Everyone's Dreamweaver CS4 Level One
Interactive Online Course
The Dreamweaver CS4 Level One course takes you by the hand, creating three sites in Dreamweaver. In addition you will learn about formatting HTML documents, adding browsers and working with images, linking, creating tables and some time saving tools that will assist you in your web design workflow. Here is a summary of the Level One topics:
Chapter One – Getting Started
In this chapter you will take a tour of the Dreamweaver CS4 interface. You will also install the course files so that you can practice the exercises locally on your own after completing the online lessons. You will create three web sites within Dreamweaver that you will work with throughout the course. Once the sites are created, you will save an index.html file to the local root of each site. If you’re not sure what a local root or an index file is now, you will by the end of Chapter One
Chapter Two – Formatting HTML Documents
In this chapter you will get to know how to change the appearance of basic HTML elements such as headings and paragraphs. You’ll become familiar with the quick keys for navigating the document window and you will experience the difference between block and inline elements. You will also learn about ordered and unordered lists. This chapter lays the groundwork for later (Level Two) when using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to style CSS Standards compliant documents.
Chapter Three – Adding Browsers and Working with Images
Chapter three is about working with images. You will learn to preview your documents using Live View and using various browsers. You will add additional browsers to the Preview-in-a-Browser button. You will insert images into HTML pages and you will experience the benefit of working with Smart Objects, which allow you to take advantages of the photo editing capabilities of Photoshop, right from the Dreamweaver document window! You will also learn about using image placeholders for times when the graphics department is not completely in step with the design team.
Chapter Four – Linking
Links, links and more links! In this chapter you will create a link to a page on the Internet. You will link to a document in the same site. You will gain experience using the Tag Selector to select elements and the Properties Inspector which enables you to hold and drag using Point-to-File, ensuring that Dreamweaver CS4 is tracking all your links and assisting you in the management of the site. You will gain experience with legacy named anchors and more current methods of linking using IDs. And no chapter on linking would be complete without the email link. As an added bonus, you will learn how to create a web photo album using Dreamweaver CS4 and Fireworks. You will also make use of Find and Replace to help save time with repetitive changes.
Chapter Five – Tables
To use a table or not use a table is a question that web designers must decide when laying out a web page. Of course CSS is now the standard for page layout. However, tables still have their place. In this chapter you will work with tables in Standard and Expanded modes. You will select table elements using the Tag Selector. And you’ll do a certain degree of HTML formatting with tables. (We’re saving the more elaborate table styling for the CSS chapter in Level Two). You will add columns and rows, you’ll merge cells, you create headers and you’ll use the Sort command to sequence table data. You will create navigation bars with and without rollover images. And while CSS is the more accepted method, you will see how a table can sometimes be used to position images and text on the page.
Chapter Six – Time Savers
Dreamweaver offers several time saving tools that you will want to incorporate into your workflow early on. Library items are reusable images and text and Snippets are reusable pieces of code. The History panel gives a whole new meaning to undo and redo and you can even replay! In addition you will use the History panel to record commands and create your very own customized commands that will be accessible via the Commands menu.