Dear Dreamweaver,

I have been a Dreamweaver user since about 2005 and before I did the upgrade from CS3 about a month ago, I WAS A VERY HAPPY CUSTOMER. 


But the upgrade was false advertising, as the new Dreamweaver is actually a DOWNGRADE versus CS3.

Whoever came up with the notion that creating all of these damned bureaucratic paragraph / formatting boxes to get in the way of people using the DW software?

I am referring to those boxes you use to identify paragraphs, with some formatting options.  These are the equivalent of bureaucratizing what was once a very nimble piece of software that allowed me to manage six sites by myself.  Now with Dreamweaver 20.11 I need to hire a corporate staff because the new version of the software is such a bureaucratic impediment. 

1.     DOUBLING OUR WORK / CLICKS WITH THOSE BOXES.  In CS3 I clicked on text or photos ONCE to begin acting on it.  Now I have to CLICK INTO THE BUREAUCRATIC BOX FIRST – so you’ve essentially DOUBLED the amount of carpal tunnel clicking I have to do TO DO ANYTHING in the new version of your DOWNGRADED Dreamweaver software.  Don’t you test this with INTELLIGENT users [not neophyte morons] before changing it?

2.     COMPLICATING FORMATTING / HEADLINES.  I can no longer quickly make edits, move or copy images, or mark text as headlines.  I must first go through the Dreamweaver bureaucracy [those damned lines marking paragraphs etc.] before I can denote a headline – whereas before I would place my cursor on a line and select h1 or whatever headline I wanted and presto that line became h1 / the headline. Having the tool menu below or along the side worked just fine and unlike what you have now – it didn’t get in the way.

Now I have to click into the bureaucracy box, then separate the line, then click into the formatting wizard and then choose the headline. So you’ve made my work far more frustrating and cumbersome. 

3.     RETARDED MOVING COPY.  Another example is moving copy.  I used to be able to click on a selection of copy and then drag and drop it where ever I wanted.  That’s not so easy anymore as I have to navigate the line bureaucracy to both copy and place it anywhere else on the page.   

4.     ABUSIVE CREATION OF NBSP;.  I don’t know why, but when I do spelling corrections, punctuation changes and paragraph adjustments I find an incredible number of nbsp; [non breaking spaces] are created that I don’t want.  

5.     FORMATTING / CAN’T EASILY COLLAPSE PARAGRAPHS.  The same is true for paragraphs.  In the past I would hit the return key to create a new paragraph.  And while this is still true in the new version, in CS3 if I changed my mind, I could hit the back key to return it into one paragraph.  In DW 20.11 the bureaucracy doesn’t allow this.

6.     RETARDED POPULATING PAGES WITH PHOTOS.  You’ve slowed me down in populating a page with numerous story photos.  I used to simply copy & paste a given photo all over a page where I wanted the various photos to go.  Then all I had to do was change the photo number to complete the page.  Done.

Now I must find the specific spot that you have buried in the photo box, click on it.  Then I have to go into the code view and copy the html code.  Then back to the live view where I navigate through your damned bureaucratic lines to the place where I want to paste the photo, and place the cursor where I want the photo to show.  Then click back into code view to paste the photo html. Finally ... done. And I have to do that for each photo, whereas in CS3 I scroll down the page placing my cursor where I want the photo to show and click paste, and then on to the next spot, and do the same and so on.

7.     HINDERED MOVING PHOTOS.  Another example is moving photos.  I used to be able to click on a photo and then drag and drop it where ever I wanted.  That’s not so easy anymore as I have to find that sweet spot of the photo before I can grab it and then I have to navigate the line bureaucracy to place it anywhere else on the page.  You have made the software very inefficient, costing me far more time to accomplish anything than the old CS3 version did.  The CS3 version is an upgrade from the DW 20.11  software you now offer.

PHOTOSHOP VS FIREWORKS.  The same is true of PhotoShop versus Fireworks.  Fireworks was a far more usable software package – again speed and good enough quality being the parameters.  PhotoShop may provide a higher quality result – but the trade off in time isn’t worth it. 

So, your tech support people should be empowered to take these complaints back to you.  Not have us take the time to complain directly to you, in addition to hitting them.  Again a waste of my time.  This is your software and you should be interested in hearing from your clients to improve yourselves.

But obviously you’re so big that you don’t care.  So I’m done here.  If the software doesn’t change soon, or somebody doesn’t get back to me with fixes and guidance on work arounds, I’ll likely not be a Dreamweaver user much longer. 

Sincerely,

I say what I am about to say on the forums and I get kicked out and banned. So let's see how this goes. Dream weaver is useless! A program that is way too complex, a pain to work on a new site with, only opens one file when there is many in the folder, I just do not get it.

Now here is the issue. I am paying for dreamweaver and I have no idea how I can be banned from the forums but the issue is it is a paid program. I am using brackets, a free program. Free!!!! and it works so much better than dreamweaver. I can easily open new sites and when I do it opens all files and folders, not just one. I click on a section and it shows me where it is on the code. Haven't seen dreamweaver do it.

So go ahead kick me out but I am forced to use adobe and I hate it.
The cloud does not work at all not does it sync right ever. Spark is useless. Premier is useless. The stock is severely over priced. The support is like talking to a tree and the supervisors are just has bad. Supervisors who don't care, who lied too me, told me oh well.

In 5 years a small agency will pay upwords to 20 grand for this in 5 years time and for a 40 year old company, trillion dollar company, pioneers of most things digital, I expect better. Especially when free programs out perform a paid one.