DW8 is, essentially, useless.

Question

Here at work I am, sadly, forced to use Dreamweaver 8.0.2 on
my Mac to manage a website, a site that contains about 7,000 or so
individual static pages and files. Using Dreamweaver to manage the
site is about three crashes away from being a true exercise in
futility. And these problems aren't exclusive to me, either -- my
co-workers experience many of the same problems on both Macs and
PCs day in and day out.
Perhaps these problems have been solved by others. Reply if
you know how to work around any of these annoying bugs:
1. Dreamweaver creates garbage files constantly in my local
site folders. They have names like "35770a1d" and appear to contain
the HTML from files I edit. I then have to go in constantly and
clean out these garbage files at the end of the day.
2. Dreamwaver crashes constantly. As in every single hour.
It's almost like clockwork, leading me to believe it's a memory
leak or buffer overflow of some sort.
3. Dreamweaver constantly bumbles the locked/unlocked status
of files on the remote server over FTP. Just when I think I notice
a reproducible pattern to this problem, it changes itself and I
have to go into the server and manually fix the permissions on the
files.
4. Synchronizing the site takes an exponential amount of
time. If I want to synchronize 100 files, it takes about 20
seconds. If I want to synchronize 1,000 files, it takes about an
hour. If I want to synchronize my entire site, it takes an unknown
amount of time. I've left it running for 10 hours before, and it
didn't even come close to finishing. The process slows down with
every folder it looks through, compounding the problem.
5. The user interface is awful. I won't even get me started
on this one -- it would take me a week to document the laughably
elementary UI problems in DW8. A company that made such wonderful
products as Fireworks and Flash should be ashamed of this travesty.
6. I can't use "Design" view on any HTML page in my site.
Period. The buttons are grayed out and I can't use the design view
(not that I'd want to let DW destroy my carefully crafted HTML and
CSS, anyways). Sometimes it'd be nice to preview my code without
having to:
* Save
* Switch to site window
* Right-click on file and "Put"
* Load the page in a browser
Those are the first 6 glaring problems that came to mind,
anyways.
Now that I've vented, what bugs/problems with DW8 annoy you?
Let's hear 'em! (And I don't mean minor trivial things. I mean
things that are a hamper on productivity or things that make DW8
nearly useless -- a true waste of money.)

Answer 1

>
> 1. Dreamweaver creates garbage files constantly in my
local site folders.
> They
> have names like "35770a1d" and appear to contain the
HTML from files I
> edit. I
> then have to go in constantly and clean out these
garbage files at the end
> of
> the day.
This is not DW's doing. It's OSX's Spotlight. Configure it to
exclude your
site directories.
> 2. Dreamwaver crashes constantly. As in every single
hour. It's almost
> like
> clockwork, leading me to believe it's a memory leak or
buffer overflow of
> some
> sort.
It's a system/environment/configuration problem, most likely.
I run DW 24/7
on XP, Vista, and OSX, and can't recall the last time it
crashed on any of
them. Can you tell me how your sites are configured with
regard to your
local hard drives and your network?
> 3. Dreamweaver constantly bumbles the locked/unlocked
status of files on
> the
> remote server over FTP. Just when I think I notice a
reproducible pattern
> to
> this problem, it changes itself and I have to go into
the server and
> manually
> fix the permissions on the files.
Wow - I have really never seen this happen - I can only guess
that someone
is not adhering to the policy. It is true that DW's
checkin/checkout is a
primitive solution at best, but it is certainly more reliable
than this....
> 4. Synchronizing the site takes an exponential amount of
time.
Sorry - I can't address this. My largest site is only 1000 or
so files, and
I never synchronize....
> 5. The user interface is awful. I won't even get me
started on this one --
> it
> would take me a week to document the laughably
elementary UI problems in
> DW8. A
> company that made such wonderful products as Fireworks
and Flash should be
> ashamed of this travesty.
Not much to go on there - but if you want to make
constructive comments, you
can do so here -
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
Do you have specific examples, though?
> 6. I can't use "Design" view on any HTML page in my site
Why? What is it about your pages that is so unusual? Do these
pages
validate?
> preview my code without having to:
>
> * Save
> * Switch to site window
> * Right-click on file and "Put"
> * Load the page in a browser
>
Why not just F12?
> what bugs/problems with DW8 annoy you?
I've used DW since v2, and frankly, there's not much that
really annoys me.
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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==================
"guywithabike" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:[email protected]...
> Here at work I am, sadly, forced to use Dreamweaver
8.0.2 on my Mac to
> manage a
> website, a site that contains about 7,000 or so
individual static pages
> and
> files. Using Dreamweaver to manage the site is about
three crashes away
> from
> being a true exercise in futility. And these problems
aren't exclusive to
> me,
> either -- my co-workers experience many of the same
problems on both Macs
> and
> PCs day in and day out.
>
> Perhaps these problems have been solved by others. Reply
if you know how
> to
> work around any of these annoying bugs:
>
> 1. Dreamweaver creates garbage files constantly in my
local site folders.
> They
> have names like "35770a1d" and appear to contain the
HTML from files I
> edit. I
> then have to go in constantly and clean out these
garbage files at the end
> of
> the day.
>
> 2. Dreamwaver crashes constantly. As in every single
hour. It's almost
> like
> clockwork, leading me to believe it's a memory leak or
buffer overflow of
> some
> sort.
>
> 3. Dreamweaver constantly bumbles the locked/unlocked
status of files on
> the
> remote server over FTP. Just when I think I notice a
reproducible pattern
> to
> this problem, it changes itself and I have to go into
the server and
> manually
> fix the permissions on the files.
>
> 4. Synchronizing the site takes an exponential amount of
time. If I want
> to
> synchronize 100 files, it takes about 20 seconds. If I
want to synchronize
> 1,000 files, it takes about an hour. If I want to
synchronize my entire
> site,
> it takes an unknown amount of time. I've left it running
for 10 hours
> before,
> and it didn't even come close to finishing. The process
slows down with
> every
> folder it looks through, compounding the problem.
>
> 5. The user interface is awful. I won't even get me
started on this one --
> it
> would take me a week to document the laughably
elementary UI problems in
> DW8. A
> company that made such wonderful products as Fireworks
and Flash should be
> ashamed of this travesty.
>
> 6. I can't use "Design" view on any HTML page in my
site. Period. The
> buttons
> are grayed out and I can't use the design view (not that
I'd want to let
> DW
> destroy my carefully crafted HTML and CSS, anyways).
Sometimes it'd be
> nice to
> preview my code without having to:
>
> * Save
> * Switch to site window
> * Right-click on file and "Put"
> * Load the page in a browser
>
> ------
>
> Those are the first 6 glaring problems that came to
mind, anyways.
>
> Now that I've vented, what bugs/problems with DW8 annoy
you? Let's hear
> 'em!
> (And I don't mean minor trivial things. I mean things
that are a hamper on
> productivity or things that make DW8 nearly useless -- a
true waste of
> money.)
>