Name: Adobe Dreamweaver
Author: Adobe

Hand-coding a site without seeing the result until you refresh is slow. Dreamweaver on Mac puts the code and a live preview side by side so you catch mistakes as you type.

Edits appear live in Split view without a manual refresh

Split view
Open an HTML file and switch to Split view. Code on the left, Chromium-based live preview on the right. Edits appear without a manual refresh.
Use code hints
Start typing a tag or CSS property. The hint panel suggests completions for HTML, CSS and JavaScript — faster than looking up syntax.
Test a responsive layout
Click the device preview icons in the toolbar. Drag the viewport edge to see how the layout reflows at different widths.
Connect Git
Open the Git panel. Stage, commit and push basic changes without leaving the app — handy for solo projects.
Browse the Help Center
Hit F1 or go to Help > Dreamweaver Help. The built-in tutorials walk through starter workflows.

Once those five feel familiar, the rest of the workspace makes more sense. Server behaviours, database bindings and library updates are already in version 21.8, but they make more sense after you have a few pages built.

Server behaviours and database bindings return to the panels

If you last opened Dreamweaver a year ago, two things feel different straight away.

Server behaviours and database bindings are back
You can now connect a page to a database without leaving the app. The panels let you drag a recordset onto a table and have the code written for you. For anyone maintaining older PHP or ColdFusion projects — or prototyping a data-driven site quickly — this cuts a lot of boilerplate.
Library updates under the hood
OpenSSL, Libcurl, Node.js, jQuery, Lodash, RequireJS and Zlib all got bumped. You will not see a new button for any of them. What you will notice is fewer connection errors when previewing sites that pull assets from CDNs, and smoother live-view rendering on JavaScript-heavy pages.

One annoyance to watch for: file modification times can drift from your local time zone after a system clock change. If you are syncing a site across machines, run a quick manual sync to stop Dreamweaver flagging files that have not actually changed.

Quick facts

Does it still make sense if I already use VS Code or a text editor?

For raw coding speed, maybe not. But if you build sites where the visual layout matters as much as the code — email templates, landing pages, older CMS themes — the live preview alone saves enough back-and-forth to earn its place. You can keep your editor for heavy JavaScript work and open the same project folder in both.

Runs natively on Apple Silicon, no Rosetta needed

Yes. Version 21.8 runs natively on Apple Silicon and 64-bit Intel. No Rosetta workaround needed. On an M2 or M3 MacBook Air, the live preview and code hints stay responsive even with several large files open.

Core editor and local preview work fully offline after activation

Mostly. Activation and online services need an internet connection once, but the core editor, Git panel and local preview all work without a connection afterwards. The Help Center loads faster online, but the offline docs cover the basics.

Fix a blank Live view by removing spaces from your file path

Live view shows a blank page
Check that your file path has no spaces or special characters in folder names. The Chromium Embedded Framework sometimes stumbles on those. Moving the site root to a simpler path — say /Users/you/Sites/project — fixes it nine times out of ten.
Code hints stop appearing
Quit Dreamweaver and delete the cache folder at ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Dreamweaver CC 2025/en_US/Configuration/CodeHints/. The app rebuilds it on the next launch and hints come back.
Git panel says “Not a git repository”
Dreamweaver expects the .git folder at the top level of your defined site. If your site definition points to a subfolder, the panel will not see the repo. Re-define the site at the root folder that contains .git and it picks it up immediately.
Sync times are off after daylight saving
That is the known bug from the 21.8 notes. A manual sync or a quick touch on one file forces the timestamps to recalculate against the new system clock.
Database bindings panel is greyed out
You need to be working on a dynamic page type — .php, .cfm or .asp. Plain .html files will not activate the panel. Switch the document type in Page Properties and the options light up.

Updated OpenSSL, Libcurl, CEP, jQuery, Lodash, RequireJS, Node.js and Zlib libraries.
Added built-in server behaviours and database bindings.
Fixed: file modification time does not align with the local time zone.
Fixed: in site synchronisation, file modification time does not refresh after the system time zone changes.

macOS 13 Ventura or later
Intel or Apple Silicon Mac
2 GB RAM
3 GB available hard-disk space for installation (extra free space required during install)
Internet connection for activation, validation and online services

Adobe Dreamweaver — Mac download