Dreamweaver 8 Design and Construction (OReilly Digital Studio)

In this part

Chapter 1, Stocking Your Technological Toolbox

Chapter 2, Staking Your Claim

Chapter 3, Organizing The Content

Chapter 4, Sketching the Interface

Chapter 5, Preparing Images for the Web

Chapter 6, Thinking About Text

Chapter 7, Setting Up Your Site

You bought this book because it promises speed. Fast design! Fast build! On with the show! You might also expect a book on Dreamweaver to have something to say about the Dreamweaver software.

So why, you may wonder, do the first seven chapters seem to have no purpose but to slow you down? Why does the entire first part of this book mention Dreamweaver only in passing?

The reasons are simple. If you want to build a web site at blinding speed, you need to have a solid plan in place, before you kick the engine in gear. Invest a little think-time at the top of your project, and you'll do less work and make fewer changes. When you build, you'll build quickly and accurately. Not only is this the secret of speed, it's also the secret of every successful web studio.

Dreamweaver, for all its strengths, doesn't build your web site for you. It can't tell you how to organize your site, how to design the look and feel, or what information to include. It's a software tool. It takes what you give it. It can't compensate for poor planning, but with the right plan in place, it helps you to produce more, produce better, and produce faster.

This part is all about devising your plan.