Web design & hosting: What's the secret to using Dreamweaver?
What's the secret to using Dreamweaver?
by wfairley - 4/12/06 5:30 PMI bought Studio MX 2004 when it came out ~ couldn't figure it out. I bought a bookcase full of books, but it has never clicked. I just bought the Adobe Web Bundle, and here I am wishing I knew how to do "it".
I really want to build my own web pages; I've sketched every page out in a sketch book, right down to the menus, buttons, graphics, animations, everything. Yet when I sit down to the computer and open Dreamweaver 8, I just don't know where to start or what to click on. I'm about to bust to make this web site!
There are no local continuing education classes I can take, and the local universities want me to register for the two-year web master programs.
Can anyone suggest the "best" method for learning Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, etc. ???
Don't just buy the books - READ them!!! :-)
by Andrea B. - 4/13/06 3:10 AM In reply to: What's the secret to using Dreamweaver? by wfairleyDreamweaver does look very intimidating, doesn't it???
Dreamweaver itself comes with tutorials that can get you going and I imagine there are boatloads of ohter tutorials out online.
I bought a video tutorial here: http://www.killersites.com/videoTutorials/videoTutorial.jsp
- this is not a plug, I'm not selling the tutorial - I have bought the Dreamweaver and the Flash one and find them down-to-the point, easy to follow, and very reasonably priced.
However, to make good webpages, it does not require Dreeamweaver - you can make a website with nothing but Notepad.
It's true that I only need Notepad..
by wfairley - 4/14/06 6:46 AM In reply to: Don't just buy the books - READ them!!! :-) by Andrea B.It's also true that I only need a sledgehammer to build a boat out of a tree, but I'd rather sail in style. 
Well, I've been reading through the books, and while it isn't clicking, I'm following the steps and trying it.
I guess it's like swimming - it will all make more sense once I get in the water.
I'll post an update in a few days. Maybe even a link to the new site...
Thanks for the input Andrea!
-Woody
Take a Dive
by Andrea B. - 4/14/06 4:30 PM In reply to: It's true that I only need Notepad.. by wfairleyI agree - things like that are easier to figure out as you go.
I use Dreamweaver, but write my code manually anyway - I guess that's like owning an electric saw but not turning it on...... but I think of it more as letting my plowhorse ride the tractor!!!
I use Word
by PudgyOne - 4/14/06 6:39 PM In reply to: Take a Dive by Andrea B.I use Word.
I type the information, save it as a html document.
Then I open the html document copy and paste the code to my website.
It's cheating, but it works.
Hope this helps.
Rick
Using Word to create Webpages
by Andrea B. - 4/15/06 7:43 AM In reply to: I use Word by PudgyOnemay work, but it's downright sacriligous!!!!!
At least for anybody who cares about standards and clean code and such boring stuff.....
Using Word? Holy Cow!
by HolyCow! - 4/28/06 8:31 AM In reply to: Using Word to create Webpages by Andrea B.I tried that once upon a time. Found that Word tries to put every Microsoft proprietary piece of web code in there, too.
I performed an experiment. Created a page with Word. The resulting html page contained 60K bytes. Then I ran this html page through Dreamweaver's ''Clean-up Word HTML'' option. The result was a 19K html page which displayed perfectly, using only standard html (no xml or other wasted code).
This is very significant for your website visitors in much quicker display of pages, not to mention the reduction in your website's bandwidth usage.
Because of this, and the other advertised features of Dreamweaver, I purchased Dreamweaver. It's worth it to me, and I find it relatively easy to use. I develop webpages professionally, so the expense appears justified. Dreamweaver can be set to either take advantage of the latest and greatest in xtml and xml, or to use a more simple, basic set of html.
When developing for my customers, I take into consideration who I'm developing for. If it's a company which already has, or expresses a desire to invest $400 or so in Dreamweaver, I use xhtml and the other expanded abilities of DW. But if developing for a small company which just wants to have a site created and then take over maintenance of it, I use the more basic commands of DW, which are more compatible with more affordable HTML editors. The more affordable, feature-rich HTML editor I've been recommending lately is CoffeeCup ($49). Does a good job, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg, which is what most small business owners like to hear. Especially if they need multiple copies of the editor for multiple web authors!
As for an ''ease of learning and use'' comparison between DW and CoffeeCup, there shouldn't be much of a difference for those who just want to create basic pages quickly. You'll need to invest some time to struggle through and learn some new things. Should take an average person maybe a week or two of spending four hours a day to become adequately proficient, but you'll always be bumping into walls and learning new things as you go forward (and that's a good thing).
