Dreamweaver vs. BBEdit; your opinions

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I've been a long-time Dreamweaver user when I was using my PC. I recently switched over to a Mac, and I've heard that BBEdit is the way to go.

I've got both Dreamweaver and BBEdit loaded up on the Mac, and after trying BBEdit for a bit, I'm really having trouble finding some of the features I love in Dreamweaver. I understand it is different software, and therefor will have different features, so either I need to get used to it, or they are there but I cannot find them.

What are your thoughts? What pros and cons keep you using either of these two programs?

Thanks!
 
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I guess it depends on what you want. They are different programs for different purposes. Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG program, plus it can do code etc, while BBEdit is purely code and has advanced REGEX abilities. If you are a designer you'll like Dreamweaver better, if you are a coder/programmer then you would like all the advanced features of BBEdit and you spend most of your time in the code view in Dreamweaver anyways.. if you don't... stick with Dreamweaver.
 
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I do actually spend 99.5% of my time in dreamweaver's code view. I'd love to convert to BBEdit, no doubt, but can it do the following?

- Auto complete element closing tags: When I type <p>, it automatically writes "</p>", etc. This saves a lot of time.

- Can it list defined sites and store their FTP information, or is it merely a code editor which assumes you want to open up another program to FTP your files.

So far, those are the big things I couldn't find in BBEdit, though I only looked briefly. If it can do them, it's probably enough for me to convert.
 
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I don't think it can autocomplete.. Im pretty sure it can't. It can list defined sites and store their ftp information though. I use it completely differently, so those are things I do not use.

I use Transmit as my ftp program and when I click on a file in Transmit it downloads it, opens it in BBEdit and when I hit save it automatically saves it to the server. And I keep my FTP information in a program called Safe Place, since you have to have a password to access it and I have 109 ftp accounts for clients and so forth so I have to keep them safely hidden away.

I code PHP, HTML, CSS, javascript etc and I don't miss a code autocomplete at all.. I found that it got in my way more than it didn't so Im happy without it :) I like the lightweight BBEdit compared to the cumbersome Dreamweaver... again because BBEdit does everything I need and is quick about it. It sounds like you might use it a bit differently than I though.. so anymore questions? :)
 
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Hmm, I'd be interested in using a style like yours, especially when it seems to still automatically do things for you "the process of it getting a file, opening it in BBEdit, then uploading upon saving it" seems just as handy as what I'm used to.

I'll do a search and check out Transmit. Thanks!
 
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Yeah Safe Place is pretty smooth, in that once I unlock it, I just do a search for my client, open it up, click on the little world icon, it automatically opens up my FTP program and connects, then I double click on the file that I want to edit and it opens it up in BBEdit and when I save it automatically saves back to the server. So I guess it is pretty nice.. it works for me :)
 
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BBEdit is awesome for PHP, ASP, CGI, etc.....

Dreamweaver is fantastic.... Personally I use Adobe GoLive... I guess it all depends what my project calls for more; FLASH or PHP....

Anyhow.... Dreamweaver is great. :dive:
 
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Hello and thanks a lot for your interesting comments.

I've started to create websites a couple of months ago so I'm quite new to web design.
I started with Smultron to understand the basics of document structure and now I use Dreamweaver because it allows me to speed up my work dramatically.

Although I've always been looking for better softwares. I that's where I found BBedit. I downloaded the trial version and was quite pleased with the interface and I truly believe that this software is a real monster of it's kind when it comes to text editing. Although I've been very upset when I had to make a template for my site. I don't want to blame the software because It's very probable that I don't understand some fundamentals of Web design.

So here is my problem: using Adobe Dw it makes really very easy to make a templae and assign different editable regions. In BBedit it seems to easy but when you want to modify the template file, the changes are not applied to the child files. Is it possible to do it in BBedit?

Thanks a lot
Eugene
 

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