Hey, Adobe and Macromedia, listen up!

People who have learned to lay out Web pages graphically using Fireworks or Image Ready can export HTML containing sliced images poured into a tables-based layout. For years, students have been taught how to wrangle Fireworks and Image Ready into creating good rollovers, layouts, and optimized images in order to create beautiful and functional Web pages.

Some of those students are now wanting ways to use their knowledge of Fireworks and Image Ready graphical layouts to generate HTML using CSS-based layouts. How about it, Adobe and Macromedia? Can you give a demanding public updated tools that generate HTML and/or CSS fit for a world in which CSS is becoming the standard for layout?

Tip: Using Insert Div Tag in Dreamweaver MX 2004

Dreamweaver MX 2004 introduced a new command called Insert Div Tag. I have complained a bit about the fact that the DW MX 2004 books I’m reviewing here don’t explain much about this valuable new command. This new command seems like a big deal to me because it helps develop the structure needed to use CSS, but several books don’t even mention it: the proverbial elephant in the living room sort of command. Well, instead of complaining, I decided to write a brief tutorial explaining a little about it. I hope you find it useful.

Note: This technique involving the insert div tag applies to Dreamweaver 8 and Dreamweaver CS3 also.

 

Clearing Floats

At Position is Everything Clearing a float container without source markup explains a new technique for clearing floats that was developed at CSS Creator. If you have ever tried laying out a page using floats and been frustrated because the background colors don’t extend down the page the way they would have done with a tables layout, you will be interested in this new solution to the problem.

Article on current page menu indicators

Persistent Page Indicator is an article by Stephanie Sullivan at the CSS site Nemesis Project. The article shows you how to use Dreamweaver and CSS to create a “you are here” button state on the current page in a web site. Sullivan’s articles are always well written and informative.

I had some problems with the navigation at the Nemesis Project site and am hoping that the link above leads you directly to the article mentioned, but if it does not you should be able to find it under the Guest Articles menu.

Review: Dreamweaver MX 2004 Savvy

Dreamweaver MX 2004 SavvyDreamweaver MX 2004 Savvy by Christian Crumlish and Lucinda Dykes is another in the excellent Savvy series from Sybex. If you are teaching Dreamweaver with any other book, you should take a look at this book. It merits consideration.

There is enough material here for a full year. The book more or less falls into two equal parts, with the first part about Dreamweaver fundamentals from a design perspective and the second half about developing Web applications. That reads like a semester of learning the page building tools in Dreamweaver and a semester of learning the web application tools in Dreamweaver to me.

There are things in this book that students invariably want to know that I have not seen in any other book. For example, in Chapter 14: Collecting Information with Forms, the authors include instructions for editing the FormMail.pl script, for uploading it to the proper spot on a server, and for setting the permissions to make it execute. This chapter also explains using discussion boards, chat, and creating a blog.

The authors do an adequate job with CSS, although they overlooked the Insert Div tag capability in Dreamweaver MX 2004 that is so useful in structuring CSS layouts. They also do a bit more than the usual (the usual being almost nothing) with accessibility. If you are a regular reader of my reviews, you know that CSS and accessibility coverage are my personal make-or-break points in deciding whether a book is good enough.

In Part IV, Developing Web Applications, the authors devote four chapters to getting Dreamweaver set up to work with Web applications and explaining how to use databases. Then they devote individual chapters to the various technologies you can use to interact with the database such as Cold Fusion, ASP, .NET, PHP and JSP.

Part V deals with site administration and has some information that might be useful earlier in the book (or course) if you are imagining my two semester scenario for this text.

All in all, this book would definitely help you prepare students for the job market.