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Dreamweaver...fastest way to get up and running?
I finally decided to splurge and get the software package considered to be the best website building tool: Dreamweaver (CS6). I got the Adobe "Classroom in a Book" book that is very highly recommended, and I went through all the lessons from start to finish. However, I wasn't prepared for how NOT "...open-it-up-and-start-building-a-website..." it is!! I'm getting my website built, but it's really slow and tedious. Anyone have suggestions for good reference books, and/or other quick, easy and cheap ways to get up to speed with it? (The "Classroom in a Book" is fairly good for learning the basics, but doesn't make much of ANY kind of reference book at all!) Help!? Backstory: I've built and maintained 3 different websites from scratch over the past 7 years, first using "Yahoo Sitebuilder" (a complete free program that Yahoo web hosting clients can download and use to build sites from scratch), and later using "SiteSpinner" (a $50 simple but complete program for building sites from scratch). I built my current website with it: http://www.goofyroosterpublishing.com Both programs I used before were VERY easy to use - about like using Word or PowerPoint or Excel - but Dreamweaver seems to be a tool you can only use if you possess tons of info on HTML, CSS, Java, etc. May 06 13 12:20 pm Link Don't get me started. Dreamweaver is the industry leader. It is capable of handling anything you've ever seen on a web site. But... ... It's interface is not intuitive, ... It's not a good tool for non-trained website developers, ... It's very complex, ... It presumes an extensive knowledge by its users, ... etc. I'm not ashamed to admit that I loved Microsoft's Front Page (which has been obsolete for several years now)... ... It had a user interface nearly exactly like MS Word, ... It had tons of built-in templates for all sorts of web page design, ... It was WYSIWYG, ... In short, it was a good tool for casual web site developers. My web site is still developed by Front Page. I have been looking for a suitable replacement for Front Page, and I haven't yet found one. The ones I've found either still expect their users to be knowledgeable about HTML & web site protocols, and most don't come with professionally designed templates. Ooops -- I guess you did get me started. Sorry about the rant. Okay -- how about this? Look for some adult education classes in Dreamweaver. A city like Dallas should have a few -- I know there are several here in Portland. That might get you started. Also, if it help you get organized, put together a word processor version of your page -- if you have a specific idea of what it should look like, it'll be easier for you to get a web editor to match your previsioned page (plus you can cut & paste the text). May 06 13 01:52 pm Link Gary, do a search on Youtube for anything you want to do. Someone has already done it and made a video about it. You'll learn a lot from those videos. I didn't try to learn everything when I first started, I just focused on the tasks I needed for my project. May 06 13 01:57 pm Link I used Dreamweaver in college 8 years ago. Didn't really like it, but good luck with it. Maybe its better now. I hear Dreamweaver doesn't even support Windows 8 yet. Sucky OS, but I expect new programs to support all operating systems. If you end up having no luck with Dreamweaver and give up, try out CoffeeCup..that's a little easier to use. May 06 13 02:00 pm Link Dreamweaver does the html coding for you. I'm taking a class on building sites now. I think the sites that you built from scratch are drag an drop style and other than source images, the codes css' and behaviors don't live on your machine, and only exist on the host servers. May 06 13 02:03 pm Link I don't mean to sound like a troll here and people will probably frown upon me asking this, but is there something you're trying to accomplish on your website that you can't do by using Wordpress? It's quick and easy to setup, and there is pretty much a widget that you can get to do almost anything you need. I used Dreamweaver about 6 years ago when I was still in High School, but that was also when we still typed a bunch of HTML out. Never really liked it to be honest. May 06 13 02:09 pm Link Dreamweaver is more than anyone needs.... Go to www.jimdo.com and make a free page, or a Pro page for 5 bux a month... Here's one of my pages from Jimdo... www.nudespoetic.com Keep it simple... May 06 13 02:12 pm Link Buggin Out Photography wrote: I'm slogging along. It just takes me a while to make something work right...finding the right CSS rule to modify, or figuring out when to create a new CSS rule or whether to create and assign a "class" or maybe use an "ID", etc. May 06 13 02:15 pm Link Wordpress themes for you my man! May 06 13 02:18 pm Link Terrell Gates wrote: That's simple all right...but honestly it's hideous. Not your images, but the site layout. No one wants to scroll a gillion times to look at images. You need one portal that stays in frame and displays your images. At least that's what most photographers have on their sites. It was exhausting scrolling down your page. May 06 13 02:19 pm Link Jim McSmith wrote: You must not have gone