VERDICT: Improved CSS handling, browser compatibility checking and especially the new Ajax support make this the most significant Dreamweaver release for years.

Dreamweaver has dominated the world of professional web design in the decade since Macromedia first introduced it. Recently however there has been growing concern that it has been trading on past glories...

With Adobe’s takeover of Macromedia there was even the possibility that it might be replaced by Adobe’s own GoLive. Thankfully that’s not the case and instead it’s GoLive that’s gone with Dreamweaver now central to all Adobe’s CS3 web offerings.
With GoLive’s demise, Dreamweaver’s biggest rival has been removed - but another has taken its place. Moreover, where GoLive’s inherent bloat ruled it out as a serious threat, the new Expression Web from Microsoft is the model of streamlined efficiency. Which makes it all the more disappointing that Adobe hasn’t extended its new CS3 cross-application interface to Dreamweaver CS3 – surely this should have been a priority for such a flagship application?
The recently launched Expression Web also scored over Dreamweaver with its recognition that modern web design is now completely defined by efficient CSS handling. Here, Dreamweaver CS3 has risen to the challenge and borrowed a number of features from its new rival. To begin with, when you create a new page, you can now base it on one of a wide range of templates based on CSS-positioning rather than HTML tables while new visual aids make it easier to work with the layout’s DIV building blocks. CSS-based formatting is also easier now thanks to the consolidation of previously separate palettes in a single unified CSS Styles panel, a new toolbar that lets you swap between CSS media types, and the ability to move internal styles to and between external style sheets.

Dreamweaver CS3's core CSS handling has been improved

Despite Dreamweaver CS3’s improvements, Expression Web’s CSS handling just edges it for efficiency and usability (see separate tutorial), but that’s by no means the end of the story. Ultimately what really counts is that page designs should work in practice out in the messy real world. Here the fact that Dreamweaver provides an in-built CSS reference complete with information on browser support is invaluable. Even more useful are the necessary workarounds to known browser issues that Dreamweaver CS3 automatically adds to its template-based pages. Complete with explanatory comments and best practice suggestions these are a real education – and worth their weight in gold.