Phil Tobias wrote: > On Oct 20, 2007, at 11:39 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> is Dreamweaver acceptable or am I better off (as a beginner) going >> down >> a different route ? and finally, the most asked question in the >> world ... what resource to use to learn ? > > Dreamweaver is a fine authoring environment. It lets you bounce back > and forth between visual authoring and pure code view as you like. It > also does a great job managing all the pages, files, and links > throughout a site.
Dreamweaver, like other GUI web development environments, lies to you about how your page looks - visitors don't browse the web with Dreamweaver. Also, you will eventually find yourself in a situation where there's a problem in your site that you can't fix in the GUI mode, so you switch to code view ... at which point, you need to know CSS and HTML just as well as if you never used a GUI environment. So I'd say - forget the GUI development environment and just work with a good code development environment from the first! > If you're comfortable in Photoshop, it too is a fine medium for > mocking up the look of pages, so you have something to show to > clients. You can then output the graphics for use with your CSS designs. Using tools like Photoshop (and Dreamweaver) encourages the (often unconscious) thought process that *this is how your visitors will see your site.* This is another lie. If you really want to use a GUI tool for a mockup, use your preferred presentation software package. They all let you set up links, so you can at least take clients through the flow of the site. > To learn, you might start by deconstructing some of the CSS layouts > provided with the current version of Dreamweaver. Experiment by > changing the various styles and settings. No, grab one of the layouts from Layout Gala. Or grab the layout from a site you like. > A good book or two would > also help you get started. This group's wiki may have some good > recommendations. Not to mention the books by our illustrious list owner, Eric Meyer! -- David [EMAIL PROTECTED] authenticity, honesty, community ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
