I really like those clapping-hand-happy-faces!

While cruising this web forum on other topics; I came across this newbee question regarding Dreamweaver. There are Code savants (sitereference movers&shakers) and then there are the rest of us second string players. No matter which we all must at some point, drink from the well of WC3 Best Practices. This will be critical as code for hand-helds becomes standardized, your code better be near perfect, or you will quickly lose your audience.

You should be able to use any editor you like and still create good mobile markup. It is recommended that if you are unable to hand-code that any tool that takes steps to help you create valid markup is a best practice and helps interoperability.

Of course it would be nice if tools integrated mobile OK tests
directly. WC3 Best Practices are working on a validation library in Java right now that would allow, someone to write a plugin that would automatically check compliance. It is still months away from completion
but is well underway. Excerpt Quote, WC3 Best Practices, S.O.

QUOTE - THIS IS WHAT THE NOO-B WROTE
Hi!  I'm new here & hope that someone can help shed some light on a program called Dreamweaver..........

I have been doing some affordable web design for close friends/family.  For these I have been using templates supplied by the hosting companies - Network Solutions & another hosting company.

I am going to expand my services beyond F & F.  I was recently asked by a potential client if I could use "Dreamweaver" to design his site.  Can someone please provide me with some information about this particular design?

Also, is there a program to use so that the client can take over updating their sites once they are completed?

Thank you for your help.

Lu

QUOTE - THIS IS A NORTHIE RESPONSE
Don't bother with dreamweaver

It's expensive

It's the industry standard for making websites

Your client probably doens't know enough about web development to make an intelligent decision - your client probably saw a really great website and was told that it was made in dreamweaver

An important thing to note - Dreamweaver does NOT let you build better sites

dreamweaver lets you apply your existing knowledge and skills in a way that may be easier or quicker for you.

To make good websites you need the skills of a good web developer / designer, no software will help you if you don't have these skills

dreamweaver is known as a what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) editor and behaves like a desktop publisher, and filling in all the html for you behind the scenes

There are many free WYSIWYG editors - http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=free+h … wyg+editor  ...Northie


Have fun 
new2web2 wrote:
I appreciate all of your replies!  The thing to remember is that in all honesty, I don't know any CODES - I've used templates that do the coding for you.  So I guess my question, maybe in more specific terms is this: 

Could I use a program like Dreamweaver that will code my text for me?  If not, am I better off sticking with using templates?  I know all of you hardworking "real" web designers cringe at people like me, but this is the best that I can do right now until (& I will) learn to do this the "right" way.

Thanks again,
Lu

QUOTE - THIS IS A TA RESPONSE
For someone new starting out, use an Editor you feel comfortable with.

Take a look at these 40 templates and play around with the code until you get familiar with syntax structure ... also, I strongly suggest you lay your code out in sections -- this is very helpful when you're going to make changes.  ...TA
Administrator


THIS WAS MY REPONSE - MEMANNI
The best advice as above is to look at the source code of your current templates, since you are familiar with their (design view) it will slowly make sense what you are looking at in coded source view. You can bring up your template in your browser then right click, (move mouse off graphic then right click);  the 7th highlighted item down is (view source), click on it and you will see the code of the template or web site. At your own pace do this with all of your templates as well as the 40 templates, TA suggested.

Obviously your final goal is to create web sites that are WC3 compliant, with good code. Right now it is like a foreign language, but hang in there it will come, it did for me; and I am still learning from these guys & girls. Also look at some of the sites of the commentators and view their code.

Both Dreamweaver 8 and GoLive CS have learning curves but are indeed the best. Golive is logical (like putting an 8 piece puzzle together) - Dreamweaver is (a 1000 piece puzzle).

After doing what the PRO's on SR suggest, one morning you will wake up and it will click - Doc Type, Header, Body, Paragraphs, etc. I understood the code more then I understood the templates but it wasn't until I got with guys like these and started looking at Code that I began to understand the standards (WC3), and of course I am still learning.

