Adobe Dreamweaver makes building server-side pages a breeze. It makes it possible for web developers to choose any one of five scripting languages: ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, JSP and ColdFusion. Although Dreamweaver does a great job of saving developers time by generating code which will add useful server-side functionality to pages, if you plan to develop an ASP.NET site, Dreamweaver may not be the best choice of development platform.
In 2007, Microsoft decided to release free “Express” editions of various elements within their industry-standard Visual Studio software. One of these free packages, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, is tailor-made for developing ASP.NET sites driven by SQL Server data sources. So, although Dreamweaver is great at what it does, the benefits of using the free Microsoft solution far outweigh anything offered by Dreamweaver.
First of all, the latest version of Dreamweaver CS4 has abandoned support for ASP.NET completely. Secondly, in previous versions, only ASP.NET 1.1 server controls were supported. So, by using Dreamweaver, you will be missing out on all of the functionality which was introduced first with ASP.NET 2.0 and then ASP.NET 3.5. One key feature which almost every ASP.NET website can benefit from is the use of master pages which was introduced with ASP.NET 2.0. Dreamweaver also contains a feature called master pages but it is not nearly as powerful as the implementation of master pages in ASP.NET.
In Dreamweaver, it is possible to create a template which contains the entire layout of the page and consists of locked and editable regions. When the template is applied to a page, only the editable regions of the page can be edited. Typically, locked regions will contain elements which are common to all pages in the site or to all pages in one section of a site, things such as logos, banners and navigation links. The editable region(s) will contain the main content of each page.
Each time a change is made to a Dreamweaver template, the user is offered the option of updating all pages based on that template. This makes the template feature a very powerful tool for updating a website and maintaining consistency across multiple pages.
ASP.NET equivalent to Dreamweaver templates is master pages, with the master page containing fixed regions and content placeholders. There is one key difference, however. In Dreamweaver, all of the markup in the master page is copied into each page based on the template with each update and each updated page must then be uploaded to the server. In ASP.NET, the pages based on the master (the content pages) contain a link to the master but do not repeat the markup found on the master. The ASP.NET engine generates the necessary markup at runtime. This means that to update the common elements of an ASP.NET site, you only need to update the master page(s). There is non need to update the content pages based on the master(s).
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Adobe’s Dreamweaver CS4 is one of those programs which everybody seems to want to learn. Basic tutorials can be found on the web for free for Dreamweaver training. These tutorials are free until you reach the more in depth area such as site control. When reaching the more advanced sections, a subscription to the website and a fee maybe required. Closed captioning is offered for the videos. Exercise files maybe available for download.
Tutorials are available for free on certain website for Dreamweaver training. The basic tutorials are free. Once you finish with the basics, more specialized tutorials follow. To be able to view the videos or use the training for the specialized sections, you have to subscribe to the website where it is offered. Also required at this point is a fee. Videos can be viewed normally or with closed captioning and exercise files are available for download.
The next lesson is for the user interface of Dreamweaver. Setting up your workspace is the first topic. As with any other program there is a welcome screen that appears. This areas goes into greater detail on differences in the interface between Windows and Mac. Next is the description and usage for the insert bar, property inspector, document toolbar and window, panels and panel groups, saving the layouts and defining a default browser.
Within the section of Site control file and folder management is discussed. Understanding the path structure, developing a sitemap and how to add to your site is the goal.
Folder management, path structures and understanding them, adding to your site and creating a sitemap are taught in the Site control section.
To learn the basics of creating links, look for the section titled Linking. In this section you will be taught how to create with point to file, external and email links, named anchors, linking to files and image maps.
The section titled CSS essentials introduces the user to CSS. This is where you will find CSS style sheet anatomy, page properties, moving internal sheets to external file sheets, what a selector is and what is does and style panels.
Layout instructions and tutorial are available. The layout area discusses and explains layout tools, tracing images, adding AP div tags along with working with tables in layout.
A tutorial for tracing images, layout tools, inserting AP div tags and dealing with tables in a layout is available.
There are at least 10 more areas covered in the tutorial the ones mentioned here are only the beginning. The benefit is that the tutorials provide enough information that a beginner can follow it from the basics to the actual publishing. Dreamweaver tutorials are pricey and can take some time to work through.
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