Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Goodbye Dreamweaver

It had to happen.  I got a new Mac desktop computer (iMac) with a new operating system (OS X 10.10 Yosemite), and I couldn't install Adobe Creative Suite 5 on it.  I'm not sure what the problem is, there do seem to be some problems with CS5 and OS X 10.10, or maybe the CDs are no longer completely readable, or both.  Anyway I can't install it.

So now I have to deal with Adobe's subscription plan, Creative Cloud.  Of the programs in the current offering, I do use Lightroom quite a lot.  So I rather reluctantly signed up for the Lightroom + Photoshop bundle at $120 a year.  I do also use Photoshop, but only basic features, and I could replace it with something else, but the only way to get Lightroom is in the bundle with Photoshop.

The other Adobe program I use is Dreamweaver, their website editor and manager.  Again I only use the most basic features (I am trying to simplify my site, not complicate it), and a subscription is going to cost me $240 per year.  Goodbye Dreamweaver!  (And I'm not going down the Adobe Muse route.)

What I need to replace Dreamweaver is a plain text editor that is adapted for HTML and an FTP client.  I have been using the TextWrangler editor (http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/) for some time.  I think it would do what I need, but it has a "big brother" BBEdit (about $60 AUD, one-off purchase) that has more features specifically for HTML; I will  probably buy BBEdit.

TextWrangler already has some FTP facilities, but I may go with the (free) FileZilla FTP client, which has the split-panel display I am used to from Dreamweaver.  The TextWrangler FTP facilities seem more adapted to downloading files from a remote site, but I am creating files locally and uploading them.

The only problem with FileZilla (as with many other free programs) is that of finding the right place to download it from.  Download.com, CNet.com and now SourceForge.net have become notorious for loading up installers with what is now termed crapware: search bars that take over your browser and other junk that nobody wants and that can be hard to get rid of.  With SourceForge the developers of the software may get a little money if someone downloads the extra junk, but the all-round damage to reputation is considerable.   Moral: download from the developer's website, which is what I did with FileZilla.


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