The latest build of this product (v5.2.0) was released 23 years ago,
which was before this thread was created.
Posted 22 years ago
by Martin Griffiths
- UK
As a web designer of over 3 years (and in Internet years that's a long time!) I've always been interested in providing a rich experience for users of the Internet. Until recently this has either been achievable through Macromedia's Flash tool or by coding features specific to a target browser (Basically IE) The latter causing all sorts of compatibility issues and extended development times.
The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be 'Standards Compliance' and finally Microsoft and Netscape (Mozilla) are meeting these requirements. I was stunned just how well IE6 pc,IE5 Mac and NN6.2 format CSS pages. Careful checking is still required but my development times have decreased substantially. Consistent results ARE now achieveable.
So what about all those wonderful tools available to the developer that make HTML4.01/XHTL 1.0/XML1.0/CSS1/CSS2 DOM1/DOM2 possible with ease? Surely the likes of Macromedia and Adobe can deliver.....Do they heck!!!
At work I primarily use Adobe tools to design in ie PhotoShop/Illustrator but ultimately everything ends up in Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Whilst Dreamweaver is a wonderful tool and delivers consistent results. It's wysiwyg approach is flawed and supports very few CSS1 features (especially block-level elements like SPAN and DIV)
I like to get into the code as much as the next man. But at the end of the day i'm a designer and an accurate visual representation that is editable is very important to me. Combine this with my need for my chosen tool not to cough out server side code (not that this is a problem in Dreamweaver) and full support for HTML4 and the newer XHTML. I found myself looking away from the 'big boys' to see what else was available.
I evaluated AdGoLive 5.0 recently and not only is the interface cluttered and confusing it's offers no more than dreamweaver which frustrated me somewhat.
Ahh...but all is not lost! I stumbled across this little gem. Spider Writer has blown me away! I have to admit that i'm still evaluating this software but so far it has more than met with my expectations. The wysiwig editor seems robust and pixel perfect with support for most of the CSS1 features I use regularly. All the standards are there right up to XML thanks to HTML Tidy! and editing CSS docs is a doddle with TopStyle! My only criticism so far is maybe wysiwig table editing could be improved upon in a future version. I've yet to try Server-Side coding (I use ASP) but I know that it's not going to let me down, and to top it all .net is available when i'm ready for it!!!!
This tool is GOING to rival the 'big boys' in a big way!
TOP MARKS keep up the good work!
The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be 'Standards Compliance' and finally Microsoft and Netscape (Mozilla) are meeting these requirements. I was stunned just how well IE6 pc,IE5 Mac and NN6.2 format CSS pages. Careful checking is still required but my development times have decreased substantially. Consistent results ARE now achieveable.
So what about all those wonderful tools available to the developer that make HTML4.01/XHTL 1.0/XML1.0/CSS1/CSS2 DOM1/DOM2 possible with ease? Surely the likes of Macromedia and Adobe can deliver.....Do they heck!!!
At work I primarily use Adobe tools to design in ie PhotoShop/Illustrator but ultimately everything ends up in Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Whilst Dreamweaver is a wonderful tool and delivers consistent results. It's wysiwyg approach is flawed and supports very few CSS1 features (especially block-level elements like SPAN and DIV)
I like to get into the code as much as the next man. But at the end of the day i'm a designer and an accurate visual representation that is editable is very important to me. Combine this with my need for my chosen tool not to cough out server side code (not that this is a problem in Dreamweaver) and full support for HTML4 and the newer XHTML. I found myself looking away from the 'big boys' to see what else was available.
I evaluated AdGoLive 5.0 recently and not only is the interface cluttered and confusing it's offers no more than dreamweaver which frustrated me somewhat.
Ahh...but all is not lost! I stumbled across this little gem. Spider Writer has blown me away! I have to admit that i'm still evaluating this software but so far it has more than met with my expectations. The wysiwig editor seems robust and pixel perfect with support for most of the CSS1 features I use regularly. All the standards are there right up to XML thanks to HTML Tidy! and editing CSS docs is a doddle with TopStyle! My only criticism so far is maybe wysiwig table editing could be improved upon in a future version. I've yet to try Server-Side coding (I use ASP) but I know that it's not going to let me down, and to top it all .net is available when i'm ready for it!!!!
This tool is GOING to rival the 'big boys' in a big way!
TOP MARKS keep up the good work!
