Dreamweaver (CS4)

[Jason Foster]

I'm possibly getting set-up with a 'master suite' of Adobe CS4 (yes, a legit copy). The big thing I want to learn is Dreamweaver. I'm tired of not having a more dynamic website, so I'm going to start with this. However I've only "tried" to use it in the past (I think the first CS edition) so I basically know nothing of utilizing the program to my advantage.

I figured a few folks use it here and we can discuss, share, and teach each other to maximize the benefit.

Additionally, I'm looking to try the "Video Professor" series as they do offer a series on Dreamweaver (although it's CS3). Curious if anyone has tried them and if it's worth it?

 

[Andrew Ryan]

I don't know much about dreamweaver. I only use it because it's useful for coding because it automatically fills out some commands.

What are specifically looking to use dreamweaver for?

 

[Skip Talbot]

I was a Frontpage fan back in the day because of its ease of use, but that product has long been discontinued, and I'm not really fond of Expressions as the replacement product. Even though I generally do not like the interfaces in Adobe products, I've found Dreamweaver to be quite manageable and now use it as my primary web editor.

For learning it, I recommend using the graphical editor to design your page. Drag and drop things onto the screen, use the menus to place elements, and modify the values of their properties in the textboxes below. Then you can switch over to the code tab and start poking around in there once you get comfortable with things. Starting out with one of the templates at the beginning is a good idea too. When trying to do something particular, I find google to be the best tool as there are a ton of Dreamweaver tutorials out there.

 

[Jason Foster]

I don't know much about dreamweaver. I only use it because it's useful for coding because it automatically fills out some commands.

What are specifically looking to use dreamweaver for?

Pretty much just add dynamics to the page, but I'm willing to do anything that makes the index page (primarily) easier to use.

One big thing, but far from the only thing, is have drop down type menus rather than just links. But that's just to start.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Pretty much just add dynamics to the page, but I'm willing to do anything that makes the index page (primarily) easier to use.

To add dynamic content I would recommend dropping in a blogging tool like Wordpress. You can embed that into your existing site and then use Dreamweaver to manage or tweak the stylesheet. You could also embed a Twitter feed too. Either option basically requires just dropping in an HTML snippet into your webpage's body. There are tutorials online for each option too.

One big thing, but far from the only thing, is have drop down type menus rather than just links. But that's just to start.

Under Insert->Layout Options, check out the Spry options. You can create drop down menus with there and other interactive layout and navigation components in there fairly easily.

 

[Karen St John]

If you have the time, and the local community college or community rec-ed department has a class on Dreamweaver, it might be a great opportunity to get useful face-time with the program!

If you don't have opportunities in the face-time continuum, I like the Adobe "Classroom in a Book" series.

 

[Jason Foster]

If you have the time, and the local community college or community rec-ed department has a class on Dreamweaver, it might be a great opportunity to get useful face-time with the program!

If you don't have opportunities in the face-time continuum, I like the Adobe "Classroom in a Book" series.

I am considering the community college thing. Even though it's over $600 per 3 credit course, I would get credit and the 'face time' is certainly the way I tend to learn best. If I can get fin. aid, that likely will be the case.

I'll check out the book option too.

 

[D. Hayes]

Check out Barnes and Noble. I bought the official Dreamweaver book with CD loaded with samples for like $60 there. I was hoping to learn it when I had a beta copy of DW but that expired. The book is pretty good though when I wanted specifics it wasn't so easy to figure out.

I don't use DW though because it has a steep learning curve since I only have used frontpage and now it's predecessor, sharepoint designer. You might not be so limited if you never used a WYSIWYG editor.

 

[Tim Stoecklein]

I've used Dreamweaver to create/manage sites for work for several years now. We just picked up the CS4 version last fall, and it took some getting used to, but I like the flexibility it gives me.

No, it's not all that intuitive for most, and in my opinion it takes a lot of tinkering to know the full "powers" without some formal instruction. However, the one time I tried to get some formal instruction for work several years ago, the instructor spent most of the class teaching the "old dogs" how to open files from which to pull content, lol! At that point I decided to go it alone with occasional support from our IT departments.

It's probably not the greatest example as a number of folks in our department alter their own content, but here is our site:

www.uccs.edu/campusrec

 

[Jody Radzik]

I'm a longtime Dreamweaver user, and while I find it a great app for putting a website together, you'll still need to know a lot about the CSS bones of a good site, as well as a good deal of PHP, ASP, PERL, or whatever scripting language you'll be using to talk to the database you'll be setting up. In other words, besides a few basic javascript bits, it doesn't do the hard stuff for you.

I'd agree with Skip and say that Wordpress is your best bet for having a site with content management and dynamic display options.

 

[James Weatherman]

CS4

I use CS4 a lot for personal use stuff as well as online web classes that I am taking. There are some great free tutorials out there. I know Adobe themselves have some tutorials and the Suite I got a couple years back when CS4 came out came with tutorial disk which I have not looked at since I had taken classes on CS3 and not a lot of difference.

The wordpress is nice you can get an add on at ThemeDreamer. http://www.themedreamer.com/
I have not messed with it much but have several people in my web development class that love it.

 

[Wes Carter]

Jason, I've found a couple of places that have online courses for Adobe products. http://www.lynda.com and http://www.kelbytraining.com/. I've used Scott Kelby's books and site to learn Photoshop and Lynda.com to learn Corel Draw Suite. I found both to be good at what they do. Like you, I am wanting to learn Dreamweaver and I think that is the route I'm going to go.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Being an IT guy, my web site is pretty much hand-coded in HTML for simplicity, with a few java script codes for redundant / animated stuff.

I tired front-page and dreamweaver but found the code it "generates" to be a bit like bloatware, so I avoided it.

 

[Jason Foster]

Good day all,

Being an IT guy, my web site is pretty much hand-coded in HTML for simplicity, with a few java script codes for redundant / animated stuff.

I tired front-page and dreamweaver but found the code it "generates" to be a bit like bloatware, so I avoided it.

I've pretty much done the same, and started out with html as most anyone did back in the day. However, there just so much more to do than what hand writing html can do...and that's the brick wall I've hit now. I know that once I go to Dreamweaver, there is a lot of control I'll loose, but seeing what is out there these days, and what produces it, I think it's the right move for me.

Oh...and I learned long ago to avoid Front Page....a disaster from the beginning it seems.

 

[Marcus Hicks]

Dreamweaver is the bomb. Jason I can get you the books I use for my classes. There is 3 total the Level 2 covers CSS and Level 3 covers database connects. I'm sure the first one you wouldn't need.