Do you still hard-code using Dreamweaver?

AnotherMe  wrote ...What steps did you take to master hard coding? Are you a designer as well?

I started as a graphic designer and was eventually hired on at a company that used GoLive to make websites. As time went by and I couldn't find the "why" for something not working the way I wanted in the software, I started looking at code. The more code I learned, the more I found I didn't need the software to do things for me. GoLive was great for making something happen but terrible at making it happen efficiently.

When Adobe killed GL, I had enough html and css under my belt that moving to DW was a snap. The UI was decidedly "Macromedia" so I didn't like using it if I didn't have to. As a result, my coding skills got better. Then I came back to the forums. At that time, just around GL's death, this place was full of people asking how to do things that weren't built into DW. As I tried to help them, I was teaching myself how to do those things via code instead of clicking through the menu system hoping to find something similar to what they wanted.

It's nice not needing the program to get my work done. If the mood strikes me, I can happily plug along coding with Notepad and previewing in a browser with the free Filezilla for uploading. If it weren't for some of DW's site management tools, I probably wouldn't use it anymore either, but it comes free with a subscription to Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator, so I might as well stick with it.