I’ve actually written about this before, but I find it so annoying…

I like Dreamweaver. I generally like the improvements made in the new version (MX). I hate how they changed the smallest nit of the preferences dialog.

It used to be that there was a place to choose whether you want the default extension for the Web pages you create to be “.html” or “.htm”. Now if you want to change it, the preferences dialog says “You can change the default extension in the document type XML file.” This is linked to a help page that lists 20 xml pages you can visit. Even if you pick the right one, you are confronted with an uncommented XML file that nowhere has a line that says “default extension.” Instead you have to figure out that you have to change the list of “winfileextension” so that “html” precedes “htm.” Then you have to save, exit and restart Dreamweaver to find out if you guessed right or if you just screwed up your config file.

I would have loved to hear the discussion between Engineering and Product Marketing on this one! I’m no Jakob Nielsen, but I feel a low-graphics confidence when I say: Your users manual should never contain a line that begins, “Simply edit the XML file…”

Categories: Uncategorized dw