Hello there
I want to ask you a question about using fireworks to develop web sites. It turns out, that I have been playing around with fireworks 8 and I have realized that this program is able to change your png file with slices, roll overs and all kind of cool effects into a website with the corresponding html files.

Now my question is: I do not know when I should use fireworks to develop a website instead of using for example css with the help of dreamweaver. The problem I find when using fireworks is that it's really hard to read the code it generates because it uses tables. Thus, it might be a hard task to modify manually the html code of a website developed with fireworks. Moreover since I have read in tons of websites that css is much better than tables, I thought that using Fireworks might be no so good. Neverteless, it seems that fireworks might speed up the process of developing a website quite a lot.

In conclusion, I am quite confused about the advantages and disadvantages of using a program like Fireworks 8 in contrast to developing your websites basically by writing manually your html and css code with just the help of dreamweaver from time to time.

Since I know that there are a lot of people who might have lot of ideas and suggestions, I would appreciate any comment about this issue. I am starting into web design . Furthermore, I realize that you can do the same website by using different tools, but I would like to learn the most standard way of doing things or if possible the advantages and disadvantages of each website development tool like Fireworks, Dreamweaver or any other similar tool that you might think that is interesting. What is more, I am trying to learn when I should use one tool or another, or for what I should use one tool or another. Since, there is a lot to learn, I just want to learn it bit a bit.
Thanks in advance.

I think using the right tool for the right job is something that comes with experience and practice.
What I personally prefer or usually do is to use Fireworks (CS3 in my case) to do a visual layout of the site and I code the corresponding layout markup in XHTML+CSS for the purposes of SEO. From the Fireworks graphic, I then export the relevant slices and use them as background gradients or branding images in the website.
Exporting a complete website from fireworks graphic with HTML tables etc though an option is not the best as it's a widely known "secret" that layouts using tables is not optimal at all !

I think using the right tool for the right job is something that comes with experience and practice.
What I personally prefer or usually do is to use Fireworks (CS3 in my case) to do a visual layout of the site and I code the corresponding layout markup in XHTML+CSS for the purposes of SEO. From the Fireworks graphic, I then export the relevant slices and use them as background gradients or branding images in the website.
Exporting a complete website from fireworks graphic with HTML tables etc though an option is not the best as it's a widely known "secret" that layouts using tables is not optimal at all !

Thank you Dotex. I had something like what you told me in mind. However, I wanted to have other people's opinion like yours because I have seen a lot of websites which are designed by people who claim to be professional and they use tables. For example: http://www.newclick.es/
or
http://www.sipec.es/
or
http://www.klimatica.net/
all of which have been designed by newclick.es and use tables.


That is why I thought there might be sometimes when it is better to use tables. I just thought that these people were using tables because they might be using some kind of program like fireworks to develop their html code. And since they are supposed to be proffessional, I thought, they might have some sound reasons to do what they do.

I use fw, too. Again for design layout and planning. I then export all of my images to use with css. I then code a basic xhtml file with the standard header, content, footer, sidebars, etc. This is generic and I generally reuse this basic template over and over again for various sites.

I then code the css by hand starting from the top and working down the page. I code for ff and then adjust for safari and opera. I create separate css files for ie6 and ie7. I don't bother with less than ie6.

If you want the site to be IE6-compatible, tables are almost a must, as IE6's css support is horrible and buggy. I generally use a combination of a basic table and as much CSS as possible, while still being compatible.

You don't have to use tables for ie6. it is buggy, but writing a separate script for ie6 works. I'm currently working on my ie6 script for my site as I did something to the site and it screwed it up in ie6. But instead of tweaking my whole design for an antiquated browser, I tweak a separate css file for the browser. A pain, but better than using tables.