Wordpress all the way!

It's like comparing apples and pears in any event, as Dreamweaver is more for creating static HTML pages and Wordpress, being a CMS, creates those pages dynamically.

Some would class Wordpress as a blog software, but I believe it's more than that, it is a true CMS and much better than many of the so-called true CMS programs, such as Joomla.

Lately people are looking less and less for static pages. They don't want to hire a web designer every week to change the content and want to be able to change the content themselves. Rather than watching that pool of maintenance clients dry up you should consider providing a Wordpress solution to those clients that allows them to self-publish, before someone comes in and beats you to it. That way you'll get some cash in for providing the solution, and you will still be required to maintain the site, from time to time, updating the software, changing plugins, and so on.

You couldn't be learning Wordpress at a better time. And you'll find it is quite easy to learn and so very easy to create and publish content. For this reason Wordpress is the ideal solution, even for clients who might not be the most knowledgeable in IT terms (read: clients who haven't a clue but can just about use Microsoft Word). Creating user accounts is also easy, which you can then use to create limitations as to what your client users can and cannot do.

Of course you could still use DW for modifying or even creating new Wordpress themes. If you're already proficient in creating XHTML templates from scratch creating Wordpress themes will be no real challenge. You simply "slice" them up into different sections; header, content, sidebars, footer, and so on, then add Wordpress-specific PHP code around and inside the original HTML. Wordpress then recombines the various parts together to create the final theme output. A quick Google search will unearth dozens of tutorials on the subject.

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European Virtual Assistant Services

Yeah you are right Wordpress is powerful, Dreamweaver is not comparible into a CMS/Blog script.

Thanks for the link Cortney. I have recently started designing for Wordpress and am always looking for something that will help me develop my sites.

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Alicia Granda | A Grand Assistant | Virtual Assistance for Professional Individuals | AGrandAssistant.com

Great question. I'm a DW person myself. I have played around in WP some but always go back to DW. I would like to get to know it better but never have the time.

Before I started coding my website in HTML 5 (using Dreamweaver), I started playing around with WordPress. I personally became quite frustrated with WP after an hour or so and decided to make my own website from scratch.

Just to add my own viewpoint as someone who designs themes for both Wordpress and Joomla and manages a great many websites, it never hurts to understand the basics of HTML and even CSS.

Wordpress and other Content Management Systems offer users an 'Editor' such as TinyMCE - a program that allows you to add content without having to know HTML (kind of like what you use to post here at the forums!) Sometimes you can't quite get what you want out of the editor or even worse, something somewhere goes wrong. Knowing solid HTML skills can go a long way to helping you find a solution.

Also, if you ever offer website updates or template customization as a service, using Dreamweaver and your HTML skills will allow you to create fantastic results rather than just being locked in by the limitations of your editor or layout of your template.

Food for thought from a complete and utter geek.

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Cheryl Allin - VirtuAllin Administrative Services
Twitter - @VirtuAllin