Site Review Request
Some will remember where I started...Take a look at where I have progressed, haven't quite conquered the dd/td/tr/tbody/nesting stuff yet, but it will come as I study others source code and what these attributes produce. BTW not everything on the site is linked yet, and some of the links need perks; also I need to know how to bring the size of the enter page from around 950 to 800, not too sure about borders and margins, etc., don't want to mess-up current format of front page.

Understanding CSS for us Gring-gos

Found this, The CSShark Answers FAQs - Your CSS Tutorial
The CSS Know-How Site at: http://www.mako4css.com/index.htm

Also this: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/box.html

And this: http://www.thenoodleincident.com/

It may take us some time but someday we will dance around that sombrero, too.



Also found in Site Reference Index @ Building Your Website - HTML/CSS Help
Get basic help on HTML and CSS in this forum.

memanni wrote:

Understanding CSS for us Gring-gos

Found this, The CSShark Answers FAQs - Your CSS Tutorial
The CSS Know-How Site at: http://www.mako4css.com/index.htm

You can also use this for CSS and other tutorials.

Steven_A_S wrote:

She's still got 38 errors (on the Cary Miller site).  Obviously she hasn't reached our level of obsessive-compulsiveness yet!   

Is that what this is called?  I thought it was more of a Oppositional Defiance Disorder..."We shall not rest until it is perfect and it ain't perfect yet...hmmm...now what can I do to raise my ranking in the eyes of Internet users?" 

Sorry for the slighted mental health humor crack, but every trace we leave behind on this thing we're still calling the "Internet" can be construed as a negative strike, rather than the amazement of what can transpire when a person decides to not settle for anything less than maintaining a slightly higher standard than what is the norm.  That's good business, don't you agree?

With that minor side track, I still am noticing a few things that originally stood out for me, which was the visual layout more than the inside coding of the site.  You still have at least 4" of scrolling to the right and my resolution is 1024 x 768.    I'm one of those "convenience" readers who doesn't want to work at much to skim through your content and see if anything catches my interest.  I like glancing at your copyright right away and checking to see if you have some type of search feature attached if I become more specific in my curiousity.   

Someone also mentioned earlier that you have way too much content on your home page.  Again, this goes back to your apparent desire to persuade a person to remain at your website because you believe you have information of value and worth to them.  Headlines have the ability to reflect a "live" website can help tempt people to not only hang around longer, but then to bookmark your site to their favorite social bookmarking site and maybe even tell their friends about it as an easy-to-use reference source.

From where I sit, the real SEO artists are the ones that accomplish this potentially time-boggling process, which includes the votes from the Internet community being visible in a variety of ways.  But even the most SEO-effective web sites benefit from basic layout rules and guidelines and if you invest a little more time into the layering potential built into the concept of designing a site to begin with, it'll give you an additional boost to all of the other efforts you've put into this project so far.

I've used templates before, but I've also stripped them of enough of their original visual appearance to have it appear as a unique design if someone was to compare it to the original.  I also typically have a page dedicated to giving credit for such efforts and even if the template was open source materials, I still will make mention of them and link to them because their time and efforts contributed to the efforts I was responsible for displaying.  Maybe find an open-source template to help quickly force your website into a smaller box...the copy/pasting might take a little time, but the investment contributes to your desire to have a website people will want to turn to...

Keep up the efforts!

Thanks for the reply!
While I have your attention. My question has been why did the page start to scroll in the first place, it did not start off with the scroll. I have already considered a useable template to confine the text and graphics with the whole cut and paste rountine, but what is to stop that page from also scrolling to the right 4 inches, as well. That is the question. I don't know what to key-in on borders, margins, boxes, Wheaties, what causes the scrolling? I just came across the sites I posted above. They seem to be pointing me in the right direction, also. Again, what causes the scrolling?

I don't think I want to catch ODD.

