Web Design Tools and Tips

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In this and the following articles I will explain the basics of Dreamweaver, step by step, and how to use this knowledge to build a professional website.I will only be using text, not graphics, to accomplish this goal, as I live in Ireland, Europe, and the search engine that dominates the markets there is Google, which is predominately a text based search engine. Lets Begin :

1.Open up Dreamweaver and look at the very top menu on your work station/ control panel/ user interface, ( these names all stand for the same thing, so dont let them confuse you ), and the following is what you will see on the top menu bar : | FILE | EDIT | VIEW | INSERT | MODIFY | TEXT | COMMANDS | SITE | WINDOWS | HELP |

2.Click on site---drop down menu appears---click on new site.

3.A site definition box will open up showing two alternatives at the top of the box (a) basic (b) advanced.Make sure that its on basic.

4.You will be asked two questions ( question 1) What would you like to name your site ?---by default this box will be filled in as unnamed site---change this and call your site whatever you want to. ( question 2 ) What is the http address of your site ? - leave this blank and then click next at the bottom of your site definition box.

5.The next question that appears in the site preference box will be---Do you want to use server technology ?---check the no box ( no I do not want to use server technology ) and click next.

6.The next question that appears in the site preference box will be---How do you want to work with your files during development ? check the box (edit local copies on my machine and upload to server later).The next question will be---Where do you want to store your files ?---this will already be filled in,so leave it the way that it appears and click next to continue.

7.The next question in the site preference box will be----How do you connect to your remote server ?---you will be given various options but your option will be to choose NONE, and then click next to continue.

8.The next page in the site preference box is just a summary of what you have done, so just click done and your finished. You will notice that on the very right hand side of your Dreamweaver work station the folder that you have created using your own chosen name for your site opens up displaying your chosen name. You will also notice that when you close down Dreamweaver and check your own documents on your computer that a folder has been created with the name of the website that you have just created within Dreamweaver.This is your ROOT FOLDER ( theres nothing in this folder at the moment but dont worry about that at this point ) This may sound and look very easy or confusing, as the case may be, but until this point is understood ( the creation of a root folder ) there is really nowhere that you can go with Dreamweaver.

This represents your introduction to Dreamweaver and there is a right way and a wrong way to learn everything but if you learn the wrong way the odds are that you will be playing catching up most of the time.So I suggest that the viewers just keep practising and practising the steps that I have outlined here, over and over again, regardless of whether you understand it or not, or regardless of whether you find it just to simple, because one day you will thank me for it.