Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a W3C standard mark-up language for defining the appearance of web pages. The use of CSS allows developers to fully separate the content of the page from its presentation, speeding up the development process and also making the pages load more quickly in the browser. Whereas 20th century websites typically used tables to construct web pages and position elements, CSS now provides a cleaner and more efficient way of controlling all aspects of web page layout.

The range of computer users who have some involvement in building web pages and web sites is vast and a good many of these users choose Dreamweaver as the software tool that helps them create the web content they need without needing to become an expert on underlying technologies such as CSS. Dreamweaver CS3 includes better support for Cascading Style Sheets than previous versions. However, there is still room for improvement.

One of the most noticeable changes in this the latest version of Dreamweaver is that users are now positively encouraged to create web pages using CSS for page layout rather than tables. Each time a new web page or template is created, Dreamweaver offers you a choice of basing the page on one of about thirty preset CSS layouts with names like “3 Column Elastic” and “3 Column Fixed”. Read the rest of this entry »

JavaScript is a simple, client-side scripting language which enables you to add exciting and interesting functionality to your HTML pages. It is built in to most web browsers and, although it can be deactivated, most people will have it enabled within their browser. JavaScript’s uses includes the validation of entries within an HTML form and the detection of browser versions and presence or absence of plug-ins. Dreamweaver’s implementation of JavaScript centres on the use of what it calls “behaviors”.

Behaviors are editable Dreamweaver resources which generate one or more JavaScript functions. Each behavior needs to be associated with an element on your web page. After highlighting the element, you click on the Window menu and choose Behaviors. In the top left of the Behaviors window, you then click on the Add Behavior button an icon which looks like a plus sign ( ). Choose on of the available behaviors to associate it with the highlighted element.

Dreamweaver attempts to guess the event that you would like to trigger the behavior such as an onMouseOver, onClick or OnDoubleClick. If it guesses the wrong event, simply choose the correct event from the drop-down menu next to the name of the event. Read the rest of this entry »

Adobe Dreamweaver is a multi-purpose web development tool aimed at inexperienced and experienced users alike. It uses standards-compliant web technologies such as XHTML and CSS. Web content can be imported into the Dreamweaver at any time without the danger of the program modifying your code. In the same way, pages created in Dreamweaver can be exported from the Dreamweaver environment and used elsewhere.

The program does not rely on custom solutions which will only work in the Dreamweaver environment. Although Dreamweaver is not necessarily the best solution for creating all types of website, it is not an environment which one easily outgrows. It is suitable for creating both basic static content consisting of client side pages as well as more sophisticated dynamic content which includes server side pages. In other words, it is suitable for developing the content found on the majority of websites. So, let’s examine this content in more detail.

Most web sites are hosted on web servers owned by specialist hosting companies. A large website will have a dedicated server or even servers, whereas most typical websites will share space on a server with other sites. Visitors to a website are called clients. Read the rest of this entry »