Which Tools Do You Use (Have You Used) for Building Websites?

I have always used and liked the simplicity of “Windows Notepad”. :sunglasses:

Though I have never felt a need to use anything else, about a year
ago I did install “notepad++”, so that I could save my completed files
as “utf-8” without the dreaded "BOM :mask:

coothead

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Did it go away :slight_smile: I’ve been using it constantly since about the year 2000!!

Although, to be honest I only use its code editor which I still think is among the best although it does suffer badly on large files. Also I tend to only work front end so a lot of DW is lost on me.

I quite like brackets these days but I do miss some of the features that DW has (such as easy code formatting and folding options and search and replace functions).

From time to time I have also used html pad which also works pretty well but I still usually end up back in DWs code window as it feels like a comfortable pair of shoes.

The downside of DW is that it is sooooo expensive and if I didn’t have the upgrade path I probably wouldn’t have bought it. I’m not into the subscription method either as its a bit like renting a car you never own.

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I have used sublime for the longest time and it will stay my togo editor at home.
At work I switched over to atom ( want to try it out ), but also have sublime installed.

We also use all the adobe programs here but I do not feel the need to use DW.
Most of it’s features I never needed to use, so I never used DW to it’s full potential.

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Well, I don’t know whether Dreamweaver 'is making a comeback" or whatever, I started using it like a good 7-8 years ago and still using it. I am not a big fan of spontanious changes of the product you’ve been up to for so long. And I think that Adobe is doing a great job maintaining their product at the good level. Of course there are some minor bugs and the things I am not really fond of, but, nevertheless…

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I tend to go for simplicity and probably would be using Notepad if it weren’t so monotone. As it is, I use Notepad++ all the time. I have ventured into trying out NetBeans, PhpStorm, Aptana Studio, Dreamweaver in my early days, Sublime Text, etc but I somehow end up back at Notepad++ before I have even given the other Text Editors and IDEs a fair shot.

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My first foray into coding was in Java, which I used Eclipse for. While I am still fairly new to programming and can’t provide much insight as far as to the benifits and weaknesses of different IDEs, since then I have dabbled in Atom, which tends to have issues with large files but otherwise appears to be highly useful, PHPStorm which I am using currently, and a little bit of Notepad++. I would have to say my favorite would be PHPStorm as of yet, but obviously it is optimized for PHP, HTML, and Javascript.

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I still use Dreamweaver 8, mostly in code view, although I still find some of the wysiwyg features handy - so long as I check the code created afterwards. I have to say that I have never found DW creates really bloated code as is often claimed, just a few things that need to be corrected. Notepad++ on occasions. I also have Fireworks 8 as my main image editor.

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I’m young developer, so I maybe never heard for some tools that you used :slight_smile:

I started with building websites when I was 15, and as I remember I started with Microsoft Publisher (Software from MS Office package) - I didn’t know what is HTML, CSS, or JS, so I was happy with my first site (all was for fun) - code was disaster for sure :smiley:

After some time I noticed that I “master” the MS Published and I moved to WYSIWYG software, I don’t remember what version it was.And there first time I met the HTML and CSS but still I didn’t know how to write it.

I have been member of one local development forum, where one guy posted the course by Jeffrey Way called “30 Days to learn HTML and CSS” and that’s how I start.

I used Notepad++ and It was good, after some time, when I improved my skills I switch to Sublime Text which is awesome :slight_smile:

And also I learn a lot of meanwhile, I didn’t stay only on HTML and CSS :smiley: I’m 19 today :))

I think next editor could be Vim :slight_smile:

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I started with the free version of Coffee Cup HTML editor, until somebody gave me Dreamweaver. I used that almost exclusively in code view. The only time I used the WYSIWYG view was when I couldn’t work out how to achieve what I wanted, and then I’d see how Dreamweaver did it, then delete it and code it myself. I was self-taught, with nobody around to ask for help (and I hadn’t discovered SitePoint), so it was a handy resource when all else failed.

Then, like @James_Hibbard, I switched from Windows to Linux. The only thing I bothered to run in Wine, and still run in Wine, is the colour contrast analyser, which I’d be lost without. I tried various editors on Linux - Screem, Geany and Bluefish. I eventually settled on Bluefish (although I can’t now remember why I preferred that one ) and I’ve been using it ever since.

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Happy Birthday, @bedakb.

haha thanks, but there is a misunderstanding, probabbly because my eng is not the best, sorry :slight_smile:

It’s not birthday to me, not today :slight_smile: wait until 25 Sept :wink:

Sorry - I misunderstood.

Why wait? Have some cake and practice now, so you’ll be ready for the real celebration when it comes.

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I’ve been using Expression Web (MS Dreamweaver look alike), Notepad++, and Brackets.

I think I first tried coding with Notepad, then used Frontpage 2000, and for a brief while, had a copy of Visual Studio at work, though I can’t recall what version. After a brief lull of several years, I ended up with a copy of DW CS5 which I still have. It never gets opened though, and having used Notepad++ for quite a while, am now pretty much settled on using ST3 for everything. I’ve also looked at Atom, NetBeans, & MS Visual Studio Code. For images, I just use Photoshop CS5.

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That was Microsoft’s replacement for FrontPage that they then also abandoned in 2012.

Now you can have it for free, along with Expression Design, Image Composite Editor, Deep Zoom Composer and others.

i think it is up to your purpose. If you design website for selling it is different from for advertising with appropriate themes. However, tools for design basic website are similar

I don’t remember the name of the editor I started with, but it was something simple like “HTML Editor”. I used Dreamweaver in my first job as a Adobe ColdFusion developer, but the CF support was really bad (go figure, right?) and I found ST2.

At work, I use Eclipse (not my choice, but I need some tooling) and Sublime. Eclipse is really just pathetic for JavaScript, so I use ST3 for a lot of my JS work. At home, I use Sublime, but I’ve started taking up learning Vim. I’m not sure if I could ever switch to using Vim full time, but it’s definitely useful and a good skill to have. If anything, it’s made messing with configs on my servers way easier than trying to fumble around with Nano. I bought a 6 month sub to Vim Adventures a few weeks ago, but have been really busy since and haven’t made it past level 4. Up to level 3 is free. It’s pretty fun.

I’d probably switch over to IntelliJ entirely at work, but at home I don’t have the attention span to use it. I usually load something, do a few things, get bored, and start playing games or something. I need something I can load and close quickly. Plus, if I forget to close it ST takes up almost no resources. But at work, I usually just load my environment in the morning and keep it open all day so I can afford the load times and resource usage.

I couldn’t see anyone ever going back to Dreamweaver. The last time I used it, it had all the resource intensive downsides of the full featured IDEs with the functionality of ST, Atom, or Brackets.

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I started with Dreamweaver 4 I think a long long time ago, now I’m using PHPStorm and Sublime Text. I’m mostly working with Wordpress projects

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I too have DW 8, when it was still a Macromedia owned. Not currently installed on any computer here in the bat cave and I’d be hard pressed to find the installation CD. I have CS3 Web suite from Adobe that I got when I returned to college, not sure if I’m still legally able to use it but really I no longer use this suite either. Not a graphics designer, and I no longer start in a graphics editor these days.

Today I have Phpstorm, Eclipse (the IDE everyone loves to hate but latest Neon ver is great), Atom, ST3, VScode and a few others not worth mentioning.
I am beta testing a neat little vector graphics editor called Affinity Designer though and really like it. Originally a Mac app, it’s now in beta testing on Windows. Should be around 50 bucks US when it goes on sale.

Steve working in Colorado, USA

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