I specialize in ‘web sites’, and ‘blog’ builds, and dreamweaver CS4 has so many layouts and CSS options with a split design mode that its so handy for me to code and watch the design develop.

Why is everyone dragging dreamweaver down?? its not being forced on anyone, and for those expert html coders out there, don’t worry, we wish we could code from scratch like you, but until such this skill is developed by me, any software that helps in designing web pages is a god send.

I saw a program for ‘real designers’ change my code when i hit the ‘save’ button, but never dreamweaver in code mode !

Welcome to Web design 101: Copping a ‘tude.

I’ve been working in the web for 12 years, and have been handed a lot of attitude because I used a PC. The “real designers only use Notepad” thing is a new one for me – most designers I know swear by it. And yes, you should check in Code View a lot, use CSS whenever possible, that sort of thing.

But such extreme statements are indicative of the elitist, poseur designers I’ve come across over the years. Don’t let it intimidate you too much — a lot of those folks are the Web equivalent of starving artists, and are using their elitism to mask their career desperation.

Arguing over the +/- points of Dreamweaver is something I’ve done many times. Whenever I mention I use Dreamweaver to build sites, I get reactions ranging from mild surprise to howls of derision.

What annoys me is that response smacks (to me) of snobbishness, the idea that developers who don’t hand-code every character in notepad are in some way not “proper” web developers, or are pretending to be such.

Whether you choose to use Dreamweaver or not, I think we can all agree that you should never use WYSIWYG software to produce websites – the code, as the piece says, will be sloppy or inaccurate at best. I thought the piece unfairly targeted Dreamweaver in this respect.

Yes, frameworks and publishing platforms like WordPress are assimilating the market, but this is part of a natural progression: when you can get a domain and hosting account for less than 100USD per annum, there’s an expectation that you can get the rest of your pieces together for a capital outlay in the low hundreds of dollars.

Quick, low-hanging fruit is always nice to get as long as the client doesn’t turn what should be a quick pickup job into a six month trip to hell in a handbasket, and it’s true that WordPress et al. reduce the value of those prospects… but we’re better off for that anyway. Let the DIYers and neighbor kids work that end of the market, while the professionals build the really good stuff. (So go low barriers to entry. Darn.)

Finally: when it comes to sales and revenue, there are three matters that can’t be ignored: recurring revenue, professional contacts, and client trust. The first smooths out rough spots, the second directly correlates with the number of accounts you get, and the third directly correlates with the amount of revenue you can earn from those accounts.

It’s hard to argue with the value of Dreamweaver as a prototyping and collab tool. For production, not so much; by the time you’ve learned HTML/CSS/JavaScript well enough to get the most from Dreamweaver, you’ve probably got a nice library of templates going (or can write them from scratch in your sleep).

As for learning those nuts and bolts, the Opera Software Web Standards Curriculum is a great place to start. It’s no substitute for a degree in the eyes of staffing agencies and HR drones, but it does a great job of telling you what’s what.

If you feel up to springing for TextMate or BBEdit in preference to TextWrangler, you’ll be getting what you pay for. On the Mac there’s also Coda, which integrates Transmit and thus emulates DAV features; the feedback I’ve heard suggests that it’s an excellent alternative to working with multiple terminal windows simultaneously.

As for TextPad, I’ve sworn by it for years. There’s also Notepad++.

Disclaimer: Meryl and I are online buddies going back years, but WWD was in my feed reader before she joined the roster. I can hardly speak for her, but what the hell – can’t hurt to clear the air.

Second disclaimer: ALL of my articles at A List Apart are aimed at the same folks who would find this article informative.

Third disclaimer: Likewise with my new book HTML & CSS: The Good Parts, published by O’Reilly Media and available for preorder at Amazon for receipt in late September.

However I want to re-iterate my original point that you should never rely on WYSIWYG code generation to write websites. It’s just not good enough and more to the point, if you are serious about pursuing a web design career, it would actually do you more harm than good.

If you want to go into web design, learn the basics. Learn to hand-code. learn the difference between CSS IDs and classes and when (and when not) to use them. That way you won’t be repeating the hard-coded mistakes of WYSIWYG editors and you’ll also be making your code more SEO friendly and usable too. Chances are you’ll actually write a lot less code too.

If you want to ensure the cleanest code possible, do it by hand or at least, comb over DW code. It’s the same thing as blaming PowerPoint for bad presentations. No one is stopping the presenters from using the templates that are all wrong.