Dreamweaver 8[c] The Missing Manual

2017-07-07 02:10:07

About This Book

Despite the many improvements in software over the years , one feature has grown consistently worse : documentation. Until version 4, Dreamweaver came with a printed manual. But since MX 2004, all you get is a Getting Started booklet. To get any real information, you need to delve into the program's online help screens.

But even if you have no problem reading a help screen in one window as you work in another, something's still missing. At times, the terse electronic help screens assume you already understand the discussion at hand, and hurriedly skip over important topics that require an in-depth presentation. In addition, you don't always get an objective evaluation of the program's features. Engineers often add technically sophisticated features to a program because they can , not because you need them. You shouldn't have to waste your time learning features that don't help you get your work done.

The purpose of this book is to serve as the manual that should have been in the box. In this book's pages, you'll find step-by-step instructions for using every Dreamweaver feature, including those you may not even have quite understood , let alone mastered, such as Libraries, Layout view, Behaviors, Dreamweaver's Dynamic Web site tools, and Dreamweaver 8's new XML and XSLT features. In addition, you'll find clear evaluations of each feature that help you determine which ones are useful to you, as well as how and when to use them.

Note: This book periodically recommends other books, covering topics that are too specialized or tangential for a manual about using Dreamweaver. Careful readers may notice that not every one of these titles is published by Missing Manual parent O'Reilly Media. While we're happy to mention other Missing Manuals and books in the O'Reilly family, if there's a great book out there that doesn't happen to be published by O'Reilly, we'll still let you know about it.

Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual is designed to accommodate readers at every technical level. The primary discussions are written for advanced-beginner or intermediate computer users. But if you're new to building Web pages, special sidebar articles called "Up To Speed" provide the introductory information you need to understand the topic at hand. If you're an advanced user , on the other hand, keep your eye out for similar shaded boxes called "Power Users' Clinic." They offer more technical tips, tricks, and shortcuts for the experienced computer fan.

About These Arrows

Throughout this book, and throughout the Missing Manual series, you'll find sentences like this one: " Open the System Library Fonts folder." Thats shorthand for a much longer instruction that directs you to open three nested folders in sequence, like this: "On your hard drive, you'll find a folder called System. Open that. Inside the System folder window is a folder called Library; double-click it to open it. Inside that folder is yet another one called Fonts. Double-click to open it, too."

Similarly, this kind of arrow shorthand helps to simplify the business of choosing commands in menus , as shown in Figure I-2.

Macintosh and Windows

Dreamweaver 8 works almost precisely the same way in its Macintosh and Windows versions. Every button in every dialog box is exactly the same; the software response to every command is identical. In this book, the illustrations have been given even-handed treatment, alternating between the two operating systems where Dreamweaver feels at home (Windows XP and Mac OS X).

One of the biggest differences between Mac and Windows software is the keystrokes, because the Ctrl key in Windows is the equivalent of the Macintosh key.

And the key labeled Alt on a PC (and on non-U.S. Macs) is the equivalent of the Option key on American Mac keyboards.

Whenever this book refers to a key combination, therefore, you'll see the Windows keystroke listed first (with + symbols, as is customary in Windows documentation); the Macintosh keystroke follows in parentheses (with -symbols, in time honored Mac fashion). In other words, you might read, "The keyboard shortcut for saving a file is Ctrl+S ( -S)."

Figure I-2. When you read in a Missing Manual, "Choose Modify Table Insert Row," that means: "Click the Modify menu to open it. Then click Table in that menu and choose Insert Row in the resulting submenu."

About the Outline

Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual is divided into six parts , each containing several chapters:

Part One, Building a Web Page , explores Dreamweaver's interface and takes you through the basic steps of building a Web page. It explains how to add text and format it, how to link from one page to another, and how to spice up your designs with graphics.

Part Two, Building a Better Web Page , takes you deeper into Dreamweaver and explains how to gain greater control of the design of a Web page. You'll learn how to use more advanced features, such as tables, layers , and Cascading Style Sheets. In addition, you'll get step-by-step instructions for creating advanced page layouts, as well as on how to view and work with the underlying HTML code of a page.

Note: Previous versions of this book contained a chapter on HTML framesa method of displaying several Web pages in a single Web browser window. This technique is going the way of the dodo bird. Since Dreamweaver 8 has so many new and exciting features and this book's already bursting at its seams (if we added any more pages, we'd have to issue a medical warning to those with bad backs), the frames chapter has been moved online. You can find it, free of charge, at www.sawmac.com/dw8/.

Part Three, Bringing Your Pages to Life , helps you add interactivity to your site. From using forms to collect information from your site's visitors to adding complex JavaScript programs, this section guides you through adding animation, multimedia, and other interactive effects with ease.

Part Four, Building a Web Site , covers the big picture: managing the pages and files in your Web site, testing links and pages, and moving your site onto a Web server connected to the Internet. And since you're not always working solo, this section also covers features that let you work with a team of Web developers.

Part Five, Dreamweaver Power , shows you how to take full advantage of such time-saving features as Libraries, Templates, and History panel automation. It also covers Dreamweaver's Extension Manager, a program that can add hundreds of new free and commercial features to the program.

Part Six, Dynamic Dreamweaver , presents a gentle introduction to the often confusing and complex world of database-driven Web sites. You'll learn what you need to know to build a dynamic Web site; how to connect Dreamweaver to a database; and how to use Dreamweaver to build pages that can display database information as well as add, edit, and delete database records. The last chapter of this section covers Dreamweaver 8's powerful new XSLT tools for converting XML files (including RSS feeds) into browser-ready Web designs.

At the end of the book, two appendixes provide a list of Internet resources for additional Web design help and a menu-by-menu explanation of Dreamweaver 8.

Living Examples

This book is designed to get your work onto the Web faster and more professionally; it's only natural, then, that half the value of this book also lies on the Web.

As you read the book's chapters, you'll encounter a number of living examples step-by-step tutorials that you can build yourself, using raw materials (like graphics and half-completed Web pages) that you can download from www.sawmac.com/dw8/. You might not gain very much from simply reading these step-by-step lessons while relaxing in your porch hammock. But if you take the time to work through them at the computer, you'll discover that these tutorials give you unprecedented insight into the way professional designers build Web pages.

You'll also find, in this book's lessons, the URLs of the finished pages, so that you can compare your Dreamweaver work with the final result. In other words, you won't just see pictures of Dreamweaver's output in the pages of the book; you'll find the actual, working Web pages on the Internet.

About MissingManuals.com

At www.missingmanuals.com, you'll find articles, tips, and updates to Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual . In fact, you're invited and encouraged to submit such corrections and updates yourself. In an effort to keep the book as up to date and accurate as possible, each time we print more copies of this book, we'll make any confirmed corrections you've suggested. We'll also note such changes on the Web site, so that you can mark important corrections into your own copy of the book, if you like. (Click the book's name , and then click the Errata link, to see the changes.)

In the meantime, we'd love to hear your own suggestions for new books in the Missing Manual line. There's a place for that on the Web site, too, as well as a place to sign up for free email notification of new titles in the series.

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