to my current website, which is for my publishing company. Everything I've seen with Wordpress and the like look like personal and/or social websites. I need the complete flexibility to create something that looks as commercial as possible, and allows me to use my domain. May 06 13 02:26 pm Link Gary Melton wrote: There are no differences between a .com and a .org to my knowledge. My site's domain is registered through GoDaddy and my Hosting is through ReliableHosting. I have a friend who runs .orgs and .coms off a Yahoo hosting service. May 06 13 02:41 pm Link Dreamweaver is not a beginner user friendly software for building web sites, but I think it's the most powerful. You should go with the some of the sites like GoDaddy or Wix to do your web page, as you can build one with their templates in several hours. May 06 13 02:53 pm Link CrowX2M wrote: Wordpress.COM and Wordpress.ORG are 2 different websites you can go to in order to create a website. Websites from Wordpress.COM* are free...no web hosting, domain or other charges; while websites from Wordpress.ORG* are NOT free...you have to buy web hosting and a domain, etc. May 06 13 02:55 pm Link Ruben Sanchez wrote: As I said in my OP, I've built several websites using much simpler, easier web design tools - I want to use Dreamweaver to create more advanced (more professional looking) websites. (And I've been purchasing my web hosting from Yahoo Small Business for several years now.) May 06 13 03:02 pm Link What I did was set up was set up a Wordpress account and install it at BlueHost with their installation software. I then purchased a theme from Photocrati for 50 bucks and then I made selective alterations using HTML in the wordpress browser and the Photocrati software integrated with Wordpress so i could easily upload my own logos. I looked at Dreamweaver and realised it was too advanced for me and was aimed at those designing websites all the time. May 06 13 03:11 pm Link one thing I'll be working on is sort of a Dreamweaver cheat which is making three program workflow that is actually a little faster, it goes Photoshop>slice and dice in Fireworks>assemble in Dreamweaver. That might be easier to get it to look like you want. May 06 13 03:15 pm Link Jim McSmith wrote: Yeah - quite a bit can be done with free and cheap web design software, and/or by using already on-line options (like wordpress)...but I've already had my website(s) for years that I've created using the low-cost software route. I finally wanted to graduate to the next more professional looking/operating level...and I knew Dreamweaver was about the only way to go to get the virtually unlimited options I wanted. May 06 13 03:18 pm Link Motordrive Photography wrote: Yeah - I'm building some of my components in PhotoShop, then bringing them into Dreamweaver. May 06 13 03:21 pm Link Ruben Sanchez wrote: +1 May 06 13 03:35 pm Link I guess what I'm really looking right for now are recommendations for a good Dreamweaver reference manual or 2...something I can use to help guide me, and to find solutions to problems in... May 06 13 03:45 pm Link Gary Melton wrote: Give me a second to look through my archives. I have several DW books, some dating back to the Macromedia days. May 06 13 03:50 pm Link Kenoe Foto wrote: There's a slideshow on the first page... I am not a photographer I am a painter who makes photographs now and then... and don't always do what others tend to do. Hope you recover... May 06 13 03:57 pm Link See if Lynda.com or youtube has any tutorials that could be of use. May 06 13 04:10 pm Link In 2008 when the economy tanked I had a few panic ridden months of little work on my hands. I decided to take up Dreamweaver and do my own site and had the same notions that you sound like you had. In the end I decided that I'm a photographer and not a web designer. Because even if I came up to speed on Dreamweaver, I realized that it would take work to stay up to speed, and that time was better used mastering the photography workflow, and doing stuff like taking pictures. There are a bunch of pretty inexpensive template sites you can use. Personally I use viewbook. Unless you want to really get into web design my advice is to hire someone who knows how to do it right, get a template, or use something like livebooks, viewbook, etc... May 07 13 05:13 pm Link thats because Dreamweaver is bloatware just get a joomla template or any other kind of template with some nice transitions May 07 13 05:53 pm Link Uninstall and buy Adobe Muse. May 07 13 06:00 pm Link Gary Melton wrote: You must not be looking hard. Lots of companies uses Wordpress including plenty of major corporate sites. Here's a bunch of them: http://wordpress.org/showcase/ May 07 13 06:22 pm Link Well, I thought I was making some serious progress...but for every 3 steps I go forward, I'm taking 2-1/2 steps back. Wow, this is frustrating! I had my home page and 2 other major pages done late last night - thought I was well on my way and would have 4 or 5 more pages done today...but I have had to delete everything and start over from scratch 3 times today (that's delete ALL pages, templates and style sheets and start over!). I'm learning the hard way that there are certain steps you make which CANNOT be un-done! Currently, all I have