Great online Adobe CSS video

I watched this great Adobe video on CSS and it does a great job explaining CSS formats for us who think more graphically.

Here's the link;

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/digital-design/introduction-to-css

Temporarily Online

A simple and fast way to get a website temporarily online, if you don't have access to a webserver is to use Dropbox.

You can get it for free here, instructions here

I got this information from the Adobe Dreamweaver Forum

Welcome to the Fall Dreamweaver class!

We had a lively first night at the Fall Dreamweaver class. Welcome to Sarah, Laura, Travis, Kate, and Gergana!

After defining sites...a few times...we set to work on the Whirlwind tour that McFarland includes in Chapter 1. We hit on a lot of aspects of Dreamweaver that we will now proceed to actually learn in a more deliberate way!

I remind everyone in the class to review the class calendar at http://www.gravenimagedesign.net/PAE/dwcs4.html. Click on each part of the next class day's schedule to see the message about the material we will cover. Read through the book...don't forget that you can see it online at safarionlinebooks (link on the class website)...Chapters 2 and 3 for Wednesday.

As always, if you find anything on my website or this blog that doesn't function, send me a message and I'll fix it. I invite you to stroll through other postings on this blog, and to post something yourself, if you have a question, an answer, or a comment! I especially like hearing about your "aha" moments and successes.

Have at it!

HTML data sources for Spry Framework dynamic pages

Here's a very exciting video:

http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f15383v1041

Use a well-structured html page as source data for a dynamic presentation...sortable columns in a table, or master/detail, or several other layouts. They are very flexible. Once you have the Spry Data link set up (first button on the Spry insert toolbar), you can actually add columns and they will be automatically included, ready for use.

In my test table, I have text, a column of prices (set up as numeric format), images, and even the html code for PayPal buttons. All were brought in without a hitch to the presentation page.

Each different layout has a specialized .css file that is, of course, fully customizable to your site.

So watch the video, then go to Dreamweaver, create a data page and a presentation page, and set up Spry Data. You'll love it!

Baxter School is no more

Or so I hear; at least, Portland Adult Ed is no longer there and on its way over to PATHS for the summer.

It's been a good and friendly place for the past academic year...one class of Dreamweaver CS3 and three of Dreamweaver CS4.

We even got to do an Adobe bingo/multiple choice quiz on the last day of class. However, not all the answers as given were correct or corresponded to the CS4 revision of Dreamweaver. I think I'd like to have class members sort through the sample questions and query Adobe on the ones that are out and out wrong!

Update: http://portlandadulted.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album10

Roll the ball right into the pocket ... absolute positioning in a nutshell

Elaine had a very good question about positioning, to wit:

scenario: table with background image in a cell. Background image has an area pre-determined for overlaying text.

question: how to best set in the text so that it appears in the area determined for it?

answer: use absolute positioning within a div that is within a positioned div. Position, in this case, is an attribute and may be defined in a css style.

solution: don't bother with the table, it only confuses the situation, then

1. set up a div with a class or id defined with the attribute {position: ppp;} where ppp is relative, absolute, or fixed.
2. on this 'containing' div, set
   {background-image: [url];}
   and set the height and the width of the div to the dimensions of the image
   {width: xxx; height: yyy;}.
3. set a div inside the containing div with the following attributes:
    {width: [width of text area];
   height: [height of text area];
   top: [distance from top of div in pixels]px;
   left: [distance from left edge of div in pixels]px;
   position: absolute;}
4. By using a background image, the surface real-estate is still available for the text div to be positioned and populated with the desired text; the image will not push the new div out of the way.

Here's an example file:

http://www.gravenimagedesign.net/PAE/positiontest.html

If you really want to use a table, go ahead, but you will still need a containing div within the data cell and a positioned div within the containing div.

Don't forget to set position: relative|fixed|absolute (choices) on the containing div; use position: absolute on the positioned div. 

