by itself just needs some decent RAM, however PS,flash,illustrator also need a decent graphic card...
Hope you find it useful,
cheers