joeyasaidthis

There are no alternatives. This big, bloated app is your only choice for a visual editor on the Mac. Freeway isn't much better and NVU is dead.

RapidWeaver with Blocks plugin? Flux? Sandvox?

They are quite powerful (Well RapidWeaver is, I haven't looked too deeply into the other two).

Maybe they don't feel quite 'Pro' enough. Maybe that's why there isn't any heavyweight visual editors other than Dreamweaver - so much of pro web design is about understanding the code you are delivering to your viewers.

Serious about web design? Seriously think about Coda, CSSEdit, TexMate, skEdit or even HyperEdit. Dabbling? Then try RapidWeaver etc.

If you're looking for a nice, lightweight visual HTML editor for the Mac, this isn't it. In fact there is no such application. Dreamweaver like every other visual editor on the Mac is a huge, lumbering overstuffed beast that tries to do too much and doesn't do any of it well.

It's strange that this market had been abandoned on the Mac where there is such a rich library of shareware applications. However the sad truth is that Mac web dev software comes in three flavors: Text editors, Drag and Drop template generators and big, bloated WYSIWYG editors. There's simply nothing in between.

So these days I use Coda and I'm generally happy. However I'd still love to find a lightweight visual editor for those special circumstances where going visual is just more efficient.

This was the first program I learned on my journey into web development. Like some here, I only use code view and it's definitely something I would recommend.

I use Coda every single day. It's a gorgeous app and it's made by an extremely responsive company. That said, it's just missing quite a lot of features for that $79 price tag.

1. No dedicated (live) preview window. Sure CSS Edit has spoiled me, but this is a great feature and I'd like to be able to see what I'm working on. Coda simply isn't built for dual monitors.

2. No site-wide find and replace. You can only search and replace items on your opened document.

3. The DOM inspector is pretty useless. Highlighting your code doesn't highlight the element in preview, nor does selecting in the DOM inspector highlight your code.

Coda is good but it could be much, much better.

I just bought it, but I'm still wishig for this:

1.) Faster and automatic refresh in the Preview window (already said)

2.) Remembering opened windows and their settings when you quit/reopen the app.

3.) Sported mouse-wheel support for rolling/editing values like in CSS Edit.

4.) Added the same Preview/Code Switch button in the lower left corner of the window, in the Edit window, as there is in Preview window.

5.) Speed!!! Try to achieve same speed as CSS Edit.