Stefan Mischook from Studioweb.com posted an article a day or two ago called Is Dreamweaver still Relevant in Web Design? His conclusion was no, it is not.
Granted there are many more ways to make an effective and functional website than there used to be. I often steer people away from Dreamweaver toward some other tool when I don’t think they need to know everything you must know to use Dreamweaver properly.
However, that does not mean that the software is past its useful prime. What that article failed to take into consideration is all the site-wide tools and integrated tools that come with Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver does more than just write HTML and CSS. There are tools save a great deal of time for a developer who knows how to use them. There are tools that track links, update links, manage snippets, write JavaScripts, insert jQuery, write PHP. Dreamweaver works with Photoshop and other Adobe tools in ways that save both time and effort. In many ways, Dreamweaver forces developers to use accessible techniques – something other software doesn’t necessarily do.
I’ve certainly aired some complaints about Dreamweaver since Creative Cloud came along. But that doesn’t mean I think it’s irrelevant.
Anyone who doesn’t know enough to built a good website is going to build a bad website whether they are using Dreamweaver or some other tool. If I use Microsoft Word to write a terrible book, is that the fault of Word? Developers have to know what they are doing. When they do, their choice of software is just a choice. That software will do what they tell it to do.