Before some designers throw flames on me let me tell you that I am a die hard dreamweaver fanatic using it for years. I am not a fanatic of CSS and I'm not an avid user of CSS. I have to admit I love tables, and at the same time I want to move on using any tool that is available to create a valid webpage.

Ok, so my main question is: How good is Coffecup visual site designer as a backup to make your custom design template? I have been using the trial program and my test pages validates perfectly.

My main purpose is to make my initial page that validates perfect and then use DW as my workhorse in the rest of the pages and continue the website in DW as DW is really what I want to finish my websites. I have to admit that I have not been succesfull with CSS and even though my pages look good in the mayor web browser I want to create valid webpages according to w3c, to what is your input on this?

Firstly, in my own experiences, DW does have powerful features for making templates.
Secondly, it would be no difference between using DW at the very beginning of your projects or using it to finish your projects. DW would add its own code to your page sources if you choose to use it. :)

Have a nice day,

You could try Coffee Cup HTML Editor 2009 but Coffee Cup does have some great software. I do not have the brains currently to make excellent CSS Designs.

I would recommend using Coffee Cup Visual Site Designer for sure since I have heard that you can make your own designs rather easily with it.