Adobe Dreamweaver is a general purpose web development tool aimed at inexperienced and experienced users alike. It uses standard web technologies such as HTML CSS and JavaScript. Web content can be introduced into the Dreamweaver at any time without the danger of the program modifying your code. In the same way, pages created in Dreamweaver can be taken out of the Dreamweaver environment and used elsewhere.

The program does not rely on its own custom solutions which will only work in the Dreamweaver environment. Although Dreamweaver is not necessarily the best software tool for creating all types of website, it is not an environment which one easily outgrows. It is suitable for creating both static content consisting of client-side pages as well as more sophisticated dynamic content including server side pages. In other words, it is suitable for developing the type of content found on the majority of websites. So, let us examine this content in more detail.

Most web sites are hosted on web servers run by specialist hosting companies. A large website may have a dedicated server or even servers, whereas most typical websites will be sharing space on a server with other sites. Visitors to a website are sometimes called clients.

Clients access the content on web servers using a variety of operating systems and a variety of browsers. They usually find this content either by clicking on search engine and other links or by simply typing a URL into the address bar of their browser.

The content that clients access on people's sites can be divided into two main categories: client-side and server-side. The term client-side refers to content which is compatible with the user's browser, stuff which the browser software can actually open, display or execute (in the case of scripts).

The main element in client-side content is HTML, or as it's known in its current incarnation, XHTML; a stricter and more consistent version of the original HTML specification. HTML is a fairly simple markup language which is used to describe the content of web pages for the benefit of the client's browser. CSS and JavaScript are used in close conjunction with HTML.

CSS pages contain information relating to the layout and presentation of web content. JavaScript is a scripting language which can be used to add interactivity to web pages. For example, when someone is filling out a form on a website and information entered into a field is inappropriate, JavaScript can be used to notify the user that the content must be changed.

All modern web browsers are fully capable of digesting HTML, CSS and JavaScript. With the addition of extra software utilities known as plug-ins, other technologies can be included in web sites. Two of the most popular plug-in technologies are Adobe Acrobat PDF files and Flash. All of this content is completely compatible with the client's browser; hence the term client-side content.