So far, I really have not had any problems with Dreamweaver. It does well everything that I want it to do. Dreamweaver makes it very easy to handle things like Div tags and CSS, without actually dumbing down my control over the code. And the layout of buttons and other features seems very convenient. It does a good job of updating all the links when I make a change to a file name (I know that would be a monstrous headache updating those links myself!). And the import/export settings feature has worked very well for me.
I’ve heard plenty of complaints in class. But I’ve noticed that most of these complaints are from people who are just becoming familiar with the program. One main complaint was that “there are too many ways to do a single thing in Dreamweaver.” But what’s wrong with that? It just means that you can pick and choose methods according to your preferences.
Of course, if your the kind of person that does not know anything about HTML/coding, and does not want to, I can see how you might be happier with a simpler program (Frontpage?).
Also, I haven’t really worked much with other web-design programs (most hand-coding — what a nightmare!) But I’m planning to check out Nvu soon. Although I doubt an open-source program like Nvu is going to be any better then Dreamweaver.