Fiddle around with negative numbers of pixels when you do the positioning (from top, from left; could do from right or from bottom; don't do more than 2) dimensions. Talk about working outside the box!

Have fun!

Building Your Cabin

By now, you should have done some thinking about your class project.

Have you done an outline?

1. Title/name of site
2. Mission/intention/topic of site
3. Pages (you need five)
   a. Home page (index.html)
   b. A page focusing on something you want the reader to know or do, relative to your topic
   c. More in depth information or auxiliary possibilities (I am being purposefully vague)
   d. Associated ideas
   e. etc. Links to sites that support your thesis or illustrate something about your topic
   f. You can be very creative with pages...don't rely on any of my lists!
   g. Something about yourself, or the organization or company you are making a site about
4. For each page
   a. Links
   b. Navigation (between pages) ideas
   c. Images
   d. Text/content
5. For the site
   a. Color ideas (see http://kuler.adobe.com/ for some fun with color)
   b. A diagram of how your pages will link to each other
   c. A sketch of the home page or of a basic page layout...on paper in crayon or marker or colored pencil or in Photoshop or Fireworks or Illustrator or the program of your choice
   d. Ideas of how you want the type to look (fonts, sizes, colors, etc.)
   e. A diagram of file names and file structure (could be combined with b above)
   f. Features you would add if you knew how
       i. videos
       ii. rollovers
       iii. sound effects
       iv. visual effects

I hope you get the idea...do a lot of thinking before you start twiddling bits on Dreamweaver. You'll be happy you did.

Client review of web pages

If you don't want to upload a site to the web, copy your root folder (and all site files within it!) to a CD.

That way, the pages can be looked at in a browser and won't be vulnerable to being changed readily. If your pages work well locally, that is, in Dreamweaver, then the site will be accessible simply by double-clicking on the index.html file on the CD.

It is okay be leery of uploading pages and sites to the web, but the best solution is to have a "sandbox" area on your own webspace (and to HAVE your own webspace!). That way, you don't have to physically create a CD and deliver it.

For instance, I routinely have copies of sites on which I am working resting on my webspace. As they sit in their own root folders, they are accessible for those to whom you give the URL. You need not have them linked to your own site; in fact, it's probably better if they are NOT linked to your own site, unless you want all and sundry to be looking at works in progress.

When you have more than one site in your webspace, make sure that each is self-contained in its own root folder. The only index.html file that you want to show up by default when someone "goes to" your domain is the home page for the site. 

To wit: 

• My webspace (defaults to my home page, index.html, when my domain URL is called): 
  http://www.gravenimagedesign.net/
• Located within my webspace root might be other sites:
  http://www.gravenimagedesign.net/PHA/ (which would load the index.html page for my PHA 'sandbox' site)
  http://www.gravenimagedesign.net/PAE/ (which would load the index.html page for a PAE 'sandbox' site, if there were one)
• File structure would be as follows:
  home page and files of gravenimagedesign.net (webspace as a whole =  root folder)
  PHA/index.html all PHA files live in the PHA folder, which is ITS root folder
  The URL for this site would be: http://www.gravenimagedesign.net/PHA/{not necessary to add the pagefile name, unless you are not showing an index page}
  PAE/index.html   all PAE files live in the PAE folder, which is ITS root folder {again, not necessary to add the pagefile name to the URL, unless you are not showing an index page}
  The URL for this site would be: http://www.gravenimagedesign.net/PAE/

I need WHAT? to see your site?

Yesterday, we had a couple of vivid examples of flashy exciting websites becoming totally inaccessible to users in ways the designer probably had not imagined.

First, the nye site http://nyelabs.com/ required plugins and recent versions of Flash player that the school network had not installed. Bummer. It's a cute site, and it might be fun to investigate all the features that it incorporates...if only we could actually SEE it!

Second, the BOOK site http://www.lookatbook.com/ used some obscure links (available only to the terminally curious) to get to the "about us" pages (and obscure backlinks), as well as a popup for their "shop," which would certainly not be visible to those who have blocked popups.

