Jay Gaulard Blog

Installing Dreamweaver CS3

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

I went to Staples today to get the latest version of Adobe Dreamweaver, which is Dreamweaver CS3.

Just to let you know, I only bought this software after I searched online for open source alternatives to Dreamweaver. I think I came across the top alternatives, but each one had a fault that I didn’t really like. The top choice had a review. The software’s downfall was that it liked to change your code for you, which really isn’t cool. Dreamweaver actually brags about not doing that.

The reason I was looking for alternatives was because the $399 price tag seemed a little hefty for a web editing application. The upgrades are only about $199, so that’s what I will be doing from now on.

I installed the software and gave it a run. Wow, it seemed just like the 2004 version. I am assuming there are a bunch of new features in there, but I most likely won’t use them. I am not into building websites from scratch anymore. There is one thing though…it seems slower than the older version. That could be the Adobe influence of it. Geeez, I remember trying to open GoLive. For big sites, it took a few minutes. But then again, it could be Vista. Everything seems slower in Vista. I noticed that the minute I turned this computer on the day I got it.

I will let you know how it goes.

FileZilla - A Free FTP Program

Sunday, November 4th, 2007

Over the past few years, I have downloaded my fair share of free trial versions of various FTP programs. As a web designer and now a web…whatever, you can imagine my need for a nice FTP program. Each of those programs were pretty good, but their expiration usually prompted a quick deletion from my computer.

Each web editing program I use comes with its own included FTP feature. I used to use Adobe GoLive, but am now switching over all my sites to Adobe Dreamweaver. GoLive has treated me well, regarding FTP, but Dreamweaver, while being easy to use, has a few hickups. Here is the thing - I have some very active websites. Every so often, I need to do a backup of each entire site. Each of these sites has thousands and thousands of files, which come and go with the activity of the sites. GoLive used to download what was there, even if a file disappeared while it was downloading. Now, I try to do the same thing with Dreamweaver, but if a file (such as an image) is deleted after I connect using FTP, I get an error message telling me that the file is no longer available. That’s not bad, but what is…is that the transfer of files stops, until I click ok. If I don’t click ok within 30 minutes, the FTP feature disconnects. As you might expect, I do this while I am sleeping, because each download usually takes about five hours. If the file transfer stops and disconnects, it’s pretty much useless to me.

A few minutes ago, I just downloaded an open source FTP program called FileZilla. I set it up and tried it out real quick. There is a quick connect feature that allows you to put in the address and login credentials and hit connect. It is very fast. I tried it on a small site and I like it.

Now, since Dreamweaver gives me everything I want, except for this one little thing, I hope that I just found myself a little workaround that will allow me to complete my switch from GoLive.

Switching From Adobe GoLive to Dreamweaver

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

I have been through it before…when Adobe discontinues a certain piece of software. The first one I lost was Adobe ImageStyler. That was back in 1999, when I was in college. The second one was Adobe LiveMotion. By this time, I can pretty much read the writing on the wall.

Recently, Adobe purchased Macromedia. I have been wondering what is going to happen to my favorite website editing piece of software…Adobe GoLive. I am not really sure if GoLive was ever my favorite editor, because it is quite bulky and has always been full of bugs. I remember back a few versions ago, the program would just disappear from my screen, right in the middle of my work. Where did it go? Oh, who knows. Then, the site file would get corrupted and I would have to figure out a workaround. Now, with my latest version (Adobe CS), the program is just really big and takes a long time to load, especially when the site is large. I dread opening it.

I took a look on the Adobe site and read that they are pushing the new Adobe Dreamweaver. They still offer GoLive, but aren’t talking it up like they used to. In my opinion, it’s history. Dreamweaver is the industry standard website editing program. I agree. I have seen it in action and like it. A few years ago, we purchased Macromedia Studio MX 2004, which included Dreamweaver MX 2004. Knowing where this whole thing is headed, I decided to purchase “Dreamweaver MX 2004 - The Missing Manual” from Amazon. I got the book for about $3.50 ($7 total). I started reading it and using the program (2004 MX, that is). I really like it. It is more intuitive than GoLive and has a few more things that I really like. Coming from GoLive, I know how to do most things, they are just in different places.