Whether you are a novice web designer or an experienced developer, Dreamweaver is a comprehensive tool you can use for site design, layout, and management. In this lesson, you'll take a tour of Dreamweaver's key features and get a better understanding of how web pages work.

What you'll learn in this lesson:

• Exploring Dreamweaver's primary features
• Introducing new features in CS3
• Understanding how web sites and web pages work
• Coding HTML/XHTML: the basics
• Dreamweaver CS3 Jumpstart

Starting up

Before starting, make sure that your tools and panels are consistent by resetting your workspace.

You will work with several files from the dw01lessons folder in this lesson. Make sure that you have loaded the dwlessons folder onto your hard drive from the supplied DVD.

See Lesson 1 in action!

Use the accompanying video to gain a better understanding of how to use some of the features shown in this lesson. Click here to open the Dynamic_Learning_DW_CS3.swf file to view the video training file for this lesson.

 

What is Dreamweaver?

Dreamweaver is an excellent coding and development tool for new and experienced users alike, and has quickly become the preferred web site creation and management program, providing a creative environment for designers. Whether you design web sites, develop mobile phone content, or script complex server-side applications, Dreamweaver has something to offer.

Design and layout tools

Dreamweaver's many icon-driven menus and detailed panels make it easy to insert and format text, images, and media (such as video files and Flash movies). This means that you can create great-looking and functional web pages without knowing a single line of code-Dreamweaver takes care of building the code behind the scenes for you. Dreamweaver does not create graphics from scratch; instead, it is fully integrated with Adobe Photoshop CS3, so you can import and adjust graphics from within the application.

The Insert bar features icons in several categories that let you easily add images, web forms, and media to your page.

Site management and File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

Dreamweaver has everything you need for complete site management, including built-in file transfer (FTP) capabilities between a server and your local machine, reusable objects (such as page templates and library items), and several safety mechanisms (such as link checkers and site reports) so you can ensure that your site works well and looks good. If you're designing your pages with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the new Browser Compatibility Check and CSS Advisor features will help you to locate and troubleshoot any potential display issues that may occur across different web browsers.

Coding environment and text editor

Dreamweaver lets you work in a code-only view of your document, which acts as a powerful text editor. Edit HTML code directly and switch views to see the results of your code as you work. Enhancements such as color coding, indentation, and visual aids make Dreamweaver a perfect text editing or coding environment for web designers of any level.

For more experienced developers, Dreamweaver also supports popular coding and scripting languages, such as JavaScript, and several server-side languages, including ColdFusion, PHP, and ASP.NET. Specialized insert menus and code panels help you to build pages and applications in the language of your choice.

Code view is a full-featured text editor that color-codes tags and scripts for editing that’s easier to decipher.

Scripting languages, such as those used to build interactive web pages or e-commerce sites, fall into two categories: client-side and server-side. Client-side languages (such as JavaScript) run in your browser, while server-side languages (such as ColdFusion) require special software installed on the server to run.

Who uses Dreamweaver?

QuarkXPress 7.31 includes many web tools. To learn more, click here to read online X-Ray Magazine v5n2: It's Time for a Move: Quark Interactive Designer, or click here to read the PDF Version.

Dreamweaver's popularity is a result of its diversity. Its ability to take a site from conception through launch-and maintenance afterward-makes it a preferred tool among industry professionals, businesses, and educational institutions. However, it remains easy and accessible enough for novice designers to get up and running quickly. It's not unusual to see Dreamweaver utilized for personal projects or by small businesses and media professionals, such as photographers and painters, to maintain a web presence.

What's new in Dreamweaver CS3?

CS3 introduces many innovative design and coding features as well as improvements to Dreamweaver's flagship features. Now that Dreamweaver is part of the industry-standard Adobe Creative Suite, it has been engineered to work as seamlessly as possible with files from other CS3 applications, offering native support for Photoshop files and the ability to edit placed images directly in Adobe Photoshop CS3.

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