All in all, our analyzing websites session was instructive, and (I hope) fun to see a tiny bit of what is out there on the web, in the interest of learning how to make better websites.

Don't Make Me Think!

The best reference I can suggest for usability and accessibility philosophy is Steve Krug's book, "Don't Make Me Think."

Google it or look it up on Amazon. You can pick it up used for not much money. 

http://www.sensible.com/

Steve has a sense of humor and if you can develop your intuition to include his philosophy, you will be well on the way to understanding your users and how to design websites for them.

Look him up!

Changing a site from old Dreamweaver to New

I want to update my web site from an html site to css, but don't want to hurt my well established standing in the search engines -- especially Google. I plan to keep all of the page names, meta tags & descriptions the same through the change. I have heard that Google likes css. In the past whenever I redesigned the site and uploaded the new pages it seemed to take Google time to recognize it and I lost visits -- and business. Suggestions?

Welcome!

A hearty welcome to the Spring Dreamweaver CS4 class.

Please feel free to read back posts and comments, and to post and comment yourself.

Project Website

Hello, my project website for the CS4 class is www.duanepatricio.com - it is a website I developed for my neighbor who is an artist who custom builds furniture specifically mirrors, tables, and frames from old boards salvaged from Maine coastal homes and barns.

Your sites

Marybeth has asked whether other class members would post their sites and let us know the URLs. If you can do that, please also write a brief blog entry with an explanation.

Hope all is going well with you all!

How can I make a back button?

What kind of link, behavior can I add to a button (when clicked) will return to the page last viewed?  ie: back button

Thanks,

Rick

Browsers

Just wondering if anyone is having difficulty with their websites looking different from browser to browser, for some reason some links in particular PDF links and some links in my spry menu are not working in IE but working fine in Chrome, Firefox and safari.
I seem to be having most of my problems with IE as I noticed Firefox, Safari and Chrome are very similar with small differences but IE seems to work completely different from the other three

Disjointed rollovers without javascript

Using pure CSS, it is entirely possible to make disjointed rollovers. 

I just discovered an explanation with one example being extra-intriguing (but still very simple!).

Take a look at: http://pmob.co.uk/pob/animated.htm

and http://pmob.co.uk/pob/disjointed1.htm

Color Blindness

When you design for the web, you must consider legibility a high priority.

Contrast between text and color blocks/background images is paramount to creating an easily-read page.

Consider your color-blind viewers, and check out your pages at http://colorfilter.wickline.org Bring this page up on your browser and look at your pages one by one (you enter the URL at the page) through special filters designed to mimic the page as seen by a person who is colorblind. Several different colorblind conditions are mimicked; you can click between them while viewing a rendering of your page.

This resource may help you steer clear of pages that are difficult to read.

Rollover (Beethoven), or Dis Joint the image, eight to the bar

Rick asks, "how can I roll over something and have an image pop up elsewhere on the page?" Look at http://www.paeweb.org/students/DWCS4/disjointTest.html

1. Begin with your images optimized to two sizes: a thumbnail and a full-sized image. I have not optimized OR sized any of the images in this example; you may also want to play around with sizes before you do final sizing.
   
2. Make an APdiv (or other image 'placement') and insert your "resting" image...the image that will show when you are not mousing over the thumbnails. You need not use an APdiv. Any image anywhere on the page can be "swapped" out and in. Just watch the dimensions of the image and make sure it acts the way you want it to!
   
3. Make sure each image on the page is named, including the "resting" image.
4. Turn on the Behaviors panel from the Window menu.
5. Select (click on) the first thumbnail and press the "plus" in the Behaviors panel (on the Tag Inspector panel). Choose "swap image."
6. In the field at the top of the swap image window, all named images will be listed. Click on the image that is your "resting" image. You will tell DW to swap that image with the one you will browse to. Make sure you ask the system to Preload images and Restore images on mouseout. That's all there is to it!
   
