Need to learn a web page development program ASAP.

It's between Dreamweaver or Frontpage, with Dreamweaver being the most likely choice. This is for some short-term work, which part turn long term if I perform well enough. I have little to no experience developing web pages, but this is a job with four or five guys, and whichever page the employer likes best, that person gets the job. Needless to say, I want to be that person. I guess I'm just looking for some hints and pointers, as well as any input on which program would be easiest to learn and work with. Also any links or books which teach the programs. Thanks a lot in advance.

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bellboy

i remember finding some excellent resources for dreamweaver on the internet over a year ago, but cannot find them now. unfortunately.

i remember buying a book in a shop around the same time for £10 that was reasonably straightforward and easy to understand.

if you want to get something together quick, best off using frontpage, as it is probably easier to get to grips with. dreamweaver will have cooler things and stuff. depends how much you feel you need to impress.

best of luck.

/usr

I want to use Dreamweaver. Frontpage doesn't have the functionality I'm looking for. That or it's hidden so deep in the menus that I just can't find it.

bellboy

dreamweaver is the more versatile

Webmaster

I switched from frontpage to dreamweaver 4 years ago, and never looked at frontpage again. I was in a long dicsussion about fp vs dreamweaver vs robohelp and it is obivous most people prefer dreamweaver. One of the main reasons is the clean code (as well as the clean up options) in dreamweaver compared to the rubbish other HTML wysiwyg editor add to the code by default. FP has improved though and if you turn of all the fancy features it is workable.

My advice would be to get Dreamweaver, learn 'all' the basics of HTML, and start reading the Dreamweaver documentation. Also, try to use CSS for the style.

/usr

I know the "basics" of HTML. Not sure what would be considered all the basics though. I'm also familiar with basic javascript. I'll read the manual and Help associated with Dreamweaver, but is there a good book or reference manual out there for the Macromedia MX suite?

CopperFrog

Hey LostInSpace,

I have use dreamweaver for a few projects. The best way to learn Dreamweaver is to follow the tutorials in the help menu. I know is will be a bit boring at first but stick with it. A lot of concept that you need to learn are in there. Then get a cheap book on the material for reference and to learn new things. Also learn Flash and Fireworks using their turorials. Marcomedia has a lot of tools that work well together and gives the site that look and feel people are looking for. Your employee will be impress if you could pull of classy amination and layouts that will be visually apealling and not draw to much attention away from the material.

CopperFrog

sorry for all the typos

Webmaster

I mean that you should understand every line of html which a wysiwyg editor creates for your page. Knowing basic Javascript is indeed essential too. Perhaps I should have left out the word basics when I was referring to HTML

. It's great if you know the tags and what they do, but when to use which and how to use and abuse them is more important.

I can't suggest a book simply because I don't know of any. What I do know is that for such programs there are typically no real good and complete books at all, at least not if you compare them with the product documentation.

Have you checked out http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/dreamweaver/ yet? They have some awesome articles and tutorials online, even some videos which may be just what you need to get started. Their forums have a wealth of information also. I believe the best way of learning applications like dreamweaver is 'just' to use them, and when you get stuck, use the product documentation.

Again, I want to emphasize on using CSS. There are some good docs about it on the page I linked to above. If the other 4 guys don't use it you will definitely have an advantage. Have a look at how our navigation menu is build for example, I may look like the basic MouseOver thingy but it is purely CSS. Not the typical use of CSS though, CSS will allow you to create a more consistent, easy to expand and adjustable design, and at the same time use as few precious bytes as possible.

If you really want a text book, have you check some reviews at Amazon.com yet? I know Macromedia provides 'training manuals' as well.

/usr

I don't mean to sound dumb, but what's CSS? Thanks for the other info by the way. I plan on just messing around with Dreamweaver until I want to do something, but can't figure out how, then refer to a manual.

Webmaster

CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets.

www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/dreamweaver/articles/css_dreamweaver.html

In our css file I have for example the following:

p {
	font-family: Verdana, Helvetica;
	font-size: small;
	list-style-image: url(/images/bulletarrow.gif);
}

This part defines the styles to be used for anything in between

and </p>. So when I have several paragraphs of text on 1 or more page I won't have to use the font tag to make them consistent.

The css file is included at the top of the page, i.e.:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css" type="text/css">

or you can drop the css code within a <style> tag between <head> and </head>

/usr

Ah, that's convenient and eliminates a lot of code. Thanks again for the information.

Webmaster

Indeed it does. And it makes changes very simple. I.e. if I would want to change 'all' text on every page of TechExams.net to a different font, it would take me about two minutes tops.

JOblessELement

Very neat indeed. Seems like CSS is the OOPS of the HTML world.