(Continued — 2)

My personal "what took them so long" feature is the one that I have chastised the publisher for not including in prior versions: strong support for nested tables. Most of us who write HTML code every day, and do so by hand, use nested tables to control complex layouts. Prior iterations of Dreamweaver tried to offer similar functionality through grid-based layouts with layers, but could not import complex hand-coded layouts based on nested tables. I was both pleased and astounded that I was able to import one of my designs into version 4. And it worked.

This new mode is called Layout Mode and is based on the idea of building dynamic layouts that resize when the browser is resized (one of the other benefits of nested-table layouts). Nested tables are also far more common than layers or DHTML in building complex site layouts because tables are compatible with all browsers, while layers and newer HTML technologies are not—and they’re certainly not backward compatible with older 3.X generation browsers.

The bottom line is that with this feature and the built-in code editor features, Dreamweaver has finally become a mature full-featured product that can be used by both journeyman Web designers and those of us who have remained professional "hand coders." In fact, this is now the first product I can honestly state is a possible successor to BBEdit, which I have used almost exclusively for site development on a daily basis since 1996. (Editor note: BBEdit6 was used exclusively to hand-code the DigitalAuthor.com Website.)

With "round trip" graphic editing, you can easily bounce between Dreamweaver and Macromedia’s Web image editor, Fireworks 4. This means you can block out an area in Dreamweaver, jump to Fireworks, create the graphic and place it in your layout, move it around, then decide you want to change the size, then bounce right back into Fireworks to edit the image, then it’s updated in your layout. It does actually work, although it might take a few tries to get comfortable with it.

Extensions allow you to do things like turn blocks of reused HTML code (such as meta tags or other text) into an object. You can then simply drag the object from a palette into your HTML whenever you need it without having to copy/paste from fragment files or prior finished pages. Some rather impressive extensions now available include one called Nokia WML Studio that assists with building Wireless Markup Language (WML) within Dreamweaver.

And, finally, a keyboard shortcut editor allows you to do all those things that people who love this feature like to do.

As for what’s missing, the only feature that remains on my "what is taking them so long" list that Dreamweaver still lacks is a print option. Macromedia is not alone in this, either. For some reason, many Web application publishers think we can just print from the browser. Thus, just as you can’t print your mock-ups from Adobe’s ImageReady 3, you can’t print a rasterized version of your layout from Dreamweaver. Nor can you print your HTML code for that matter. I find this annoying since it means we’re stuck with the somewhat limited printing options found in the browsers. It would have been nice to have a comprehensive print dialog to do things like print thumbnails of all the pages along with a summary report of the project, hours, actions taken, and collaborative comments. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

While it’s unlikely that Gary Wright will have a hit with his new album, it is definitely likely that Macromedia will continue to cement its leadership in the Web development software market with this new edition. Dreamweaver 4 is the best Web development application I’ve ever seen, and it earns my highest recommendation for anyone developing Web sites. Run, don’t walk, and get this thing now. And, if you were into the "original" dreamweaver, pick up Gary Wright’s new album while you’re at it.

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