7. Be warned: if you move the page around within the site files, your image source paths will not be updated automatically, and you will probably have to remove and re-apply the behaviors. I speak from experience!
   

Questions, we have questions!~

1. It is perfectly all right to put a spry menu inside an APdiv. You will find that divs are incredibly useful structurally and to isolate individual elements of your page.
2. Not only is an APdiv the same thing as what we used to call a "layer," it is principally just a div with that added attraction of being more defined: width, height, position. It remains fully editable.
3. Placing images inside divs and APdivs is also fine.
4. You may easily place flash buttons and text if you have created them in Flash. Dreamweaver no longer (in CS4) gives you an easy way to originate them.
5. To change a rollover color on a spry menu, you will change the a:hover state in the spry css file that is coordinated with your spry menu.
6. Rollover images may be applied to an existing image on the page by using the swap image behavior.
7. To offer a space for a client to preview/review a website without "going live," the easiest way is for you to have a "sandbox" area on the server that you yourself use. For instance, in my www.gravenimagedesign.net server space, I have a folder called PHA, where my entire PHA working site lives. It is accessed by both my client and by me at www.gravenimagedesign.net/PHA.
   Although I have made that sub-site accessible through my own website, it need not be publicized on your home website. But if the client is given the URL, the site is available to be reviewed 'live,' even if it is not live on their server at their domain name.
      You are correct; you would not want to email them html files, or the whole constellation of files in your site. By putting them on the web, you are ensuring that they function correctly, and as they will when they are finally uploaded to your client's server space.
   

Testing, Testing

 If I want to test my webpage with Internet Explorer, is there a way to  do  that if I work on a Mac?

Internet Explorer is not being supported on the Mac anymore; which you probably know.

    Beyond testing ... or at least validating ... your code within Dreamweaver, you can upload your files to a server and check them out online. You'll still need to be looking at it ON a PC.

    In my experience, Macs can read PC disks/media while PCs or Windows machines cannot read Mac-formatted media. So, you could get a PC flash drive, which your Mac should recognize, and put your files on it. Then carry it to a PC and check the page out in IE. (This is what we would now call a "sneaker net"...presuming that you are wearing the sneakers)

    I found something called "browsershots": http://browsershots.org/ which will show your page in tons of browsers, but it requires that the site/page be online.

    Also, http://www.thesitewizard.com/webdesign/multiplebrowsers.shtml

It seems, though, that some of those sites take only a snapshot, which makes it difficult to actually test function...beyond look...

Best way seems to be actually looking at it with a windows machine.

Ironic, isn't it, that Mac is a great developing environment, but most of the world uses Windows*. Dust off that corner of the desk and install a PC. Or grab one out of your neighbor's attic. PC users upgrade frequently, and you might find one cheap on Craigslist.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

At this w3schools site, you can also find statistics

• by OS (operating system) platform
• display resolution and color depth
• statistics and descriptions of different IE versions
• Netscape, Mozilla (which is not a browser)
• Firefox
• Opera
• Chrome. 

Other browsers apparently sport such low usage numbers that they are not treated. The Browser home page (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/default.asp) describes each browser generally.

This is a good page/site to get to know. It will help you when you are deciding what size 'viewport' you want to be working within.

Adobe TV and other delights

Here's a link to great videos that introduce the viewer to features and workings of Dreamweaver (and other Adobe products) that we might not touch on in class:

http://tv.adobe.com/

The presentations are informative and entertaining at the same time; the speakers are project managers and engineers at Adobe.

Topics I have watched recently: how to make a dynamic database page using an html page with an html table (no php required) as datasource; tag navigator; InContext Editing.

