Replace Dreamweaver with Sublime Text

I've been using Dreamweaver for years, but I've grown impatient with its bloat, its slow (basically infrequent) software updates, its bugs and its overall lack of innovation. I'll still use Dreamweaver, but only until I can find better replacements for its other features. In addition, the change will save me the expense of having to pay eternal rent for the privilege of using it in the cloud. It was expensive enough to begin with!

Here's a list of the features I like from Dreamweaver, and some replacements. I've listed some that I have yet to find replacements for. Post in the comments if you know one.

Drag Text/Code from one location in the file to another

This is a useful feature of Dreamweaver that can be added to Sublime Text with <a href="https://sublime.wbond.net/packages/MoveText">the MoveText package</a>. (It appears that the Sublime Text developers are working to officially add this feature?)

RIght-Click on filepath to open file

This is a huge timesaver with Dreamweaver. Can Sublime Text do it? Yes, although it works a little differently. First you'll want to install the Open-Include package. ( https://github.com/SublimeText/Open-Include ) Then, once you've selected a file path, you can hit alt+D to try to open the file referred to in that path. It works pretty well for me.

Settings for working with various sites

Dreamweaver calls it "sites" but Sublime Text calls it "Projects" and it is very much the same thing.

Find and Replace across entire site.

Sublime Text also has this built in. You can search within a file (command-F) or across the entire project (command-shift-F).

Upload file to server with key command

In Dreamweaver, I'm accustomed to being able to upload the file I'm working on quickly and in Dreamweaver all I have to do is type command-shift-U to do it. In Sublime Text the <a href="http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/sftp/">Sublime SFTP</a> is a suitable replacement for Dreamweaver's "sites" functionality. <a href="http://blog.sucuri.net/2012/11/psa-sftpftp-password-exposure-via-sftp-config-json.html">NOTE: There is one important security caveat</a>.

So far, I find this very easy to use, without some of the delay that Dreamweaver would give, and I no longer have to tolerate those <a href="http://forums.adobe.com/message/2140892">very annoying Dreamweaver errors</a> that said "currently interacting with the server"

To get the familiar keyboard shortcut, add this to the Sublime Text user key bindings file, located in the preferences:

{ "keys": ["super+shift+u"], "command": "sftp_upload_file" }

Snippets

I like Dreamweaver's snippets feature, but I always seem to lose my snippets whenever I have to upgrade Dreamweaver, and they aren't available from one machine to the next. To improve the snippets, I've begun to host them in the cloud, via <a href="https://gist.github.com/">Gists</a>, and there's <a href="https://sublime.wbond.net/packages/Gist">a Gists package for Sublime Text</a> that makes it very easy to get at my snippets, from wherever I am.

Keyboard shortcut to wrap the selected text in a tag.

In Dreamweaver, I use Command+T (mac) or Control+T (windows) to open the <a href="http://help.adobe.com/en_US/dreamweaver/cs/using/WSc78c5058ca073340dcda9110b1f693f21-7b86a.html#WSc78c5058ca073340dcda9110b1f693f21-7b34a">Quick Tag Editor</a>. I like that. T for tag.

In sublime text, you can enable a similar feature. Go to "Preferences" > "Key Bindings - User" and add this to your user keymap file:

{ "keys": ["super+alt+t"], "command": "show_overlay", "args": {"overlay": "goto", "show_files": true} },
{ "keys": ["super+t"], "command": "insert_snippet", "args": { "name": "Packages/XML/long-tag.sublime-snippet" } }

This will change the existing shortcut for "show overlay" (which I don't really use... yet) and add a shortcut to wrap the selection in a tag. The tag is

by default but you can just type the tag you want instead. This is nice! I like it.

I'll update this post as I learn/do more. I'd invite anybody else who is making the shift to post any tips in the comments.