Finally took the pluge to Dreamweaver and strict use of css

I have been using notepad/frontpage for both asp/html and css for the last 10 years or so. Why? Because I know it like the back of my hand, and whatever frontpage can't do (which is pretty much everything), I know how to do it by hand. Using notepad for css files, I could see why css is good to have, and I do use it often, but I end up just doing some inline formatting sooner or later because...? well, it is a easier, faster way to do it with the drawback of it getting messy (and finding out later its not supported by all browsers).

I always knew I should be using dreamweaver, but really, I never came across anything where I couldn't do it with notepad. If there is a browser incompatibility, I'll make it work. To me, its more about delivering a web page that is as you've imagined it, and less about standards. The web pages I that I don't like particularly are web pages created by dhtml/xhtml nazis that are more about the standard than making the site have some character.

So I finally took the plunge to dreamweaver, and decided to use it because it has the spry dropdown menu stuff which I couldn't get around not using this time. I always did my layout with tables because it was an easy way to lay out pictures and backgrounds. but now, I could see that its about about CSS and div tags. it is the better way. What I've come to realize is that although its not perfect, dreamweaver manages the CSS stuff pretty well, which makes it easy to follow the standards. following standards means its an investment for the ease of future updating and the amount of work it'll take if you want to change some styles around. it also means that its more search engine optimized. although i bet google really isn't favoring css vs the old inline formatting. not yet anyway.

I'm glad I did it, and having spent enough time with it, I feel like I won't ever have to use any more inline formatting.