compatibility of sites created in Dreamweaver 5.5 with subscription to Dreamweaver CC

[James.Andris]

I have developed several websites which depend heavily on the template features in Dreamweaver 5.5. I have been nursing the program along, but now it will not run under my current Mac OS. I am retired, and while I do not wish to develop extensive new skills, I do want to occasionally maintain and update my existing sites. It would be worth my while to "upgrade" to a subscription to Dreamweaver Creative Cloud, but only if the template structure embedded in my current websites is essentially compatible with the Dreamweaver CC. Rebuilding those sites is not a consideration. I would appreciate hearing from someone who has direct experience with this issue/concern.

[BenPleysier]

If Template features are your main concern, then you will have no problem in upgrading to newer versions of Dreamweaver.

The main difference between CS5.5 and CC21 is the loss of serverside modules.

[Nancy OShea]

Rebuilding those sites is not a consideration.

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To be honest, that's like watching your boat sink in 6 ft of water.  😭

CS5 came out in 2010.  That tells me your sites are a decade or more behind current web standards.  And in all likelihood they are not keeping pace with the modern web or providing mobile & tablet users with a good experience.  Google penalizes sites that are not mobile-friendly. 

If you're unwilling or unable to modernize your sites every 5-8 years as required, you should hire someone to help you.  There's not much to be gained from upgrading your software if you don't also upgrade your sites with a new layout and functionality.

As @BenPleysier said, Dreamweaver CC supports DWT Templates if that matters to you.  But it also supports Bootstrap which can help you jump start a whole new website that works on ALL devices.  Another option might be to start over with an online site builder like Wix, Webflow or WordPress. 

Whichever choice you make, do it with eyes wide open to the fact that the web is constantly changing.  And you need to keep changing with it.

Just my 2 cents.

[James.Andris]

Nancy, I appreciate your taking the time to make these very valid points. Indeed, you are correct, my sites are out of date. Were I even close to retirement age, I would take your advice. Fact is, I am 83 years old, and the primary full time caregiver for my spouse. I would simply retire my sites, except one of them is used regularly as the basis for historical research, and the other is simply for my personal use, a record of many things I use on an almost daily basis. Again, you are right, but I make the exception due to my difficult and very temporary circumstances.

Jim

[BenPleysier]

@James.Andris I bow down to thee, sir. You are 4 years my senior.

If you do not use outdated server side code, no ADDT, and as @L e n a says, no Spry or jQuery widgets, then you will have no problem with the newest versions of Dreamweaver.

If you do have a problem, please come back here so that we can solve it for you.

Wishing you and your spouse the very best.

Ben

[L e n a]

adding to what @BenPleysier said, you must also consider some forgetten features that DW 5.5 must had... my memory can play tricks on me, but it seems to me that there were also things like widgets, and the use of the SPRY library, ...

[B i r n o u]

I fully understand your problem, and it is true that in absolute terms, as @Nancy OShea  says, we have to take into account that the web has evolved and that today it meets new standards that did not exist at the time of DW CS5.5.

However, as @BenPleysier  and @L e n a point out, at the time there were specific DW features that have since been removed. This could possibly cause artifacts, or no longer match dialogs, if you were to open these documents from a modern version of DW...

But, what I was getting at with my comments is not to worry about this at all. ... if you, or your users, visit your current sites, you are happy with the result... then there is nothing to worry about.

Don't worry, there are no hidden springs that will eject your content out of the web... it will remain as it is, always searchable and will always satisfy users, certainly not as perfectly as it could be from a smartphone, or any other very modern device, but it will remain accessible to any browser, new or old.

I would like to be able to ask this kind of question in a few years... I admire your approach, and as Ben says, please don't hesitate to come back to this forum if you have questions