User manual MACROMEDIA DREAMWEAVER 8 - GETTING STARTED WITH DREAMWEAVER

Getting Started with Dreamweaver Trademarks 1 Step RoboPDF, ActiveEdit, ActiveTest, Authorware, Blue Sky Software, Blue Sky, Breeze, Breezo, Captivate, Central, ColdFusion, Contribute, Database Explorer, Director, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, FlashCast, FlashHelp, Flash Lite, FlashPaper, Flex, Flex Builder, Fontographer, FreeHand, Generator, HomeSite, JRun, MacRecorder, Macromedia, MXML, RoboEngine, RoboHelp, RoboInfo, RoboPDF, Roundtrip, Roundtrip HTML, Shockwave, SoundEdit, Studio MX, UltraDev, and WebHelp are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. and may be registered in the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally. Other product names, logos, designs, titles, words, or phrases mentioned within this publication may be trademarks, service marks, or trade names of Macromedia, Inc. or other entities and may be registered in certain jurisdictions including internationally. 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Notwithstanding the foregoing, the owner or authorized user of a valid copy of the software with which this manual was provided may print out one copy of this manual from an electronic version of this manual for the sole purpose of such owner or authorized user learning to use such software, provided that no part of this manual may be printed out, reproduced, distributed, resold, or transmitted for any other purposes, including, without limitation, commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this documentation or providing paid-for support services. Part Number ZDW80M100 Acknowledgments Management: Charles Nadeau Writing: Jon Michael Varese Editing: Rosana Francescato, Lisa Stanziano, Evelyn Eldridge, Mark Nigara Production and Editing Management: Patrice O'Neill and Rosana Francescato Media Design and Production: Adam Barnett, Aaron Begley, Paul Benkman, John Francis, Geeta Karmarkar, Paul Rangel, Arena Reed, Mario Reynoso Localization Management: Melissa Baerwald Special thanks to Sheila McGinn, Jennifer Rowe, Jay Armstrong, Sally Sadosky, Jennifer Taylor, Paul Gubbay, Melissa Baerwald, Masayo Noda, Kristin Conradi, Yuko Yagi, and the entire Dreamweaver engineering and QA teams. First Edition: September 2005 Macromedia, Inc. 601 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94103 Contents PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO DREAMWEAVER Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 What you can do with Dreamweaver 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 What's new in Dreamweaver 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Installing Dreamweaver 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Registering Dreamweaver 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Typographical conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Chapter 1: Learning Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Where to start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Getting the most from the Dreamweaver documentation . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Using the Dreamweaver help system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Chapter 2: Dreamweaver Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Getting to know the Dreamweaver 8 workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Customizing the Dreamweaver 8 workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Accomplishing basic tasks in Dreamweaver 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 PART 2: TUTORIALS Chapter 3: Tutorial: Setting Up Your Site and Project Files . . . 49 Learn about Dreamweaver sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Set up your project files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Define a local folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Chapter 4: Tutorial: Creating a Table-based Page Layout . . . . 55 Examine the design comp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Create and save a new page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Insert tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Set table properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Insert an image placeholder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 Add color to the page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3 Chapter 5: Tutorial: Adding Content to Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Locate your files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Review your task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Insert images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Insert and play a Flash file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Insert Flash Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Insert text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Create links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Preview your page in a browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Chapter 6: Tutorial: Formatting Your Page with CSS . . . . . . . . .99 Locate your files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Review your task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 Learn about CSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Create a new style sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Attach a style sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Explore the CSS Styles panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Create a new CSS rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Apply a class style to text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 Format the navigation bar text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114 (Optional) Center the contents of the page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Chapter 7: Tutorial: Publishing Your Site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Learn about remote sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Define a remote folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Upload your local files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Troubleshoot the remote folder setup (optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 PART 3: ADVANCED TUTORIALS Chapter 8: Tutorial: Working with Code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Look at the code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Switch to the coding workspace (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Add a tag with the Tag Chooser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Edit a tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Look up information about a tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Add an image with code hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Check your changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 Print your code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 4 Contents Chapter 9: Tutorial: Creating a CSS-based Page Layout . . . . . 