Would you like to learn to use Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 to design, create, and maintain user-friendly Web sites that are full of professional-quality Web pages? If so, then this is the class for you! You won't need any prior Web design skills or knowledge of code. We'll start at the beginning, and through engaging lessons and hands-on exercises, we'll build a sample site from the ground up.

In the process, we'll explore the program's interface and how to set up Dreamweaver for building as many sites as you like with a minimum of effort and repeated tasks. You'll find out how to insert and format text, work with image files, and see exactly how hyperlinks work. We'll also take a short tour of Dreamweaver's Flash tools, work with tabular data, and get a handle on frames—getting clear on when to use them and when not to.

As we build a site together, you'll master the basics of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and even pick up a little HTML. By the end of the course, you'll be well-prepared to learn more about HTML or CSS if you want to take your skills to the next level. So get ready for a great adventure that will show you just how simple and fun Web design can be!

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Syllabus:

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

Perhaps Adobe Dreamweaver's greatest strengths are its powerful tools and its clean, simple interface. Our first lesson is all about introducing you to that interface. Not only will you learn the primary interface elements, you'll also find out how to preview your work in multiple Web browsers—because rigorous testing is the key to a successful Web site. By testing and adapting your site documents across multiple browsers, you'll ensure that every site visitor, regardless of their browser, has a positive user experience.

Friday - Lesson 02

Dreamweaver is a site creation and management tool, not just some glorified HTML editor. While you're building a site, Dreamweaver has the ability to track each color you assign, every image and multimedia file you insert, every Web address you reference, as well as every step you take while working on a specific document. Dreamweaver then keeps all this information right at your fingertips to use again and again. In today's lesson, you'll learn the steps you need to take to put these features to work for you.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

The two most important aspects of any Web site are what it says and how it looks. In this lesson on structuring text, you'll learn how to group blocks of text into elements like headings, paragraphs, and lists. In certain respects, structuring text with Dreamweaver is very similar to working in your word processor. It's important to understand, however, that Dreamweaver is not a word processor. And perhaps more importantly, word processing and Web design are totally different worlds. This lesson also includes an introduction to HTML, HyperText Markup Language.

Friday - Lesson 04

HTML defines the structure of a Web page. When HTML was first created, nobody thought the Web would become what it is today. HTML was simply meant to be a fast and easy way for folks to format simple documents (black text on a white page). Web design wasn't even a thought. Today you'll get a short introduction to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and gain an understanding of how to implement CSS using Dreamweaver. We'll explore the basics behind how CSS works and how to use it to format, or style, your page text.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

Believe it or not, the very early Web browsers couldn't display images, and it's doubtful the Web would have become so popular if that were still true today. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use Dreamweaver to insert and format images within your documents. Even though Dreamweaver isn't a true image-editing application, it does offer some very impressive editing tools, and we'll explore these features today as well.

Friday - Lesson 06

There's a reason we call it the Web. The metaphor perfectly describes hypertext's functionality. One document links to many others, which in turn link to many others that potentially link back to where you started. The functional aspect of hypertext—the hyperlink—is what makes it all possible. Today we'll examine pathnames (the heart of all hyperlinks), giving you a better understanding of the file structure of your Web site and how links function. You'll see how to create named anchor links and e-mail links, and how to use Dreamweaver's impressive link management tools.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Find out how to insert and format standard tables. Tables are used to do display data—columns and rows of information with headings and borderlines, just like the typical spreadsheet. In the dark ages of pre-WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editors, digging through the long and complex code required to render a table on screen was mind-bending at best. With a tool like Dreamweaver, table editing becomes a snap. And in this lesson, you'll see just how true that statement is.

Friday - Lesson 08

Today you'll learn how to build frames-based layouts. Frames are much-maligned by Web design pundits, but this frustration has little to do with any actual weakness on the part of frames. It has more to do with the fact that doing frames correctly is very much like preparing fine cuisine—if you don't pay attention to details, the end result will be awful! Luckily, Dreamweaver allows you to build a frames-based layout visually. Working with frames demands that you change your traditional view of building site pages, and in this lesson, I'll show you a new approach.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the core of Web design. 'In this lesson we'll examine some Web design principles and explore page layout using CSS. We'll also get acquainted with Dreamweaver's exceptional CSS tools that do the coding for us.

Friday - Lesson 10

Today's lesson is all about reusability, and in Dreamweaver, that means the Assets and History panels. You'll learn how to use the Assets panel to quickly access elements and get them into new pages so you don't have to go hunting through your site for previously used content. When we explore the History panel, you'll learn how to undo anything you wish you hadn't done, as well as redo anything you want so you can repeat formatting procedures throughout your site.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

In the life cycle of a Web site, the design and development period is the most fun. Unfortunately, it's also the shortest. In the long run, you'll spend much more time managing and maintaining your site. Dreamweaver's creators appreciate this reality of the Webmaster's work schedule and put as much thought and effort into Dreamweaver's site management and maintenance tools as they put into its development tools. In this lesson, you'll see how to use Dreamweaver's site management tools to define your remote site in order to upload and retrieve files from the Web server. You'll also learn about Dreamweaver's Check-In and Check-Out feature, which lets workgroups develop sites together without overwriting content. And, finally, you'll discover how to attach design notes so fellow workers can communicate across conflicting work schedules.

Friday - Lesson 12

By now you have an introductory knowledge of Dreamweaver, which means you know just enough to be dangerous. We'll spend our last lesson together going over site planning. You'll learn the five basic questions that you'll need to answer before starting any Web site project. We'll discuss where and how to gather your site content (text, graphics, and other media), as well as different strategies for organizing that content once you have it. By the time you finish this lesson, no matter what type of Web site you need to build you'll know exactly how to plan for its success!

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Robert Fuller.

Robert Fuller is a veteran Web developer, educator, and author. His corporate experience extends from Silicon Alley to Silicon Valley, where he has held almost every post from intern to senior developer. He has logged tens of thousands of classroom hours, teaching online and at the collegiate and corporate levels. Robert has had the good fortune of being published throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. His titles include: "Dreamweaver Virtual Classroom" and "HTML Virtual Classroom" for McGraw-Hill/Osborne, and "The Photoshop Bible" (standard and professional editions for both CS2 and CS3) and "HTML in 10 Simple Steps or Less" for John Wiley & Sons.

Requirements:

Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 (software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins); Windows Vista / XP; Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger; Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).

Student Reviews:

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