alternative to Dreamweaver?

[KevinB9]

After twenty years of frustration with Dremweaver it looks like it's time for me to find an alternative.

I am an amateur historian and i create simple websites to show my hobbies and reflect my academic interests. I'm not trying to sell anything and I don't need dropdown menus. I never should have taken up with Dreamweaver in the first place. I only did it because I had the Adobe CC subscription. I'm looking for womehting else based on the following considerations:

• I use a MacBook Pro

• The new software doesn't have to be free

• I would like to place text and images on the page without getting into floats and clears

• I need to be able to handle media queries simply

• I am leaning towards a code editor called Nova

That's about it.

Thank you

Kevin Burke

Cambridge, Massachusetts

[BenPleysier]

For a low code editor: Wappler

One of the video tutorials that I have published:

[osgood_]

After twenty years of frustration with Dremweaver it looks like it's time for me to find an alternative.

• I am leaning towards a code editor called Nova

By @KevinB9

I don't really know what the frustrtaion has been? Dreamweaver was a decent enough editor for a long, long time. It's only in the last 5 years or so that it's dragged it's feet and been left on the shelf to fade away.

Nova is a great editor by Panic who make stuff specifically for the Mac so it has a nice native environmental 'feel good factor' and is currently being actively developed. My only concern with Mac centric software is that some producers only support a couple of Mac OS versions back so the programs becomes outdated too fast for my liking if you're not prepared to upgrade your OS regularly.

I don't care to  upgrade my OS once I have my set up working because something else might not work and you're then in an endless cycle of upgrading. I prefer using software that doesn't totally rely on the Mac OS to work, something like VS Code or Sublime Text, both are free editors or Web Storm/Php Storm by Jet Brains which are my go to editors these days, Codelobster is another editor you could try.

All the editors metioned rely on you knowing some coding to get the job successfully done. If you're looking for a more visual approach then you need to look for something else.

[Nancy OShea]

TWO OPTIONS:

1. Learn to work with modern code (CSS Flexbox and Grids, Bootstrap framework).
2. Switch to an online site builder and find a free or premium Theme. 

The latter will cost a bit more for the added convenience and ease of use but you won't need to deal with code.

=====================================
Read chapters, do code exercises and take quizzes at the end.
- https://www.w3schools.com/html/
- https://www.w3schools.com/css/
- https://www.w3schools.com/js/
================
CODE EDITORS:
-- Adobe Dreamweaver CC - https://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.html
-- Codespaces (free, browser-based) - https://github.com/features/codespaces
-- Nova (Mac only, formerly called Coda) - https://nova.app/
-- Pinegrow - https://pinegrow.com/
-- Sublime Text - http://www.sublimetext.com/
-- Visual Studio Code (free) - https://code.visualstudio.com/
-- Wappler ~ Visual Web App Builder - https://wappler.io/
============
ONLINE SITE BUILDERS:
-- Squarespace - https://www.squarespace.com/
-- Webflow - https://webflow.com
-- Wix - https://www.wix.com/
-- WordPress (open source) - https://wordpress.org/

Hope that helps.

[Ben M]

After twenty years of frustration with Dremweaver it looks like it's time for me to find an alternative.

I am an amateur historian and i create simple websites to show my hobbies and reflect my academic interests. I'm not trying to sell anything and I don't need dropdown menus. I never should have taken up with Dreamweaver in the first place. I only did it because I had the Adobe CC subscription. I'm looking for womehting else based on the following considerations:

• I use a MacBook Pro

• The new software doesn't have to be free

• I would like to place text and images on the page without getting into floats and clears

• I need to be able to handle media queries simply

• I am leaning towards a code editor called Nova

That's about it.

Thank you

Kevin Burke

Cambridge, Massachusetts

By @KevinB9

If you don't want to worry about code based on your floats and clears and handling media queries simply comments, I would focus on one of the hosted online site builder solutions mentioned. You will likely be able to accomplish everything you want without having to worry about code and you will be able to stay in the front-end of your site.  If you have an example of a site you are maintaining that you would need to migrate that might give us an idea of whether this is ideal vs. going to a code editor and updating your site.

[Nancy OShea]

Personally, I see no reason to throw baby out with the bath water.  Changing code editors is NOT necessesary to rid yourself of Floats.  It's not the tools, it's the person using them that decides what choices to make.

I haven't used Floats in layouts for many years, not since modern browsers embraced CSS Flexbox and Grids. 

• https://caniuse.com/flexbox
• https://caniuse.com/css-grid

Bootstrap's responsive framework removed floats from their layout system in 2018 and replaced them with Flexbox.

More importantly, Bootstrap handles media queries for you.  Layouts created with Bootstrap work on ALL devices.  No custom styles or media queries required. If you're interested, you can learn more about Bootstrap's 12-box grid system below.

• https://www.w3schools.com/bootstrap5/index.php
• https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.2/getting-started/introduction/