153 Learn about CSS-based page layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153 Examine the design comp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154 Create and save a new page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156 Insert layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Add color to the page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Chapter 10: Tutorial: Displaying XML Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Locate your files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Review your task. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Learn about using XML and XSL with web pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Learn about XSLT pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Convert an HTML page to an XSLT page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Attach an XML data source to the XSLT page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180 Alter the XSLT page layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Bind XML data to the XSLT page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183 Apply styles to the XML data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185 Create a dynamic link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186 Add a Repeat Region XSLT object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Attach the XSLT page to the XML page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Learn about other deployment options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .194 Chapter 11: Tutorial: Developing a Web Application . . . . . . . . . . 197 Before you begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198 Review your task. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198 Open a document to work in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 Define a recordset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201 Display the database records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Add dynamic fields to the table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Set a repeated region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 View your page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Create a record insert form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Copy files to the server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214 Contents 5 PART 4: APPENDICES Appendix A: Understanding Web Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 About web applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 How a web application works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Authoring dynamic pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .224 Choosing a server technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226 Web application terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Appendix B: Installing a Web Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Installing Internet Information Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232 Testing IIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233 Testing the Macintosh web server (PHP developers) . . . . . . . . . . . . .233 Web server basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .234 Appendix C: Setup for Sample ColdFusion Site . . . . . . . . . . . . .237 Setup checklists for ColdFusion developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Configuring your system (ColdFusion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238 Defining a Dreamweaver site (ColdFusion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Connecting to the sample database (ColdFusion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Appendix D: Setup for Sample ASP.NET Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Setup checklists for ASP.NET developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .255 Configuring your system (ASP.NET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .256 Defining a Dreamweaver site (ASP.NET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Connecting to the sample database (ASP.NET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265 Appendix E: Setup for Sample ASP Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Setup checklists for ASP developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269 Configuring your system (ASP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .270 Defining a Dreamweaver site (ASP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Connecting to the sample database (ASP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Appendix F: Setup for Sample JSP Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Setup checklists for JSP developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .285 Configuring your system (JSP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .286 Defining a Dreamweaver site (JSP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Connecting to the sample database (JSP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 6 Contents Appendix G: Setup for Sample PHP Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 Setup checklists for PHP developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Configuring your system (PHP). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Defining a Dreamweaver site (PHP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 Connecting to the sample database (PHP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .315 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Contents 7 8 Contents PART 1 Introduction to Dreamweaver Part One of this book introduces you to Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, and includes installation information and a workspace overview. It also provides a list of available resources for learning Dreamweaver. This part contains the following sections: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Learning Dreamweaver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Dreamweaver Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 1 9 Introduction Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 is a professional HTML editor for designing, coding, and developing websites, web pages, and web applications. Whether you enjoy the control of hand-coding HTML, or prefer to work in a visual editing environment, Dreamweaver provides you with helpful tools to enhance your web creation experience. This guide introduces you to using Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 if you're unfamiliar with any major aspect of it.The tutorials in this guide lead you through the process of creating a simple but functional website. This chapter covers the following topics: What you can do with Dreamweaver 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 What's new in Dreamweaver 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Installing Dreamweaver 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Registering Dreamweaver 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Typographical conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 What you can do with Dreamweaver 8 The visual editing features in Dreamweaver let you quickly create web pages without writing a line of code. You can view all your site elements or assets and drag them from an easy-to-use panel directly into a document. You can streamline your development workflow by creating and editing images in Macromedia Fireworks or another graphics application, and then import them directly into Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver also provides tools that make it easy to add Flash assets to web pages. 