Dreamweaver, anyone any good at using it?

[REMillers]

Indeed the dummies books are a great little reference to have. Most times you can spend to long looking for simple answers in the big books when the dummy will have it crystal clear. Plus they are normally only 14-19 bucks, so well worth it.

You shouldn't have a problem getting a basic webpage up and running, just go at it. Dive right in and make mistakes cause it is a good way to learn. You'll eventually get the hang of it and start learning not how to do stuff, but rather what you want to do. And that is really about the only limitation I've had is figuring out exactly what I what to be done, and what type of layouts to use.

And photoshop is nice to have to easily piece together menus and such. Don't worry to much about the power of photoshop, as most of it isn't useful for making webpages. Plenty of guides on the internet to keep you busy with ideas and such.

Just open them up, and let yourself loose.

Can always PM me if you have questions, going to start working on a webpage for my girlfriends art portfolio.

 

[TX Speed Demon]

Dreamweaver is simply a tool to take the pieces you create in Photoshop or Fireworks and put them together in such a way that a web browser can read them.

You'll never be able to create visually situmating web sites with a program like DreamWeaver or Front Page or BB Edit. These are only good for compiling the pieces onto the page. The only good they really do is write the HTML code for you.

If you want to create a web site that actually looks interesting you'll need to learn Photoshop, Illustrator or Flash. Photoshop is the best and eaisiest unless you're using Flash which is vector based and works better with Illustrator.

I would suggest getting a book on Photoshop, a book on web site design (and not something stupid, get something that was written by a designer and features well designed sites), figure out what styes appeal to you and experiment creating page layouts in Photoshop. Once your Photoshop skills are strong enough to create a well balanced and designed page you can cut up the pieces and put them back together in Dreamweaver.

By starting just with dreamweaver you are loseing too much ability to control the user experience. DremWeaver can only work with HTML colors and geometric shapes. It cannot create imagery or organic shapes. It can only take shapes and images created by another program and put them together. Think of it as a big sheet of graph paper. Dreamwever assigns something into each square, but you need another program to create whatever that something is.

Compare the look and feel of the sites listed above to something like this which will be the home page for my new portfolio site in about 2 weeks and judge the importance of Photoshop for web applications yourself.

 

[TX Speed Demon]

And photoshop is nice to have to easily piece together menus and such. Don't worry to much about the power of photoshop, as most of it isn't useful for making webpages. Plenty of guides on the internet to keep you busy with ideas and such.

This is the most rediculous thing I HAVE EVER HEARD. I should have guessed you're a programmer.


Photoshop is the MOST USEFULL tool to creating GOOD WEB SITES. You want to make somehting that looks like crap, then don't use photoshop. You want o make something that looks good YOU WILL NEED PHOTOSHOP.

The only thing you can create without Photoshop in my picture above is the html text. THAT'S IT.

If you want more real life samples that further prove how essential Photoshop is to any Web site I can provide.

 

[REMillers]

Sorry again two people thinking on different levels of what a post is asking. I am merely expressing the first steps that someone is going to take. As such a beginner just exploring the waters will not fully utilize all the tools available or even the full extent of those tools.

Photoshop is great, I know this. Watched a many friends produce artwork from it starting from a blank canvas. No cropping, just the brush and other effects. One project my girlfriend had to do was produce a 6 scence comic from one of her professors (George Pratt) using nothing but photosop and from scratch.

But from his standpoint of just learning he is not even going to begin to use Photoshop as it can be used. That was the point of the comment above.<O</O

So before jumping to conclusions that something is ridiculous, remember not everyone uses a tool on the same level.<O</O



Btw nice pic

 

[KYMP5]

so, ill go get a copy pf photoshop tonight

 

[REMillers]

Cool. And if you can look for a book on design elements of webpages. Don't recall the name of it currently but it went through examples of current webpages and what was functionaly and eye pleasing about them. It is pretty good to help get a idea of how webpages can and should probably be laid out and flow with the theme of the site.

 

[TX Speed Demon]

I know not everyone's on the same level. But starting out in step 3 of the process isn't the right answer either. If he starts out in Dreamweaver he can make a web page, but he will never be able to create something he's happy with.

And without knowing Photoshop he'll never be able to fully utilize Dreamweaver.

To me it's like baking a cake without the proper ingedients and wondering why it doesn't taste good when it's done.

anyway, point taken. Sorry I jumped down your throat.

 

[KYMP5]

a buddy of mine gave me several books on web design, one of them is the dummies book but i cant remember the other books. ill just pour over them for a while

 

[rt66protege]

Learn photoshop. anyone who says that it's useless for web design isn't a web designer.

 

[REMillers]

Well pour yourself some coffee and dive in, there is a good amount to learn. But if you have questions just ask away, there are some talented webmasters on here.

---------
And indeed it helps to follow steps, but also to start simple. Baking a cake is easy but baking something a master cheif does is not easy. So start baking cakes, then move up to more complicated creations.

Mmmmm all this cake is making me hungry!

And what is wrong with programmers!! We are a odd bunch with many faults, but who isn't (beer)

 

[KYMP5]

yea, ive seen a lot of cool sites that members have built

 

[noclue119]

Here is how i would learn. Html, CSS, Photoshop, Flash(not very good for usability rating)... Once you learn the basics of HTML, Dreamweaver will make more sense. Once you have a html website build learn learn CSS to make the layout look good. As for Photoshop and flash, if u don't wanna do it its ok

Remember rules of a good usable webstie.

1. Fast to load(most important) - few and small size images.
2. User always know where they are. - navigation
3. User always can go back to th previous page without using the back button. - navigation
4. Never, Never, Never make a dead end page(no forward or back).... - navigation
5. Don't use flash for web page layout... Flash is the worst designed piece of s*** to lay out your webpage with... It is good for video, sound and image compression. Once you use flash your site is going to be slow. - Trust me one this one we did usability tests
6 White space... The more the white space the better. Don't think u have to cram everything on to one page. Seperate the content and highlight the ones you want people to pay attention to....

YO KYMP5 if u really want i'll do this for free... Give let me use some of ur web space...

 

[KYMP5]

we could possible do this. what kind of stuff are you wanting to use space for

 

[ChopstickHero]

thanks guys, how long have you worked with dreamweaver or how long did it take you all to learn the ropes?

learn the basics, then learn CSS. it'll help alot and will look better. if you're in a rush to put up a site, try looking for templates of CSS on the web. then change it around to suit your own needs.

 

[low_psi]

KY- If you'd like any help on images, design layout etc feel free to PM me. I'm always looking for new projects.

 

[noclue119]

we could possible do this. what kind of stuff are you wanting to use space for

Just a personal website and sometime to transfer file between computers. and 1 of the 5 email accounts which comes with the site. PM me...

 

[low_psi]

opps, not meaning to snake ya noclue

 

[noclue119]

opps, not meaning to snake ya noclue

Its all good... I'm doing it for fun.... Not really making money on it

 

[KYMP5]

i really need help starting a template. i ran home on lunch to look at it just to see if i could come up with any specific questios but looking at a blank page thinking one day this is going to be a website just amazes me

 

[REMillers]

What are you planning on making the site to be? Information? Store etc.
Perhaps think about making a front page, from there you can design the template to match it.
Take a piece of paper out and jot down some ideas on what you want to present. Then think about how you are going to lay it out, and after all that on how you are going to present that layout (graphics etc).

That is why I don't put much stock in teaching people Photoshop at the early stages. Seen people get make some fancy graphics out of Photoshop that will fit nicely in a webpage, but they started with it first and now are lost on how to intergrate it.