Hello everyone, I am looking into move from Dreamweaver to WordPress for making websites for clients. I could do with some advice. Can it save a lot of time? Thanks.

Yes, moving on WordPress is good and you can definately save your time.

I have been going back and forth with a few sites on Dreamweaver and it has taken me a lot longer than I thought to deal with.

Dreamweaver and WordPress aren't really comparable… DW is an editor whereas WP is a web based blogging/CMS platform.

 

If you mean going from producing static HTML and CSS in Dreamweaver to producing templates for a system such as WordPress then yeh in the long run it can save time as you would have dynamic menus and links that would update the rest of the site rather than having to do that by hand but you can still use an editor such as Dreamweaver to code your WordPress templates.

Thanks Boddy, I just guessed everyone would know what I was talking about, my fault. I am looking into templates + WordPress. Some of my designs in Dreamweaver have taken too long. I have ignored WordPress mostly until recently.

I think you can get some sort of a WordPress site up and running very quickly. If you are happy to go with a theme designed by someone else and can find one you like then you can install that and start adding content and it really wouldn't take very long at all.

 

If you are picky about getting your site to look exactly the way you want to then it is going to take longer than if you are prepared to compromise on the finer details.

 

So far, not being a designer, I haven't attempted to design a WP site from scratch so I can't comment on that. There are various frameworks and themes that incorporate page builders that can give you a starting point.

 

What I have found takes me quite a lot of time (hoping to speed up with experience) is choosing a theme to start with and then stripping out the elements I don't want and replacing them with things that I do want. I'm beginning to think that the page builder route might be better than fighting against a theme that has bits that need removing. I have played with Elegant Theme's Divi theme - but I really don't have the design skills to build something without a theme to base it on.

Edited March 18, 201412 yr by Jane B

My Opinion... Learn front end code. Options open up for you especially since you are not tied down to a particular platform. You can use the platform that best suits your client instead of trying to fit every site into one platform. One client might need WordPress, another might need something lighter like perch. Or you might need statamic. It better serves the client which is really what it is all about mirite.

Edited March 18, 201412 yr by cibgraphics

Thank you Jane B for giving me your experience, it was helpful. Cibgraphics, yes you are right. I am still offing both to clients, but maybe recommend them to use a WordPress Template for an eCommerce site. I have also updated my client Sheets/Questionnaire to take this into account.

I make my wordpress themes using dreamweaver and it really is a great way to work. Once you've got your dreamweaver FTP information set up properly on your test server (if you have one, if not use WAMP or MAMP) then developing increases 10-fold.

 

My professional advice is to make use of the features Dreamweaver has to streamline your wordpress development workflow. Making themes really isn't as hard as people would have you believe, assuming you have a logical mind and an eye for spotting code errors. You won't know unless you try it. I don't see wordpress and dreamweaver as separate, but as complementary.

My advice - Drop DW and go with a good code editor like Sublime Text 3. I know DW has a code editor built in but sublime's is faster and aside from vim is generally the go to editor now for most professional web developers. You shouldn't need to use any of the drag-drop features of DW, if you're still needing to use these then I recommend you practice your html and css coding before you make the jump to WP.

 

Not to mention you should really know at least the basics of php if you are gonna be charging clients to build WP themes for them,