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...no two pieces of software make my job easier than Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Managing multiple large sites is a breeze with these two, and allows me to all but give up hand coding (and focus more on design). Older versions required much more tweaking of the code in order to get some results, but with version 4.0, Macromedia has succeeded in making DW generate such good code, that I rarely have to fiddle with it. The features and ease of use are top of the line, and out do GoLive and other competing software in many areas. Fireworks is a must for easily creating great navigation and slicing up images in a fraction of the time it used to take. I still rely on Photoshop for many things, but most all other work is done in these two apps.

IF YOU ARE A BEGINNER: I HIGHLY reccomend purchasing this package, as you will be creating semi-complex sites in no time. While it helps to know HTML/JavaScript, you don't need to know much about them with this software.

IF YOU A PROFESSIONAL: Whether you are still hand coding (waiting for WYSIWYG editors to write better code), or using a competing product like GoLive, you must get your hands on these two. They are the best in the industry, and are must haves. Especially for designers/developers who work alone or in a small crew and are responsible for multiple sites and need to make updates quickly.

Software rarely is made this well.

I've been doing web development since 1996 and, to be honest, I fought tooth and nail against giving up Windows Notepad as my web development tool of choice. Microsoft FrontPage really ruined web development software for me and I pretty much vowed to avoid such applications in the future. Fortunately, my boss insisted that I use Dreamweaver and even sent me off to classes to learn the nuts and bolts. And now I'm hooked.

Dreamweaver is simply awesome and I can't imagine ever going back. Whether your a novice or professional, you'll come to love Dreamweaver's simple interface and ability to tackle otherwise tedious tasks -- such as Cascading Style Sheets, tables, layers -- with ease. Adding Flash, Shockwave or Java is as simple as it can possibly be. I took classes on Dreamweaver, but only because my boss insisted. The software is pretty easy to learn, though those with web development experience will have a fuller understanding (and respect) for the capabilities of the product.

The single most powerful part of Dreamweaver is the use of templates, which allow you to use the same look and feel across multiple pages and have all those pages updated when you make changes to the template. This alone will save you hours!

Another great thing about Dreamweaver is that creates clean HTML. This is something that any developer who has ever had to edit the HTML directly will respect -- especially if you've ever tried to make sense of FrontPage HTML nonsense.

Finally, the FTP application in Dreamweaver is outstanding. It keeps track of every page, graphic, link, etc. in your site and any change to any of them is cascaded through the entire site -- automatically updating links where necessary. With a simple click of a button your site is uploaded to your webserver.

There are so many features I haven't covered, but with the little I have this product is worth the money.

Get Macromedia Dreamweaver 4. They have turned this once great web design package into a hybrid cross of something that looks like Netscape/Flash and called it Dreamweaver MX 2004.

I used Dreamweaver MX 2004 for a month, uninstalled it and went back to Dreamweaver 4. It really is that terrible and the work space is terribly cluttered making it very hard to work within.

Bottom Line -- Get Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 instead if you can find it. Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 is a very good web design package that knocks Dreamweaver MX 2004 for ten. You will simply hate Dreamweaver MX 2004 when you install it on your system. I nearly barfed after a month of using that *new* completely hostile and non-user friendly piece of unstable and slow excuse for a web design software program.

Get this instead ... if you can find it...