If you are looking for a safe way to allow your clients to update and edit their own website content, investigate InContext Editing. You use Dreamweaver CS4 to set up editable regions and repeating regions (much like setting up template regions), then register the website with Adobe InContext Editing and send an invitation to your client. There is much control you may exert: protecting the coding for a section or allowing as much or as little control to the client as you wish. Watch the videos for a good look at it. There is also a 50+ minute presentation that describes the process. Right now, InContext Editing is free; in future it will be a paid resource at the rate of $10-20 a month (paid by you, the web developer/designer) for use with up to 5 websites on the public web. Intranet sites are not accessible with InContext Editing. This is a fine way to maintain control of the look and feel, as well as the coding, of a website, while allowing your client to maintain control of the content itself.

Welcome to the evening Dreamweaver CS4 class!

Welcome, all!

I hope you will find assistance, amusement, and an opportunity to communicate with other Dreamweaver learners and users here at Portland Adult Ed!

Beth

Removing Table Borders

I set up the arrangement of photos with the use of tables. Now, I wanted to get rid of the table borders. Our book has no clear explanation of HOW to do this. Dreamweaver CS4 For Dummies had the process outlined. This gets rid of the table borders.
* Highlight the table with your mouse.
* Modify
* Table
* Select Table
* In the properties below, change the border to 0

Bob A.

Navigation Bar

I completed the content of my pages and was able to create a horizontal Navigation Bar on one of my pages. I wanted to copy the Navigation Bar and paste it in my other pages. This did not work because the coding for the Navigation Bar is broken up into pieces at the beginning and end of the coding.

I took an opposite approach that worked. I took the page with the Navigation Bar and removed all content. I then saved just the Navigation Bar as navigation.html. I then opened navigation.html and inserted content for each page. I reworked each page with the top Navigation Bar as the focus. The approach worked because all my contents were all in one place between body tags.

Bob A.

Font-size too twee?

Remember that you can customize the font and font-size of your code view by going to Edit | Preferences | Fonts. 

Re-using CSS

Question from Bob:

Pages 199-203 (tutorial) show HOW to add a Navigation Bar to a file called tips.html. It is a horizontal menu bar -- looks like it may be called Menubar1 in the tutorial.

My question, HOW do I apply that same horizontal menu bar to my other files ?
For instance, I now want to add the very same horizontal bar menu to a file named about.html 

The devil is in the details. 

How To Reuse Code...

1. Investigate
   How is the existing menubar (or other structure) built? Look at the HTML code. Is it a list? Is it images?
2. Imitate
   Mimic the original structure exactly. Is the menubar code inside an ID'd div? 
3. What about the CSS?
   Examine the CSS file to see what HTML elements might be styled by it. Anything within the ID'd div could be styled with rules that invoke the div's name.
4. Test your test file
   Using an internal style sheet copied from the original menubar's style sheet, create an HTML test file to test how it works. When you have it working to your satisfaction, move the styles to your external style sheet and your menubar div to your document.
5. When you've got it the way you want it...
   Make sure your css is in an external style sheet, linked to the page or pages in your site. Then select the whole div containing the menubar and either Ctrl | C or Edit | Copy. Go to the other page and paste it in: Ctrl | V or Edit | Paste. It should immediately look right.
6. Once you've got it working on one page, consider making a template and you won't even need to cut and paste it. We'll cover templates in class next Wednesday...

Regarding menubars in specific, I suggest starting fresh. Insert | Layout Object | Spry Menu Bar. You may then style it up as you see fit by editing the styles that come with it in the spry menu bar css file. Be sure (when you save the file) to accept the auxiliary files...the javascript file and the css file...so that your menu bar functions.

When you understand the associated css file, you will become comfortable altering the rules to suit your own project. 

Editing PHP files

Can you edit PHP files in Dreamweaver, that is, files that end in .php and not .html?

Yes, of course. If you are careful, and are making edits that you don't need to 'check' in a browser, it is as easy as editing an HTML file. You will not be able to use "Live View" in Dreamweaver, however, unless you have listed a 'testing server.'