is my home page about 1/2 finished. Maybe tomorrow I'll get 4 or 5 pages done... [luckily, my site will only require about 25-30 pages right now] May 07 13 06:46 pm Link Can I ask why you aren't just using a pay service that has great customization? With viewbook ( and no I don't work for viewbook but I just love the cost for what i get and can do ) I pay like $25 per month for the premium package. Spend your time planning, producing, and taking pictures unless you have a passion for web design. All clients want is to see your images and view them in a way that doesn't make them have to work some more. Are you selling photography or are you selling web design? It's really two completely different things and I doubt you have the time to manage both. May 07 13 07:38 pm Link Gary Melton wrote: Wordpress, although it has evolved to include some CMS-like features, it is not a CMS. Wordpress is a blog builder. May 07 13 07:50 pm Link Gary Melton wrote: If you've got 25-30 pages then my initial inclination is that you could use an edit. May 07 13 07:52 pm Link Douglas_Elgenor wrote: +1 on Lynda. May 07 13 07:56 pm Link It's been a couple of years since I've built my web page using DW. But even back then, in order to really make DW work, one needed to understand Cascading Style Sheets. Usually called CSS among web developers. I would suggest any book by Eric Meyer. Actually, I would suggest all of them that he has in print. I have two of them and they are superb. Basically cascading style sheets allow you to make global decisions about all the pages on your site and put those decisions in one place. That way if you wish to change the background color or a font style, you do it in one place and those changes are reflected throughout all the pages in your site. I found that coming up with the look of my site, and making decisions about color schemes, font sizes and whatnot was a huge part of creating a web site. That part really needs to be nailed down first. Eric Meyer has lots of good, easy to construct ideas along those lines that you can use to get yourself started. Once you have your site decisions made, DW allows you to create your pages either in HTML mode or Text mode. Or, they allow you to split the screen and see both at the same time. I found the split screen especially helpful. That feature was what got me to purchase DW back when it was a stand alone program many years ago. I would also look around for a good current book on HTML. Both a reference and...well...I hate them but something similar to a Dummies sort of basic book that can help you get started building basic web pages. Then you can, use the split screen, to help you learn what HTML code that DW is creating for you when you make entries in text mode. After a while, you will seamlessly go back and forth between text mode and HTML mode. It is true that DW has all kinds of functions. Most of which you'll never need. So, I wouldn't worry about anything at first but the basics. They will be enough to get your pages built. As always, this opinion is worth what you paid for it. May 07 13 08:30 pm Link Seems that most people are not paying much attention to what I'm presenting as my situation: - I own a PUBLISHING COMPANY...I PUBLISH BOOKS...photography is one part of that. The website I'm re-designing from scratch using Dreamweaver is a commercial/business site...NOT a blogging site, or a social site, or a portfolio site. It is to sell the books I publish for myself and others. http://www.goofyroosterpublishing.com - I have created and maintained a total of about 9 websites over the last 7 years: 3 all new versions each for 3 different businesses that I have owned and operated. All 9 websites were created totally from scratch with software, but with software that was very user friendly...you just dragged and dropped objects, set up a design and the software did 90% of the programming work. They were still a lot of work...probably averaging around 200-300+ hours each to build. The down side is that there is limited flexibility...can't put all the professional whistles and bells into it I'd like. - I got Dreamweaver to finally build a website with ALL the bells and whistles. My frustration with it is how little the 3000 or so hours of website building experience I have has helped me. Using Dreamweaver to build a web site is like me (an English speaker) trying to explain to someone who knows about 20 English words how to cook a very elaborate meal...versus trying to explain the same thing to someone who is totally fluent in English (i.e. compared to how building websites with simpler software was like). - I WILL KICK DREAMWEAVER'S ASS before this is all done with and I'll finally have more the class of website I've always wanted. ...Thanks for letting me vent....  May 07 13 09:20 pm Link Ever heard the phrase, 'jack of all trades and master of none'? You're trying to do too much. May 07 13 10:05 pm Link  May 08 13 04:18 am Link Fuck that. Got trained in dreamweaver hated the shit out of it. I eould build 100 websites in flash before I used it again May 08 13 04:24 am Link Jim McSmith wrote: Disagree some peoples minds never switch off May 08 13 04:27 am Link Jim McSmith wrote: Scarlett de la Calle wrote: Thank you Scarlett! May 08 13 09:45 am Link |
