Kona's Website

Visit Kona's Website, my in-class assignment during week 3.

I did not really learn anything in this exercise, other than remembering the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl J to edit a page's CSS. I am very comfortable with setting up FTP information in the site manager, using the property inspector to add both relative and absolute links, adding images and tables using the insert bar, etc. This is very elementary for me because I already know coding. I am anxious to move forward with some of the more advanced techniques of Dreamweaver, as well as learning how to use Fireworks and getting more practice with Photoshop to make web graphics.

Basics for Designers E-seminar

I found the first half or so of this seminar very, very basic and redundant. Which is the point of us viewing it...hammering it into our brains. But I think I have picked up the basics of Dreamweaver very easily because of my knowledge of coding. While viewing this seminar I kind of let my mind wander because I was pondering whether it's better to learn coding first and Dreamweaver second, or Dreamweaver first and coding second. I would venture, based on my experience, that it's probably easier to learn code first. Hear me out. Learning code is not too difficult: you pick up the basic ones (P, A, BR, IMG, TABLE, STRONG, EM, and so forth) and you can make a page. A lot of the parts of codes are used in multiple codes (like border for IMG and TABLE or align for P and TD). That makes learning Dreamweaver a lot easier because you're already familiar with the codes. You can then use Dreamweaver, rather than coding, to create some of the more complicated items on a page (like a large table perhaps). I wonder if anyone who has learned the opposite way has any comments? Does learning Dreamweaver help you learn coding, or do you always use the features of Dreamweaver without altering the code?

All of the layouts that are available when creating a new document are great. What a time saver! I recently redid my online portfolio and had to define the columns by slicing the layout image in Photoshop and using tables in the layout. Which is kind of old-school. (I'm like Michael Fox in that terrible Back to the Future sequel...using my HTML knowledge from 2000 to create a website in 2008. I enjoy pop culture references.) And the tracing image feature? Ge-ni-us! I can't even believe how much time I wasted the other week trying to get the darn table widths right when this feature exists--I'll definitely be putting this knowledge into use very soon!

After viewing this seminar, I'm really excited to learn more of the layout and design features of Dreamweaver. I can't wait to do some real design exercises!

Look, it's Page 2!

You should really visit my fabulous sample page 2 to learn all about what I'm doing this weekend. I did not run into any problems creating this page, though I may have been confused sometime last week because my page1.html was a blank page. Or maybe it was supposed to be blank. Anyway, this was a very easy assignment for me. I'm looking forward to getting into some more complex stuff...

Learning the basics of Dreamweaver

In chapters 2-4 of the book, I read about the Dreamweaver interface, site management and the basic abilities of Dreamweaver in building a web page. Chapter 2 goes over the Dreamweaver interface, describing what each of the menus, toolbars and panels in the program is used for. The different insert bar categories were really helpful to learn about because they group useful, related features into tabs. I already know I will be customizing the favorites group! The property inspector will also be a time-saver, displaying all the pertinent information on each object on the page in one easy-to-scan menu.

Chapter 4 details some of the basic parts of making a web page: adding images and text, linking pictures, aligning text, etc. Going through this chapter, I kept thinking, "I know how to do that already," because I know the codes behind creating links, placing images, etc. But do I know to do it using the Assets Panel? No. And that's a reason why I took this class--to actually learn how to use the features of Dreamweaver instead of simply opening the program and going straight to code view. The program has amazing capabilities and would probably make my life a whole lot easier when trying to do certain things on a web page. So I need to force myself to stay in design view and use the property inspector, assets panel and other features. I think having the updated Dreamweaver CS3 (as opposed to the aforementioned awful GoLive CS) on my computer at home will really help with that.

I know I skipped chapter 3. That chapter discusses site management. Since I have a website, I learned awhile back about path structure, what a root folder is, and how to define my site. But Dreamweaver organizes the files and folders of my site really well in the files panel (especially compared with GoLive--but do I need to bring that up again??), which is really helpful when uploading site files because you can see everything lined up neatly. Creating a site map is an even better way to visualize the files on your site, especially if you have a lot of files and folders. It's a great way to stay neat and organized--and sane!