This is a common question developers are getting almost daily at MC. We actually have a hard time answering this because it really depends on what you know and what you're comfortable with.

In terms of a professional program, the best you can get is Macromedia Dreamweaver (www.macromedia.com). Dreamweaver provides in depth functionality and integrates its own file manager, code snippets, database manager and even customizes itself for different codes. The best part about Dreamweaver in my opinion is the validator, letting you know if your code is crap or not and where to fix the problems. You can even customize the validator to how you want your code to be (ie - do you want your code to be simply HTML 4 compliant or do you want your code to be XHTML compliant?). Furthermore, Dreamweaver includes reference books to help you code. The CSS reference is invaluable and I use it daily. Dreamweaver is by far the best software for web development you can find. It's no wonder the vast majority of web devlopers prefer over any other software, including 95% of Commerce.

However, for you people out there who know Adobe programs (ie - Photoshop) and you're not too familiar with coding, I would recommend Adobe's GoLive (http://www.adobe.com), quite simply because it shares a similar interface and GUI as the rest of the Adobe line of software. In most cases, GoLive can and will accomplish the same tasks as Dreamweaver.

Then there's the famous FrontPage (http://www.microsoft.com). FrontPage is known as the 'devil' at MC, and with good reason. Historically, FrontPage is known to insert its own code wherever it wants to and whenever it wants to maintain its own interface. FrontPage has no validator so you have no idea if you're code is cross-browser compliant and your file management is very limited. Although version 2003 does show promise to remedy some of these problems including the introduction of 'SmartTag' code, FrontPage is still eons behind the sophistication and likes of Dreamweaver and GoLive.

Finally in this review is a new program that's also a macromedia program... Macromedia Contribute. This year old contender is nothing more than a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor and does only what you tell it to. No code, no hassle, no BS, this is down right the simplest web editor to use and was designed for people who know absolutely nothing about code, but still want to make a half decent attempt at administrating and maintaining their site. The only downfall is that your site must be specifically setup to support contribute, but in the long run that's not bad because your logs are saved and tracked on the server, which will help an admin diagnose the problems if there are any.

Of course any advanced coder can use pretty much any of these programs and have no problems using straight handcode. Heck, you could even use notepad to code. Although there is good code and bad code, it's best that you choose software you're comfortable with. Everyone should make a firm and long investigation of the software they are going to use. All of these programs offer trials and I would implore you to use them before you buy. Hopefully this will give people a good idea of a direction they can begin to look when they begin looking for software. As always, good luck on your site and let everyone know that Commerce helped you do it online.