You can install XAMPP (PC) or MAMPP (Mac) on your own computer to work as a local testing server. That makes it possible for your PHP files to compile properly in order to be tested. PHP typically runs on Apache (Unix) servers and its databases would be MySQL databases.

Not every ISP (Internet Service Provider) provides PHP support. GWI, for instance, does not provide it. If your files are PHP files and they are already hosted successfully, the ISP supports  PHP. If you don't know, call the ISP and check.

XAMPP and its sisters are free programs. Search the internet for them. Instructions are pretty clear for installation and use.

For more information, take Bogart's PHP course at Portland Adult Education. It is well worth the price of admission. 

**You may also edit php pages in InContext Editing, but not the php sections. So I've been told, but have not tested this. Certainly if you use an html datasource, you will be able to edit the data in InContext Editing. That would not, however, be PHP!

Whew, well I'm finally in, it took a bit longer to create my Google account than expected, I almost gave up.

But the good news is that I've started my own web page on the Mac, and yes there are a few things that are different from the PC version in class. While I remain alternately excited and frustrated, things at the moment are looking up!

I'll plug away at it this weekend, and probably have a few questions on Monday.

Begin thinking about your website project

Portfolio Project: “A cabin, not a mansion”
Building a Simple Website Using Dreamweaver

All students are asked to produce a fully-functioning, portfolio-ready website using Dreamweaver as discussed in class. As you learn new elements of Dreamweaver, it is expected that you will apply them to your class project website. At the final class, we will share our class projects.

Topic: Choose a personal topic for your website. Examples could be a website about yourself or your family, a site promoting a specific event or business, a fan site, a special-interest site about a hobby or activity, instructions for making or doing something.
You will need at least a few paragraphs of written information to include on the site, as well as some photographs or graphics.

Basic Requirements: Your website must consist of five pages. Possible pages might be:

• About Yourself

• Contact Us

• Home/Welcome page

• Links

• Photo Gallery

• Site map

Dreamweaver Requirements: Your site must include the following Dreamweaver-generated elements. These are minimum requirements, and do not need to appear on every page.

• Cascading Style Sheets

• Form (need not be fully functional)

• Links, relative and absolute, and two external links

• Persistent navigation and consistent design*

• Rollovers

• Tables

• Template or library items

*Design/Navigation: All pages of your site should have a consistent design and persistent navigation (user interface) for your site to be considered complete.

Summary: By the time you have finished creating your website, you will have the skills to produce a fully-functioning website using Dreamweaver. You will have a good working knowledge of the Dreamweaver program and a good framework for learning to apply some of Dreamweaver’s more advanced features.

First Steps Checklist (generally speaking)

1. Create a folder for your client
2. Create sub-folders:
   Correspondence (I date each email, viz. 20090121_dive_page, and either email subject name or other descriptor) You might also include your responses to emails here.
   Site (this does not need to be the site name, but should be the folder into which all site files will go)
   Working (content and images files as received; your own .png files, .fla files [though those might all live in a subfolder to 'working'], as well as your exported .gif and .jpg files)
3. Create your site definition in Dreamweaver, pointing to your "Site" folder as the container for your site files.
4. {and here a miracle happens...} Create your site pages

First Time Blogging

This is the very first time that I have ever used a blog, so please be accepting of my slow approach to this. Please inform me if I ever break any blogging etiquette rules -- I don't know any better.

What I would request from my class members and Beth is that you provide me with feedback regards my website http://www.cybresllc.com (Cyber Research, LLC). I am making my Class Project the complete re-writing of the website using Dreamweaver. I know that it currently has no WOW factor whatsoever.

Thanks. Bob A.

Cheat Sheets

Don't hesitate to make 'Cheat Sheets' for yourself; they will be more concise than simply rereading the book. Put the citation for the book (title, page number) so you can look at it in depth when you need a refresher.

You might work out a standard format, like a recipe, that tells what the task is, a general description of how it is done, then specific step-by-step instructions.

