Week 15 - Dreamweaver

9th Jan
Since learning HTML hard coding, we have now moved onto Adobe Dreamweaver. Again this is a programme I have experience in from GCSE ICT, so I was aware of the basic concepts, such as having an index, root folders, pick whips etc.

I felt confident going through the basics of Site management, especially as at the moment we aren't making any websites that we will post on the web, so I don't need to mess around with server settings. Pages are quick and easy to create and adding new ones also not a problem. I also didn't have any trouble linking them up using things like the pick whip to create interlinked pages.

We also used the Page properties menu. This is not something I remember using all that much in previous Dreamweaver Sessions so I learnt a few new things. Mostly, this menu involves picking hexadecimal values and setting font groups etc.. I struggled slightly when choosing properties for hyperlinks. These were colour settings for up, down and rollover states but things often seemed to happen in reverse or not at all. It might have just been temperamental or i was missing something important.

Lastly we dealt with Flash buttons. This is really a simple way to make block colour rollovers with interesting fonts (as they are saved as images not text which means any computer can process them). I felt confident with this, as it only takes one menu to complete and makes a simple yet effective tool on your website.

13th JanWe moved onto more complex formatting, presentational techniques today, looking at different types of layouts to use, namely AP Div Tags and Tables.

I felt confident in using Tables, as I had used these before at GCSE level I knew lots about these. What I found new and intresting now is with my new confidence in coding, I could change things like colour of borders and backgrounds and the Cell Pad and Space. This showed the importance of looking at the CSS to change things and trouble shoot. I've made many table layouts in the past so feel confident

AP Div tags were a completely new idea to me, so while I knew they existed, I had no idea what they were for and what their purpose is. I like the way they work like Photoshop layers, and the idea you can create a lot of content and place it freely was interesting to me. Also by preventing overlaps you can place different tags next to each other and form up a table without the restrictions of cell sizes etc.