One big plus I've found with DW is it's ability to properly maintain your links. Let's say you have a certain page that you want to rename or replace with a page of another name for some reason. And this page is linked to by 7 other pages in your site. While renaming the page, DW will ask you if you'd like the links in the 7 other pages to be changed to maintain the links, and will make the changes in all 7 pages immediately, behind the scenes. This is a huge timesaver!
You can also find/replace at the document, folder, or site level. Changes all instances of a given text string to another. Very handy!
So yes, there are features in DW which are worth their weight in gold... to the appropriate users. Someone with a small website with a handful of pages is probably better served by CoffeeCup or other more affordable product.
And on a related note, my customers all receive the recommendation that they avoid using FrontPage. Frontpage uses proprietary (surprise!) code - even requiring it on the webserver (they call it Frontpage extensions). If you use anything other than FrontPage to upload your pages, the FTP session can corrupt the server-side extensions and bring your site down. Or so I've read time and time again, even in Microsoft's literature. Please educate me if this is no longer true. So, purchasing one copy of Frontpage ($140?) for use in the office and 5 copies of CoffeeCup (at $49 per copy) for use at home by website contributors is just asking for trouble.
What
by tjplaw40 - 5/11/06 8:47 PM In reply to: Using Word to create Webpages by Andrea B.If this person is having trouble using Dreamweaver I doubt they could write HTML.
Very Dumb Replies people!!!.
Use the help feature, also Dreamweaver comes with a few web templates. It takes time, I love Dreamweaver.
Using Word to create web pages...
by Rob Hurley - 5/12/06 12:07 AM In reply to: Using Word to create Webpages by Andrea B.is like using a duck to create a steel bridge
Have you tried an WYSIWYG program?[text]
by BlazeEagle - 4/28/06 8:07 PM In reply to: It's true that I only need Notepad.. by wfairleyWYSIWYG aka ''What You See Is What You Get''. I used one to avoid all the typing required when Wordpad or an HTML editor is used.
Are you doing a ''deep'' site or a ''fan/hobby'' site? WYSIWYG's use a easier method then text editer's. You can drag stuff around to place it where you want.
Ummm, have you ever heard of Dreamweaver? It's WYSIWYG
by wfairley - 4/29/06 6:31 AM In reply to: Have you tried an WYSIWYG program?[text] by BlazeEagleIf you read my original message, you will find that I purchased Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, which is a WYSIWYG web design environment. It's very versatile, providing me with the ability to not only design simple html-based web pages but also more complex web sites with database technologies including php, asp, jsp, etc. that allow me to create login pages, offer online ads, conduct transactions, the whole works. It's great, or it will be once I learn how to use it.
That's the point of this thread ~ I am asking the cnet community of folks for insight as to the best methods and resources for learning to use Dreamweaver.
Thanks for the advice.
-Woody
Sorry...
by BlazeEagle - 4/29/06 8:22 PM In reply to: Ummm, have you ever heard of Dreamweaver? It's WYSIWYG by wfairleyI somehow didn't get that. I feel bad about my post now.
Sorry I couldn't help you.
Whoa, you are not a sorry person, friend
by wfairley - 4/30/06 5:52 AM In reply to: Sorry... by BlazeEagleI don't think you have anything to feel sorry about. You posted a helpful message, my friend.
Keep them coming!
-Woody
Using Dreamweaver Visually
by wfairley - 4/18/06 10:05 AM In reply to: Don't just buy the books - READ them!!! :-) by Andrea B.I dug out the book I've most frequently perused on Dreamweaver the past few months, and after following the steps, I've now ''created'' a web site on my computer; I'll tackle the first page later this week.
Teaching is in my blood; one of my long-term goals is to finish my PhD Psychology so I can teach at the college level. In the meantime, I've been looking at ''Authorware'' and ''Breeze'' as tools that will allow me to create some online material for the topics I wish to cover on the web site.
I've experimented with Microsoft Producer, the free add-in for PowerPoint 2003, and it seems simple enough ~ I created a test presentation in about twenty minutes, but it is quite limiting, and seems to require a lot of bandwidth.
Back to Dreamweaver ~ I really like the idea of the videos, so I will invest in the Fireworks video next month - I'm a photographer by hobby, so I want to integrate images into my web space as much as possible. Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks all seem to work very closely together, so I think that once I get the basics of Dreamweaver, the other applications will flow a little faster for me.
By the way, I like the ''mule riding the tractor'' analogy! Too cute! Andrea, you are great!
-Woody
tip
by saurabhs - 4/23/06 10:56 AM In reply to: What's the secret to using Dreamweaver? by wfairleyDreamweaver handles images really well. A tip is to use fireworks/photoshop to create gifs, and use dreamweavers built in funtion to insert the images. Also, try using tables and changing the border thickness to 0.
Hope this helps
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