11 In addition to drag-and-drop features that help you build web pages, Dreamweaver provides a full-featured coding environment that includes code-editing tools (such as code coloring, tag completion, a coding toolbar, and code collapse) and language reference material on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), and other languages. Macromedia Roundtrip HTML technology imports your hand-coded HTML documents without reformatting the code; you can then reformat code with your preferred formatting style. Dreamweaver also lets you build dynamic, database-driven web applications using server technologies such as CFML, ASP.NET, ASP, JSP, and PHP. If your preference is for working with XML data, Dreamweaver provides tools that let you easily create XSLT pages, attach XML files, and display XML data on your web pages. Dreamweaver is fully customizable. You can create your own objects and commands, modify keyboard shortcuts, and even write JavaScript code to extend Dreamweaver capabilities with new behaviors, Property inspectors, and site reports. For more information on the resources available for learning Dreamweaver, see Chapter 1, "Learning Dreamweaver," on page 15. What's new in Dreamweaver 8 Dreamweaver 8 includes many new features that help you build websites and applications with a minimal amount of time and effort. Dreamweaver makes complex technologies simple and accessible, helping you accomplish more in less time. Following are a few of the key new features in Dreamweaver 8: Zoom tool and guides Visual XML data binding New CSS Styles panel CSS layout visualization Code collapse Coding toolbar Background file transfer Insert Flash Video command 12 Introduction For a complete list and description of new features in Dreamweaver 8, see "What's new in Dreamweaver 8" in Using Dreamweaver (Help > Using Dreamweaver). Installing Dreamweaver 8 This section explains how to install Dreamweaver. Be sure to read the release notes on the Macromedia website at www.macromedia.com/go/dw_documentation for late-breaking information or instructions. To install Dreamweaver: 1. 2. Insert the Dreamweaver CD into your computer's CD-ROM drive. Do one of the following: In Windows, the Dreamweaver installation program starts automatically. In Macintosh, double-click the Dreamweaver installer icon that appears on the desktop. 3. Follow the onscreen instructions. The installation program prompts you to enter the required information. 4. If prompted to do so, restart your computer. Registering Dreamweaver 8 To get additional Macromedia support, it's a good idea to register your copy of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 electronically or by mail. When you register, you can sign up to receive up-to-the-minute notices about upgrades and new Macromedia products. You can also sign up for timely e-mail notices about product updates and new content appearing on both the www.macromedia.com and the www-euro.macromedia.com websites. Registering Dreamweaver 8 13 To register Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, do one of the following: Select Help > Online Registration and fill out the electronic form. Select Help > Print Registration, print the form, and mail it to the address shown on the form. Typographical conventions The following typographical conventions are used in this guide: Menu items are shown in this format: menu name > menu item name. Items in submenus are shown in this format: menu name > submenu name > menu item name. Code font indicates HTML tag and attribute names as well as literal text used in examples. Italic code font indicates replaceable items (sometimes called metasymbols) in code. Bold roman text indicates text that you enter verbatim. 14 Introduction CHAPTER 1 Learning Dreamweaver Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 includes a variety of resources to help you learn the program quickly and become proficient in creating your own web pages. All of the Dreamweaver documentation is available in both electronic help and PDF format. This chapter contains the following topics: Where to start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Getting the most from the Dreamweaver documentation. . . . . . . 19 Using the Dreamweaver help system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 1 Where to start The Dreamweaver documentation includes information for readers from a variety of backgrounds. This section helps you understand how to approach the documentation, depending on what your background is, and what you want to accomplish with Dreamweaver. This section covers the following topics: "Web-design novices" on page 15 "Experienced web designers" on page 16 "Experienced hand-coders" on page 18 "Web application developers" on page 18 Web-design novices If you are relatively new to web design, this section will point you to sections of the Dreamweaver documentation that are most appropriate for your background. 15 For web-design novices: 1. Begin by reading Chapter 2, "Dreamweaver Basics," on page 27. Then continue by doing the tutorials in this book. The tutorials are divided into two sections. The first five tutorials are for beginners, and take you through the process of developing a small but functional website from start to finish. The second section of tutorials introduces you to more advanced concepts. You might want to wait to do the more advanced tutorials until you've developed some experience building web pages. In Using Dreamweaver (Help > Using Dreamweaver), you get a more comprehensive idea of what you learned in this Getting Started with Dreamweaver guide by reading Chapter 1, "Exploring the Workspace," Chapter 2, "Setting Up a Dreamweaver Site," Chapter 3, "Creating and Opening Documents" and Chapter 4, "Managing Your Files,". Learn about page layout by reading Chapter 7, "Laying Out Pages with CSS," and Chapter 8, "Presenting Content with Tables" in Using Dreamweaver. To learn about formatting text and including images in your pages, read Chapter 13, "Inserting and Formatting Text," and Chapter 14, "Inserting Images" in Using Dreamweaver. That's all you really need to begin producing high-quality websites, but when you're ready to learn how to use more advanced tools, you can proceed through the rest of the static-page chapters in Using Dreamweaver. You might want to wait to read the dynamic-page chapters until you're more familiar with creating web pages. 