Ten Ton Dreamweaver [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Not organizing your site content into a single folder but instead leaving files scattered all over your hard drive will result in ultimate destruction of your site! When you go to upload your work, those scattered files will be missing, resulting in a site that will not function.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Web Design

Come children and bear witness to what web design decadence does to those whose fate lies in eternal design damnation. Some artsy or personal sites seek exemption from this fate, and so they are spared for these are sites wrought with creativity and not spoiled by the economic yearnings of man. (That was cool. Did you read that with a boomy Wizard of Oz voice? Read it again!)

Cardinal Sin #1: Solving Your Problems, Not Your Customer's

The absolute worst sin. Does your company have a marketing problem? Do you want to increase sales? A web site is not the solution. Many companies think that even just a single home page is enough, but that does nothing to help your customers fix their problems. To be frank (and it may be hard to hear), customers don't care about your companythey care about fixing their problems. The truth may hurt, so let's hug. Then go build a site to help your customers, not yourself.

Cardinal Sin #2: Thinking Like You Do, Not Like Your Audience Does

It may make perfect sense to you, but make sure the rest of us get it, too. After all, we'll be using your site more than you. Many designers build sites and navigation systems that make sense to them, but make very little sense to everyone else. Remember that unless you're building a personal or artsy site, your site is not for you. It's for your audience. If nobody gets it, somebody else will get your visitors. Chew on that; then answer this nugget: What does your audience want, and why should they surf to your site to get it?

Cardinal Sin #3: Letting Technology (and Trends) Get in the Way

Visitors come to your site for a reason: to fix a problem or to find information they're interested in. Be conscious of what technology and trends you follow. Will they care if your site uses the latest CSS standards? Will your ability to code ActionScript in your sleep enable them to find what they're after? Quite possibly, only don't let it get in their way. Technology for technology's sake is what landed everyone in the meat grinder in Jurassic Park. A great example of this is Flash intros, which aren't as popular any more (thank god). Are Flash intros for the benefit of the designer or for the benefit of the visitor? Give 'em what they came for and get out of their way!

Cardinal Sin #4: Failing to Test

Test, test, and then test some more. Test on your machine. Test on a friend's machine. Pretend you're buying a new computer and test at the store. Test your links. Test your load time. Get your roommate to test. Get the guy at the gas station to test. Get grammy's Aunt Gertrude to test. Test on Macs. Test on PCs. Test in Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and any other browsers you can muster. Test on hi-res monitors. Test on low-res monitors. Have I drilled it in? Goodthen test the crud out of your site until it works as best as possible in every conceivable situation.

Cardinal Sin #5: Building a Bad Navigation System

Navigation should be an easy topic. It only has to answer three questions. Where am I right now? Where have I been? Where can I go to next? Always make sure that your navigation system is mindlessly simple, with logical button labels, and you'll make it really difficult for people to get lost. Also, provide at least three different navigation systemsa main menu, a site search engine, and a site map, for example.

Cardinal Sin #6: Believing Computers Design Good Sites

Computers don't design sitespeople do. Many graphic designers have a tough time charging the rates they do, because most people just don't get why they should pay for design. But there's an interesting correlation here. The larger the company, the more the company realizes the importance of good design. What percentage of Nike's revenues go into web development versus Floyd's Fish Farm's? For many, making something look good just isn't important. They think content rules over the presentation of that content. But bubblegum pop stars would argue the opposite: style over substance. Truth is, they're both critical, so make sure to balance that act!

Cardinal Sin #7: Using an Inconsistent Design Throughout the Site

You site should have one main look throughout. Obviously, splash pages and home pages will have their own designs, but all other pages should have the same consistent look and feel. Sites that change design and move common elements like logos and navigation buttons around on different pages are frustrating to surf. Keep it simple, and don't expect your visitor to have to learn how your site works. Stick with the standards and be consistent.

There's more than one default homepage name on today's web. Be sure to find out what the page naming convention is for your site's environment. Depending on the ISP, OS, or web server, your default home page might be called index.cfm, 83, default, or index.jsp, to name a few examples.

How to Ditch Work and Train for a Title Shot

Well, you're on your way to becoming a Dreamweaver heavyweight champion. But there's a nagging thorn that's keeping you away from a chance at the title: the daily grind of a job! So call in sick and play with Dreamweaver instead! Now wrestling the boss can be harder than cinching an arm bar on an alligator, but remember, whenever you're trying to pull one over on the boss, think smart. Your excuse for not making it in has to be believable (space aliens or chemical leaks won't cut it that stuff would be on the news). Further, the boss has caller ID, so you'll need to use your cell phone or a pay phone with the appropriate amount of background noise to make your call convincing.

So think things through and plan ahead before you start dialing. Here are a few excuses to help you get started. A successful pull-off means you'll have an entire day to spend with Dreamweaver rather than commuting to work and pretending you're a team player.

A Fiery Explanation: Say that you headed out nice and early this morning and were making great time until you began smelling smoke. Upon pulling over to investigate, your car burst into flames, leaving you stranded on the side of the highway. Nothing was salvaged, not even your Sammy Davis, Jr., bobble head, so you won't be making it in any time soon.

Power-Failure Forgiveness: Explain that early this morning, there was a power failure in your neighborhood, knocking out electricity for three square blocks. You'd love to get a jump on those TPS reports, but the manual release on your power-operated garage door is seized. Besides, no electricity means no coffee. Reminding the boss how grumpy you are without coffee will seal the deal.

Burnt Justification: Another commuter excuse. This time, as you set out to get a head start on traffic, some jerk with Jersey plates totally cut you off. In a tense moment of swerving and braking, you spilled your coffee into your lap, causing second-degree burns. The paramedics said the scarring shouldn't be too bad. Flowers and well wishes from the office staff would be greatly appreciated as you ride the road to recovery.

A Holy Excuse: Explain that last night just before bed, it happened againyou were stung with your stigmata. Although you're feeling okay now and you could come in, you don't feel that you'd be very productive. Typing would be hard, and your hands would be a major diversion for co-workers, sinking everyone's productivity. Rather than cause distraction in the office, you feel that the day would be better spent in spiritual reflection.

Just the Gist

Planning and Audience

The more you can determine upfront, the easier site construction will be.

Find out who your niche audience is, and you'll build a much better site.

Tailor your site to what your audience wants, not what you want.

Nav Models

Most site-navigation models can be categorized as linear, hierarchical, spoke-and-hub, or full-web models

Types of Sites

Most web sites can be categorized in seven ways: as commercial, information-based, entertainment, navigational, community, artistic, or personal sites

Design Conventions

The main menu should always appear across the top or down the left side.

Repeat the main menu as text links across the bottom of the page.

The site logo should appear on each page and link back to the start page.

Use back-to-top links on long pages.

Provide file sizes for documents that visitors will download.

Give visitors alternate clean versions of pages they may want to print.

Navigation

Give visitors at least two other ways to get around in your site.

Carefully plan what content you want on each page and how they'll connect

Design

Visual design is what visitors use to determine a site's worth.

Great content in a poorly designed site equals a bad site.

Build a template to consistently use throughout the site.

Build sites to fit the lowest common screen resolution.

Test your site in the most popular browsers.

Branding

A single page just so a company can say it's online does nothing to help customers.

For a company to be considered professional, a web site is a must.

File Structure

Save your site's files and folders in one main folder, called the site's root folder.

The address bar usually reveals how a site is structured.

Index Files

The first page in your site must use a standard default name

Browsers hunt for index files.

A site can have more than one index file, just not in the same folder.

Use index files to your advantage by using them to shorten common URLs.