I have even journeyed into looking at some kind of powerpoint conversion because of the strict boundaries they are confined to, but have found that they are tables and I'm almost sure the idea is to get away from tables and into CSS, (plus conversion apps are pricey); while maintaining a third eye on code for the iPhone audience.

http://www.weta.org/ ...I would love this

http://www1.nerds.net/css_layout.html ...I found this, maybe I'll try your suggestion with it.

BTW: The idea was to keep all my front page data together while I found the right code container. I'm tellin You, I have run out of scraps of paper and rooms to keep them in.

Thanks Again

memanni wrote:

but what is to stop that page from also scrolling to the right 4 inches, as well.

Primarily, its your margin settings.  If you are using tables, the browser can also impact the scroll factor and I always test out a template's flexibility by clicking the "Resize" box in the upper right hand corner.  If I don't see the site scaling to the browser, I look elsewhere ('cause I don't know how to make that happen!  LOL!) and yes, portable Internet gadgets are certainly being used, so those users should be considered as well.

memanni wrote:

I don't think I want to catch ODD.

Yeah...it's a nasty little bugger!  I keep wondering if I somehow caught it perhaps during one of the many times Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox decided not to render my W3C compliant webpage the way that it looked in my designing software, but this site helps me cope...  Of course, just because I feel defiance against what appears to be the opposition to the aspirations of a web developer does not mean this is a medical explanation for my reaction...

memanni wrote:

I have even journeyed into looking at some kind of powerpoint conversion because of the strict boundaries they are confined to, but have found that they are tables and I'm almost sure the idea is to get away from tables and into CSS, (plus conversion apps are pricey); while maintaining a third eye on code for the iPhone audience.

I personally have had little pleasure transcribing a PowerPoint presentation into something that works well on an Internet site, but that's because I really haven't had the need to do it with the type of work that I do.  The biggest thing to watch out for when using any software to compose a web page is how well does it convert from your hard drive to how it appears to any Internet user using any type of setting.  I don't remember if PowerPoint creates an entire web page, or does the "Pack-N'-Go" feature create a "click on this link to download" type situation?

memanni wrote:

BTW: The idea was to keep all my front page data together while I found the right code container. I'm tellin You, I have run out of scraps of paper and rooms to keep them in.

ROFL!  The curse of creating!  I just watched a Monk episode today where one of the police officers, in his excitement and zeal, didn't pay attention to his selecting a permanent marker to draw upon a television screen to point out the two bad guys getting together at a local courthouse.  I have found that wipe boards can work wonders when developing the internal structure of a web site and for what its worth, you can always change the template you pick at a later date.  Keep trying to find the wrapper so you don't move too far away from your ultimate goal, which is to no longer need any of those scraps of paper...maybe do a few trial runs with a few templates...?  Test out how easy it would be for you to swap out the banner graphic, for example, or what will be the list of links leading people around your site?

Spend a few hours connecting the dots now and the rest will eventually evolve itself into the full picture you are trying to offer to the Internet community. 

Quote MajorMelody, "keep trying to find the wrapper so you don't move too far away from your ultimate goal, which is to no longer need any of those scraps of paper...maybe do a few trial runs with a few templates...? "

Found a lite template wrapper ...  Made Some Changes ...

Although I found your site to be very informative it is way to long.  Maybe I am not seeing any links that will take you to other pages?  I agree that it pages have to be broken up and made easier for others to get around.  I also am very glad to see someone take the time to remind us all about the Ends of Days.  I truly do see them myself and God is good in using you to get His message across.

I am going to bookmark your page so I can see when you get the changes made.  I am looking forward to getting around a lot easier on your site.

I am not familiar with CSS codes at all so can offer no help there but hope you find what you are needing soon.

Leah

TA DA !

Many, Thanks for keeping the comments coming !

Need to mention links are not set-up yet.

I am setting-up 2 manuscript draft books for the pages 228 + pages, for editing and book purposes.

Developing a sitemap, and meta tags, set-up Google Analytics for stats.

CSS WOW!