Long Live Dreamweaver

I have been using Dreamweaver sice 2003 and am now with 19.21.  About 2025 I discovered I was no longer able to Preview on the web the page I was working on (the box pops up but it is blank), I also discovered I was no longer able to view/access Code (I click on the button and the page comes up dark with no code content on it).  I work in Design mode.  Beginning on June 7th (that is the date I discovered it) I have been getting FTP error occurred (“cannot make connection to host”) and I have been unable to put up files to my Remote server.  On June 8th I contacted Web.com and since then I have been communicating with them until finally they say they cannot resolve the issue, that “assistance related to Dreamweaver configuration falls outside of our support scope.”  “For issues related specifically to Dreamweaver setup and integration, we recommend the Adobe Help Center as they are best equipped to guide you through the configuration process.”  I have gone through the FTP instructions at Adobe Help and I cannot figure out what is wrong.  

Lets just hope Adobe keep it alive for those of us who put their trust in the product many years ago like me - and who have used it for the whole of my time making websites my way. I love everything about DW when it works - and have no interst at all in learning WP or having to get to grips with Wappler or Similar. 

Me too - when you have spent all your life using one Web App - and spent a lot of money on extensions - you really don’t want to have to learn a new app. I am retired for 4 years and still love using Dreamweaver to maintain all the sites I built - Long Live Dreamweaver !

[ NOTE ] - I made a few edits to my previous posts to better clarify my wording.

Ola ​@KevinB9, Dreamweaver still has a very natural interface for many of us, especially when a project has been maintained in it for years. It is often more than just an editor; it is part of the whole workflow.

At the same time, Dreamweaver’s current maintenance path is not very clear from a user point of view. So when we run into bugs or editor limitations, it is hard to know whether they will be corrected soon, later, or not at all. That makes it useful to have another editor available, not to abandon Dreamweaver, but to avoid being blocked by issues that may take time to be addressed.

In that context, VS Code can be a good companion editor. Using it through Dreamweaver’s “File Types / Editors” preferences allows both tools to coexist.

That way, we don’t have to give up Dreamweaver. We simply give it some help from another tool when needed, and that may be one way to keep Dreamweaver useful and present in our toolbox.

I am still using Dreamweaver because I am already paying for it and I am too lazy to learn another program. Looking forward to trying 21.8 to see if some bugs are fixed.

Our entire system - website, CMS, operations, reporting and booking system are ALL built using DW, and might I add in .asp!!!! We have started developing a new website using Wordpress, but have had to use other systems and embed them in to Wordpress, and I don’t have full access to the code for the other systems like I do with all the files for DW. While I understand that .asp is as old as they come, with the help of AI to code, it’s actually proving to be VERY flexible and able to customise the booking system, CMS, website exactly the way we want. Can anyone here tell me how we can move the files from .asp to php and keep using Dreamweaver? And - can anyone tell me if they know if DW will have a change of heart and keep developing it?

Hi ​@ingo9 ,

​@L e n a  mentioned this thread to me, and your question caught my attention.

The idea behind the "Parcours d’apprentissage" (PAW) that we started building at Puce et Média is slightly different.

Rather than focusing on the languages themselves, the goal is to understand where they fit into the bigger picture and how all the pieces work together. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, databases, hosting, browsers, client/server communication, REST, APIs, accessibility, metadata, SEO... each one addresses a different aspect of web development, and we believe that understanding these relationships often makes learning much easier afterwards.

If I had to suggest a starting point for the PAW, I would recommend:

https://www.puce-et-media.com/parcours-dapprentissage-web-points-de-repere/

It provides an overview of the entire cursus path and helps put the different topics into perspective before diving into any particular language or technology.

It is less about code and more about preparing the ground, understanding the environment, the tools, and the way we approach web development.

For learning specific languages, the following article may also be useful:

https://www.puce-et-media.com/le-parcours-du-developpeur-web-guide-des-langages-et-ressources-fiables/ 

It covers some of the main languages involved in web development and points toward various rock learning resources.

One thing I learned over the years is that learning HTML, CSS or JavaScript is important, but having a real project in mind is just as important. A website, an application, a hobby project, a nonprofit organisation, whatever keeps you motivated. Languages tend to make much more sense when they help solve a real problem.

And don't worry, many of us are still learning after all these years 🙂

​@Snakes97 , I think many people can relate to that

For quite a few of us, Dreamweaver has been part of the journey for a long time, so there’s a mix of habit, comfort, and also a way of understanding how things are structured under the hood.

As ​@Nancy OShea mentioned, it has probably become more of a tool among others rather than a “one does everything” solution. And in a way that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it can still be very useful depending on how we work and what we’re trying to build… And who knows... maybe the development team has some surprises in store for us in an upcoming update...

Anyway, what often matters most is not so much the tool itself, but how it fits into our workflow and how it helps us understand what we’re doing.

So yes, you’re definitely not alone ;)

If it does what you need it to do, keep using it.

I still use DW for site management, alongside other coding tools like Visual Studio Code.

No single app can do everything well. So use whatever works best.