I have a site I created in Dreamweaver CS6 and was about to upgrade my iMac to Catalina OS 10.15 and got a message that my version of Dreamweaver will no longer be compatible since it’s a 32-bit app. My question is: what’s the best alternative to Dreamweaver for continuing to work on my website now that DW is no longer compatible with 10.15? If I go with RW, can I just use the same root folder that contains all my DW files? I’m used to being able to edit HTML code directly. Can RW do that? What would I need to do with my website if I wanted to switch to RW instead of DW? Thanks.
Although RW does have the facility to edit HTML in various ways - the built-in HTML page type, the Stacks plugin - it’s not designed for that. You won’t be able to do very much with your existing site other than using RW to re-create it from scratch - copying and pasting content as you go, I’m afraid.
Is there no upgrade for Dreamweaver from Adobe? The Adobe Website looks like it is supported…
There’s an upgrade, but it requires a subscription to Adobe Creative Suite, which costs almost $300/year. Since I only update websites 2-3 times a year, it’s not worth it to upgrade to their subscription service.
In that case, could you simply export the website from Dreamweaver and continue maintaining it in a normal code editor like Atom or VS Code or one of the paid code editors?
If you have some HTML knowledge already, then doing basic content edits to your website should be quite an easy process. I maintain a couple of websites for clients that started life long ago in Dreamweaver or Wordpress, and I am periodically called upon to fix or update things a few times a year.
As much as design apps like RapidWeaver and Blocs look really impressive on the surface, very few of these apps are able to take existing HTML code. Because much of their power comes about through the use of modular design blocks, themes or stacks that act as containers for exported content.
If you really did want to build with RapidWeaver, then @robbeattie’s suggestion of rebuilding each page is probably the most practical solution.