i have to take over this site for the client. unfortunately, i can’t seem to make any edits within DW because the previous developer has a script preventing me from doing so. does anyone know what script is doing so and how to disable it?
From a quick glance at the code, it looks like there are editable regions set up in Dw. I don’t work with this sort of stuff, but I vaguely remember seeing that in action once. It has something to do with templates and/or library items in Dw.
Here are some quick links I just found:
Dreamweaver templates and library items tutorial
Dreamweaver CS3
HTH. 
It’s like Ralph said, only if you are using DW will it probably affect you editing the page created via the proprietary template. I have had - was forced - to use them before in an exam. Basically any other normal plaintext editor you can edit the markup with so all you need do is; edit out the DW specific template comments. Or use a different editor that doesn’t rely upon the template system.