Is it bad if i only know DreamWeaver?

Question

I am an aspiring web designer that's still in high school.

I know basic HTML coding and a bit of CSS, but I can get more in depth with dreamweaver.

So what i want to know is: Is it bad that I can't code as well without Dreamweaver?

Answer 1

It's not about the tool (by the way, dreamweaver is an excellent tool) it's about the experience and language knowledge, like you said you are still in high school, with a little more experience you will be able to design even in notepad.

And just a little advice, if you want to be a great web designer you should go a little more than just HTML, try PHP, ASP, JavaScript, or even ASP .NET, these languages will help you make great web sites, but don't rush it and practice a lot.

Good luck

Answer 2

Dreamweaver is a fine tool, but it is ultimately limiting.  It creates HTML and CSS code.  Most of the time, the output is pretty nice, but the underlying code is a bit ugly.  Eventually, you'll get tired of the way dreamweaver does things, and you'll need to mess around directly with the code. Once you finally dig in, you'll discover that XHTML and CSS aren't really that hard, and perhaps you never really needed dreamweaver in the first place! (You didn't)

XHTML is actually simpler than HTML, because it has fewer tags.  CSS can be complex, but it's incredibly powerful, and learning it is well worth the effort.

Consider using a text editor that helps you with the coding.  Aptana (a popular free editor) helps you remember all the commands, provides syntax coloring, and points out mistakes in your code as you go.)

Eventually you'll move beyond plain HTML and CSS into programming with JavaScript and other languages like PHP or Java.  At that point, your programs will be creating web pages, and dreamweaver cannot really help. You need to know how to build web pages if you want to write programs to build web pages. (and frankly, web developers today really need to be capable of the programming and data side to be competitive.)

Take a look at my book and see if it helps. All the code is available on the web site so you can see how it works...

Answer 3

Depends how you look at it really.  Personally I like to do raw HTML and code in text editors, however if you work in Dreamweaver and your sites come out nice, what is the problem with using it?  Your websites might come out better if you know the languages enough to write them in programs such as Notepad, but if that isn't the case and you do better in Dreamweaver, keep coding in it. :)

However, if you are looking for professional jobs in web design, you might have to throw down Dreamweaver. (For instance, maybe a specific company frowns upon it).