In, on, or around December of 1996, before I knew anything about websites, hosting, domains, mail servers, you name it, I discovered a company called NetObjects. NetObjects was founded in 1995 and offered a new way of creating websites. The software allowed you to drag and drop your elements in a true WYSIWYG interface. I thought it was great. Then I tried to incorporate more advanced concepts, like adding dreamhost promo codes. The software would produce bloated, scrambled pages containing hundreds of tables. Ugh.
NetObjects closed its doors in 2001 when they were purchased by Website Pros, Inc. Thankfully, I lost track. Even though NetObjects Fusion is at release 10, a mere 12 years later, I haven’t touched it since.
I have, on the other hand, attempted coding with Microsoft Front Page, Notepad, and currently Dreamweaver 8. It took me about 2 years to muster up the courage to tackle the basics of Dreamweaver, but I managed to do it, and I’m very happy with that decision. I’m sure that if I were a hard core programmer I would not be using it, but that’s only from hearing 3rd party opinions about how notepad is superior to anything. I’m not so sure about that. My primary reason for using Dreamweaver is the seamless management of files between your local system and the published and testing servers. Granted, I sometimes can’t stand the code hints because they get in the way, but I have to attribute a majority of my learning to those hints, because they show me what I can do with a piece code. More specifically, it has helped me learn more about CSS.
So, with that in mind, what are you using to code your site and why?