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.