When Should I Start From Scratch?

If you have a website that you would like to improve, think hard before you jump in and adjust it in situ. You may have a better time of it if you re-create it using the new techniques you are learning in Dreamweaver CS4. Remember, straightening bent nails (not to mention sanding off the rust) is time-consuming and not at all rewarding. 

I encourage you to do as much 'test-driving' as you can, on many small 'working/testing' files. As you go, you may build yourself a library of snippets or techniques that will be a good resource for your further work.

Visual Hierarchy

The largest headline gets the most attention, shouting at you! This might be major headlines, or page titles

Here's another level of hierarchy, in the same size, but not bold

The next size may be a subhead or a less-important item. This size might be used for different sections on the page.

Again, the same size, but not bold

...

The very smallest might be footnotes, or commentary...with or without bolding and italicization...

Another, possibly better way to think of hierarchy is levels of generality, as an outline:

A. The major headings (or maybe the page title)

  1. Sections on a page

a. Text

i. Captions or footnotes

Is it possible to 'read' your web page or your web site on each of these levels? Can you learn something...in increasing levels of detail...by reading just the major headings, or just the section headings, or the captions, or must you always read all of the text?

Remembering that you have a very few seconds to capture your viewer's interest and attention, do you make it easy for the viewer to get your message?

Visual hierarchy can also refer to images, colors, and backgrounds. If your site or page is uniformly exciting, is it confusing? Do you need to help the viewer to focus on what you believe is most important? If the background is too lively, do you really want the viewer to get hung up on the wallpaper and not read the content? Always, the answer is "maybe", but (in truth) not usually!

We'll play with hierarchy of type on Wednesday...

Keep your software up to date

If the software you own has an "automatic update" feature, make sure that's turned on. 

You will find that having the latest version of as many browsers as you can manage, as well as the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, Flash Player, and so forth, will make your job as a web designer much easier. All these programs are free, so there's no economic argument against having them.

Although it is (of course!) possible to test browser compatibility right inside Dreamweaver, SEEING what your work looks like in different browsers is priceless. It can be very disheartening for a client or associate to tell you that your site breaks on their browser.

I run Chrome (a Google browser) most of the time, and also use FireFox, Internet Explorer, Safari (also available for Windows!), and Opera. If you know which browser your clients use, you NEED to test in that browser.

Often, programs like Adobe Acrobat Reader develop innovative ways of working...the latest version of Acrobat Reader uses a 'portfolio' concept, where many .pdf files are cataloged under a group name. That is the technique they have used on the Adobe Certification files. When you download one of the Adobe files from the class page on my website, you may get the message that you need to upgrade. Don't mess around: do it NOW! You'll be glad you did.

If you are creating sites that will have a general audience, you will discover that W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) keeps track of browser usage....that is, they can tell you the trend in who is using what browser. For instance, what percentage of IE6 users have moved to IE7. Of course, they are not actually tracking individual users, but the trends are good to notice. You will want to make SURE your sites and pages work in Internet Explorer and Firefox, at the very least.

For my personal use, I like the Chrome browser, as it is very fast and has some nice features. Because it is a Google product, it IS a search engine, and does not need a secondary search toolbar. Plus (if you are old enough to remember...) the Chrome logo looks like Simon.

Come On In! This is OUR space...

I hope the challenges of the first class were minimal and the potential great for the rest of the course!

Don't forget to do a little "website analyzing." This is a skill that you will want to develop and incorporate into your best practices surrounding your website work. We'll have a quick chat on Wednesday about what you found.

Next class, we will begin with a continuation of our Grand Tour of Dreamweaver CS4 and then work with text. You will want to read up on chapters 1, 2, and 3. 

Remember that when you read, you are not trying to memorize HOW to do things, just to become familiar with WHAT CAN BE DONE. Physically DOING it in Dreamweaver is more important. Henry Ford once said that he didn't need to know everything about making cars, just how to find the people who did. Or something like that.