Dreamweaver against pure MySQL/PHP with CSS style sheets

[DrNoXx]

lol, first of all you should tell us what kind of site you want to create. As you said it is for a friend I guess it is a normal website.

Forums and other apps use php/mysql, but you will not have fun on creating a page in php if you do not at least know a little about html. html can be learned pretty easy and even if you use a wysiwig editor like golive , dreamweaver or so, you will have to get some knowledge to write clean code wherever it is needed and the wysiwig editor will NOT do what you want it to do on the other hand you will not be able to find failures if you do not know about the languages you use.

a simple website can be built easy with a wysiwig editor and it doesn't need to be handcoded. but everything else should have clean code and THAT is what a wysiwig editor will not create. you sure can use a wysiwig to make the layout and all the needed structuring, but I advice you to clean the code afterwards in a normal editor like UltraEdit. But this will need some knowledge of the languages and mostly it is, that people nowadays use CMS like joomla as website, 'cause they can put their content into the page themselves over a backend. Such pages use php/mysql and are pretty easy to be set up - then there is thousands of templates, that can be edited to fit your ideas.

Well, even those CMS need someone that knows about the languages it which they are written to install them and set them up properly, edit the templates and so on... advantage: the owner of the webpage can easy change content him/herself and it is that several users can put content into the pages, as such cms have a complete backend with useradministration and so on... yo you really should tell us what you/your friend wants.

[geo4d]

Hey dude.... there are two kind of people

those who pick adobe products (Designers)
and those who dont (Programmers )

If you are a Designer then.... Use Photoshop + Dreamweaver + (WordPress , Mambo, Joomla etc)
If you are Programmer then..... Use Paint + NotePad + MySql

The difference is the time. While the programmer write and rewrite u r spending more time in how the user is going to get what you are offering. So just download a CMS module or plugin and that's it.

The only thing the customer is looking for is peace of mind, not the winner script or the best coding in the world.

The web is moving very fast, and the technology is changing everything.. in the future we will no have to download or buy a program instead of that we log in a website and work from there. SO think about that....... we will need to have several skills to keep track of that kind of technology. People who stick in one area will be left behind in their fantasy.

So Dont loose time, there is more than notepad out there!

[aE3]

Dreamweaver is a great tool but can be a bit of an overkill for making a simple site. Meaning there's a lot that you think you need to learn but you don't, if you're just building a simple static site.

IMHO there's no one solution fits all over this.
Today there ar many good CMS platforms that allow one to build simple to complex sites with or without coding knowledge.
You'll have to ask yourself what you really wish to achieve & whether you really need to learn tons of stuff (like if you are going into business) or whether you just need enough to be able to put up & maintain a few sites.
If you are looking to go pro then 1st & foremost is to learn the code.
Design is important but if you're looking to earn money you need to be able to create & maintain good valid code.

If you're just looking to make a few small sites, then perhaps start looking at CMS platforms (Joomla is a favourite of many, but there are many to choose from, like drupal).
You can learn quite a bit using them, at first you just look at the templates & how they work & build a simple structure, then you'll find yourself changing the template & bit by bit you'll find yourself learning enough code to get by & finally have enough knowledge to maintain a nice dynamic site & you'll probaly be happy like that.

[maobadi]

If you are comfortable working with text editors then I suggest using color coded text-editors. Because you know what is going on behind the scene.

[greendevil]

notepad++ is good when you are just starting to learn to code but as you get more into design/programming u will learn that the adobe products suite are on average faster than other stand alone editors.

[DrNoXx]

@greendevil hehe, you wouldn't say that if you had tried blumentals rapid php which is a very fast and good to use tool. Adobe's Golive used to be a great tool but those macromedia programs they bought are just a pain in the ass in puncto interfacedesign and interactivity with the programmer and the new Golive is not as good anymore as it used to be. Programs can be much more userfriendly than the way macromedia arranged their UI's and well it will take Adobe quite a while to make those programs intuitive as the usual adobe programs are.

[PITOU_X]

Read if you want to have some advise from a designer;

Hi, I would advise to start with a good idea. You don't need software for a good idea.
Before you start to think about the idea you can start analysing other similar jewlery websites. This can give you a pretty good scoop on what's hot and what's not.

Next I would start to design the site. This happens primerly in Photoshop (Illustrator and Fireworks are aso recommended) and then slicing it for Dreamweaver.
In DW you can implement PHP & MySQL perfecly.

[jjj]

I recommend NetBeans over the Zend IDE. Has the same amount of features and code completion is allot better.

Dreamweaver is good but there will be a point in your life where you completely forget about it and write code without WYSIWYG.