How many days would it take a complete novice who uses a DVD tutorial to master Dreamweaver to the point where he could start building websites with relative ease? The student would use the DVD course 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, without fail. The student knows only the first few basic lessons of HTML, nothing more. With that kind of work schedule, and that kind of HTML experience, would it take the student 30, 60 or 90 days to master Dreamweaver? The student is aware of only two DVD tutorials, one put out by Lynda.com the other put out by TotalTraining (if there are any other good DVD tutorials out there let us know). Remember, the class schedule the student would adhere to would be rigid: eight hours a day, seven days a week and it might also include some Flash lessons (the student knows that Youtube videos are important for marketing and thus wants to learn Flash for that reason).
Dreamweaver is fairly straight forward and those training DVDs cover the basics very well. By the end of the DVDs you should be able to build a basic HTML website with ease. I'd say 30 days is more than plenty of time to master the software, you'd probably be able to make a website within the first week.
Wow... total immersion like that is pretty intense. I suppose it depends on how well they learn in that environment. Personally, I find it easier to study in blocks of information, then rest to let it absorb. I'd say you could be well on your way to knowing more than most people by the end of a week with 54 hours/week, and reach expert status in under a month no doubt. (again, so long as the person can retain the information without being exhausted).
I'd agree with BossBozz and mr2monster: if someone is capable of actually benefiting from all 56 hours a week of training (and I'm a little skeptical as to whether common mortals can actually follow a rhythm that intense unless it involves pretty significant practical blocks and they're really motivated ...), a week will see them able to get a basic site up and running with DW (which is far from being the most complex software going around), and a month would see them with a pretty good level of mastery. I don't think they'd be a "pro" until they'd actually used it for a good six months to a year, in an actual production environment though.
Spending that much time using one software package will probably hinder your personal development than enhance it. I would suggest you shorten the study time by about half to reduce the risk of burnout, then split it up to include some use of dreamweaver (to get the basics), some use of a graphic suite (you should at least be able to make basic graphics), some use of a text editor (to see if any of it is actually sinking in) and some use of good ol' pen and paper (to plan designs). If you insist on using Dreamweaver to learn then remember to use 'code view' too, to see what those buttons are actually inserting into your document. Software isn't perfect and you may be left with some redundant code here and there.
All depends. Anyone else, I would say it depends on two items - 1) How well they deal as mr2monster mentioned. 2) Their IQ. Most people cant learn by themselves from media, but yet again some people can.
Depends on the person him/herself, but Dreamweaver is quite easy to learn, probably within a couple of weeks they could design a decent site with it.
Learning the program is not to difficult of a task, my main concern would be learning the basics of HTML/XHTML, CSS, and a bit about Java Scripting and PHP. Graphic Design such as Photoshop would be a definite plus as well. Without the basic knowledge of the how's and why's a program does what it does, learning to use the program is pretty much a waste in my book, kind of like the computer techs that know how to take parts out and put them in but have absolutely no diagnostic skills to determine what parts need changing or if it is a simple software problem to begin with. Many of the DVD courses do teach the basics of CSS and HTML, but the Dreamweaver DVD like on Lynda only teaches the basics, there are videos available on there that go into great detail on CSS and HTML, I would join Lynda with the ability to get the files, I think it is only like $39 a month or something for all of that now, and start in the HTML basics, then work to the CSS, then go to Dreamweaver and Photoshop. I would also suggest as above that the hours spent learning be cut in at least half...if you want to spend a full seven to eight hours then use three to four hours covering the video, then the next three or four hours putting what you covered into practical use from scratch over and over from your head referring back to the parts you are not so sure about, by the time you are done for the day you will have an extremely good grasp on that days topic.
I agree x10, and I couldn't have said it better myself. Knowing all the functions of Dreamweaver (or any other program for that matter) is fine, but you still need to have artistic and analytic ability to produce good things with it. Just knowing what the buttons do does not mean that you'll be be able to produce a quality website. IMHO, forget about dreamweaver and learn how to code with Notepad (or any other basic text editor). You'll learn SO much more that way.
Well.. if you just use the design half of dreamweaver, it should only take you a few hours to get yourself familarised (how ever you spell it) as it is quite simple. If you know how to use MS Word, then you should be fine If you want to integrate code with it too, dreamweaver already does half of it and learning some basic HTML will help too