I've made a site in the past with Dreamweaver's design function. It didn't look so good as it appeared distorted on other monitors and when it was minimized. So I figured that wasn't the correct way to do it, so what is the best method without the use of coding? Thanks in advance.
Hello, Well you are going to have to use coding to create a site. But, as far as dreamweaver I use dreamweaver for all our companies projects. Now as far as them not looking right when minimized and stuff of that nature, it all depends if you used fixed width or fluid %'s widths. Also, it depends if you used vector or pixel based images, as pixel based images don't strech very well, while vector based images do. When we do a website for our clients we first design it inside photoshop and then slice our images out of photoshop and work with dreamweaver that way, it makes the process alot easier, quicker, cleaner and more professional.
Hi, thanks for your help. Can you tell me more about fixed width or fluid %? I think fixed is the one I want, what will I need to enter into the code to get it fixed?
Take a look at this youtube video tutorial, may help you with figuring out how to get your photoshop files into dreamweaver while continuing to look right: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEjLciNRC8s&feature=PlayList&p=6AB99A9D9B942950&playnext=1&index=3"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEjLciNRC8s&feature=PlayList&p=6AB99A9D9B942950&playnext=1&index=3 I can't post live links yet, sorry!
hmmm for design, I would recommend you reading some stuff from http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/web-2.0-design-style-guide.php . But yours is about coding, I think you should pick up xhtml/css skills like I do to make your site appear similar on different browsers. Theres a trick to do that, you'll have to know the behaviors of different browsers. (such as for <hr/> in IE, you'll have to use "color" to change the color, and "background-color" for other browsers if I remember correctly, so to change the color for both ie and other browsers, you gotta have the both attributes.
I appriciate all your help guys, thanks! You've found my solution! I did what was said in the tutorial, everything looks fine and is in order, except when I preview my website in IE it's very dark. Is there any fix for this?
If you use Dreamweaver you have to understand some HTML coding, Javascript etc. There are some template-driven software you can check into, which can help you to build smaller sites faster without coding, such as a4deskpro, web publisher, etc. I also found some Dreamweaver created sites looks fine in Firefox but not MSIE. Even it looks fine in MSIE 6, it might not look the same in MSIE 8.
If you are building sites even with help of some software like dreamweaver you must understand some html tags and javascript, but best way to get what you want from my point of vies is to code site from the scratch and then test it on w3c.org and to test it on lot of browsers with different resolutions.
You have only two choices. First coding the xhtml/css by yourself . Second asking someone to code the xhtml/css for you . Since you don't want to code by yourself, you have no choice .
I think if you really want a cutting edge site, the professional way to design the layout of your site first. Think of concepts you want in your site, take a paper and sketch your site. Then if you are expert in xhtml/css then go you can create a css layout. Otherwise, you have to create the design the photoshop first and then slice it to xhtml. The problem is there is no alternative to this. You will need to know XHTML/CSS better. There is no alternative way for this.
if you have no good html knowledge then download some free template from some sites and customize those. but i will not meet your demand always.
I swear by Aptana its free software and better than Dreamweaver in my opinion. You can't create good websites with drap and drop functions you need to be hard coding. Make sure your using CSS and not tables.
i would highly recommend learning to code with text only, gives you 100% control plus when you get good at it, you can easily start finding any segment of code you need. I use gedit in ubuntu, it has all the langueages color coded syntax, which is a must.
I have used Serif Webplus which has made Website making very easy. (Basic one). Although if you understand everything properly, you are sure to create very good websites. If you are looking for PHP based (forum) sites, i would recommend you to look for free forum scripts like SMF/Phpbb and MyBB. They are the most used once so far. if you have a budget then you can go for paid once aswell. There are also link directories available if you want to make websites something like that. Its all up to you! Hope it helps...