2. 3. 4. 5. Experienced web designers If you are an experienced web designer, this section will point you to sections of the Dreamweaver documentation that are most appropriate for your background. There are two different approaches: one for designers who are new to Dreamweaver and one for designers who are familiar with Dreamweaver but would like to learn more about creating dynamic pages. 16 Learning Dreamweaver For experienced web designers who are new to Dreamweaver: 1. 2. Begin by reading the tutorials in this Getting Started with Dreamweaver guide. In Using Dreamweaver (Help > Using Dreamweaver), read Chapter 1, "Exploring the Workspace" to learn more about the Dreamweaver user interface. Although much of the material in Chapter 2, "Setting Up a Dreamweaver Site" and Chapter 4, "Managing Your Files" is probably familiar to you, skim those chapters to see how these familiar concepts are implemented in Dreamweaver. Pay particular attention to the sections about setting up a Dreamweaver site. For useful information on the details of using Dreamweaver to create basic HTML pages, read Chapter 13, "Inserting and Formatting Text" and Chapter 14, "Inserting Images". For information about coding in Dreamweaver, see Chapter 19, "Setting Up Your Coding Environment," Chapter 20, "Coding in Dreamweaver," Chapter 21, "Optimizing and Debugging Your Code," and Chapter 22, "Editing Code in Design View". Read the overview at the beginning of each of the other chapters in Using Dreamweaver to determine whether its topics are of interest to you. 3. 4. 5. 6. For experienced web designers, familiar with Dreamweaver, who want to learn about creating dynamic pages: 1. Begin by reading Appendix A, "Understanding Web Applications," on page 217 and Chapter 11, "Tutorial: Developing a Web Application," on page 197. In Using Dreamweaver (Help > Using Dreamweaver), skim Chapter 1, "Exploring the Workspace" to learn about new aspects of the Dreamweaver user interface, and then read Chapter 30, "Optimizing the Workspace for Visual Development". Become familiar with the Dreamweaver workflow for dynamic pages by reading Chapter 31, "The Workflow for Dynamic Page Design". Set up a web server and application server. (See Chapter 23, "Setting Up a Web Application".) 2. 3. 4. Where to start 17 5. 6. Connect to a database. (See "Connecting to a database" in Chapter 23, "Setting Up a Web Application".) Read the overview at the beginning of each chapter in Using Dreamweaver to determine whether its topics are of interest to you. Experienced hand-coders If you are an experienced hand-coder, this section will point you to sections of the Dreamweaver documentation that are most appropriate for your background. For experienced hand-coders: 1. 2. Begin by reading Chapter 8, "Tutorial: Working with Code" in this Getting Started with Dreamweaver guide. In Using Dreamweaver (Help > Using Dreamweaver), read Chapter 1, "Exploring the Workspace" to learn more about the Dreamweaver user interface. Although much of the material in Chapter 2, "Setting Up a Dreamweaver Site" and Chapter 4, "Managing Your Files" is probably familiar to you, skim those chapters to see how these familiar concepts are implemented in Dreamweaver. Pay particular attention to the sections on setting up a Dreamweaver site. Read more about coding with Dreamweaver in Chapter 19, "Setting Up Your Coding Environment," Chapter 20, "Coding in Dreamweaver," Chapter 21, "Optimizing and Debugging Your Code," and Chapter 22, "Editing Code in Design View". Read the overview at the beginning of each chapter in Using Dreamweaver to determine whether its topics are of interest to you. 3. 4. 5. Web application developers If you are a web application developer, this section will point you to sections of the Dreamweaver documentation that are most appropriate for your background. There are two different approaches, depending on whether you've used Dreamweaver before. 18 Learning Dreamweaver For web application developers who have not used Dreamweaver: 1. 2. Begin by quickly reading this Getting Started with Dreamweaver guide to familiarize yourself with the basics of using Dreamweaver. In Using Dreamweaver (Help > Using Dreamweaver), read Chapter 1, "Exploring the Workspace" to learn more about the Dreamweaver user interface. Although much of the material in Chapter 2, "Setting Up a Dreamweaver Site" and Chapter 4, "Managing Your Files" is probably familiar to you, skim those chapters to see how these familiar concepts are implemented in Dreamweaver. Pay particular attention to the sections on setting up a Dreamweaver site. Set up a web server and application server using Dreamweaver. (See Chapter 23, "Setting Up a Web Application".) Connect to a database. (See "Connecting to a database" in Chapter 23, "Setting Up a Web Application".) Read the overview at the beginning of each of the chapter in Using Dreamweaver to determine whether its topics are of interest to you. 3. 4. 5. 6. For experienced web application developers who have used Dreamweaver: 1. Begin by reading "What's new in Dreamweaver 8" in Using Dreamweaver (Help > Using Dreamweaver). The "What's new" section is in "Introduction". Skim Chapter 1, "Exploring the Workspace" to learn about new aspects of the Dreamweaver user interface. 2. Getting the most from the Dreamweaver documentation Dreamweaver includes a variety of media to help you learn the program quickly and become proficient in creating web pages. The Dreamweaver help system includes several documents that help you learn about Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver Extensibility, and ColdFusion. You can also consult a number of additional online resources as you learn how to build web pages. Getting the most from the Dreamweaver documentation 19 Accessing the Dreamweaver documentation The following table summarizes the documentation included in the Dreamweaver help system. You can purchase printed versions of select titles. For more information, see www.macromedia.com/go/buy_books. Title Description/ Audience Where to Find It Getting Started Basic introduction · View in Dreamweaver: Select Help > Getting Started with with Dreamweaver to Dreamweaver Dreamweaver concepts and the · View online: http:// interface, with livedocs.macromedia.com/go/ detailed beginner livedocs_dreamweaver/ tutorials. Intended · Get the PDF: for beginning www.macromedia.com/go/ users, as well as dw_documentation intermediate and advanced users who want to learn about new features. Using Dreamweaver · View in Dreamweaver: Select Comprehensive Help > Dreamweaver Help, or information about Help > Using Dreamweaver all Dreamweaver features. Intended · View online: http:// livedocs.macromedia.com/go/ for all livedocs_dreamweaver/ Dreamweaver · Get the PDF: users. www.macromedia.com/go/ dw_documentation 20 Learning Dreamweaver