Every once in a long while, Dreamweaver will crash and won’t open again. No error message or anything—the splash screen just opens and then closes again when you try to launch it. This has happened to me on both Windows XP and Windows 7 on multiple hardware configurations in Dreamweaver CS3 and CS4.
What’s going on?
Dreamweaver has corrupted a file in your current site and when it tries to open that site, it flat-out dies. Every time it’s happened to me, it’s been a CSS file to blame. Here’s how to deal with it:
- Rename the folder the site you’re working on is in. That’ll let you reopen Dreamweaver. Yay!
- Close Dreamweaver. Make a new folder with the old folder’s name. Copy all your non-CSS files into it.
- Copy your CSS files back in one at a time until you find the one that crashes DW. Pro tip: You probably had it open when the trouble started.
- Get that CSS file out of there (cut-n-paste to your desktop) and make sure everything else works fine. If the CSS file is short, just start over. If you need it all, try this: open two Notepad files. Copy half the CSS file into one, and half in the other. Save and close them. Now start a new CSS file in Dreamweaver, and open the Notepad files and paste the two halves in.
- If that still crashes DW, try copying/pasting smaller pieces or consider just retyping the cursed thing from the Notepad file.
Whatever Dreameaver does to the CSS file to corrupt it is insidious and invisible. Just copy/pasting in and out of Notepad or some other text editor won’t consistently resolve the issue. Hopefully this helps. Good luck!
Articles RSS