Hello all, So I've been around for a year or so and now I want to expand, or at least be prepared to expand when I'm ready to. I just started playing with self hosting and began migrating my apps to self hosted 3.0. I'm hosted with Hostgator and I'm having fun learning about how the self hosting structure works with FTP and the Hostgator CP and the whole back end process works etc. I decided to go with Hostgator by reading these posts and the opinions of all of you. Thinking of putting my Hostgator account to work, I started playing with making my website (which right now is just a contact form required by Apple) into something a bit more respectful. I'm trying out Photoshop CC and Dreamweaver CC which will have a monthly payment of $9.99 for Photoshop CC or $29.99 per month for the entire suite. If I decide that I need these tools, i can cancel the payments after 1 year. Being mostly inexperienced with app and web creation, I turned to this forum and saw that Smugwimp (whose advice has always been spot on) uses Joomla! to create his sites. So my questions/thoughts- Because I've decided to learn and use Joomla! for the website (thanks Smug), do I need Dreamweaver and/or Photoshop? I haven't gotten too deep yet with Joomla! so I don't know what it's capable of. I can see that Dreamweaver might not be needed but maybe I might need Photoshop (after learning it) to create artwork or manipulate photos for my website and apps. Then again, Dreamweaver seems pretty cool to create html easily. And maybe later after I figure it all out, i could build sites and apps for other people. As far as the Adobe products monthly payment, my app sales would cover it. I'm actually out of the red and slightly into the black. Well, if I want to expand my horizons and create some decent material for myself and possibly others as a hobby, not a profession, what do you top producers use? Thanks in advance Dave

Hmm - Dreamweaver is one of those that some love it and some hate it. Personally I don't like it so much - it seems to be overkill for what I need. But I prefer to work in a text editor for most things, so... Photoshop, on the other hand, is something every developer should have. Or if not Photoshop, then one of the alternatives. On Windows, there's Paint.net, which is pretty powerful for a free tool. On Mac, there's Gimp - another free tool - but one that I haven't found all that helpful. If I were you, I'd download the trials and see what you like. The advantage to Photoshop is the numerous tutorials available to help you do things. Go to your library and check out one of the Photoshop magazines and follow a tutorial in it. It will walk you through editing a photo, and by the end you'll end up knowing the tool pretty well.

Thanks Chris

@Dave, I've been an Adobe user from the beginning, paying $49.99/month is way better then having to buy the Suites, not only do I retain old versions but new ones as well, it gives me the freedom to use it on 2 devices at the same time, if I have to use it on my laptop, I simply deactivate it on one install then activate it on my laptop. Very versatile that way. As far as using joomla you don't need Dreamweaver, having built joomla sites, I only use dreamweaver to download the entire site locally, troubleshoot or find bugs in 3rd party plugins. For the most part unless you are planning to have your website for membersships, then wordpress or a simple html5 responsive landing page would suffice. You should take a look at various theme sites and build from there. Some themes come with demo content so all that's needed for you to do is replace it with your content. Design wise, being in this industry, for the customer the perception of value is what they see visually for the first time. It could be the biggest difference in looking amateurish vs a polished site, which conveys confidence in any product or service you are offering. Been in this business so long and that's the first thing I tell my clients that a good looking site goes along way in first impressions and branding. Hope that helps.

A few days ago there was a similar discussion here: https://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=CDB364A2AB9B290EA45ACD5

I've never found a need for Dreamweaver; Like Chris says, it's overkill. Besides, with a CMS like Joomla, Wordpress, and others it's more about the decision of your 'template' that will set the overall look, feel, and style of your website. And I'm not certain Dreamweaver can help with that. I've been trying to 'withdraw' from Photoshop, but I haven't. It's indispensible. I'm still looking for a decent image editing replacement, but nothing stands close. If your needs aren't too intense, Pixelmator is affordable and surprisingly robust for the money. But it's no photoshop, and may never be. But for $30 it packs a whallop. I love Joomla, don't get me wrong. And I love the Mac. But when I give (bad) advice, I try to find the best solution 'for them', which may not be Joomla, or a Mac… Make sure it can do what you need it to do, or have a plugin if not. And spend time on your Template; that's your impression on people. Cheers! -- Smug

Dreamweaver may indeed be an overkill, but I use it mainly as a very good HTML editor. Whenever I need a link, I find it easier to use Dreamweaver than anything else. For tables it is indispensable. But I do not develop entire sites with it and I never will. There is one feature of Dreamweaver that I like a lot. If you setup the file structure on your local disk identical to the file structure on the server, then there is an option to upload the file to the server whenever the file is saved locally. So "here" and "there" are always in sync. I also use DW to change things in a group of files in a folder. Eclipse and Notepad++ will do that too, so it boils down to personal preference for what you will use. For PHP and CakePHP development I tend to use Notepad++, though. For Java, it will be Eclipse, of course, since it so tightly integrated into the entire process of apps development. For graphics I use GIMP instead of Photoshop. Its free and it does most of what Photoshop does, so...

EdReyes, Smug, Dusko, thanks for the great advice. Dave