Brain bleed - help me please!

[kristofski]

hey kids, I was hoping people might be able to help me. I just recently got a copy of Dreamweaver and I've been trying to go through the lessons, but, not having much experiance with the technical side of comptuers, I don't understand half of the things it says. Surely there are some problems if the help files are meaningless to dumb people like me who really need the help... I was wondering if anyone knew some webpage or something that explains all the lingo and jargon that's involved in dreamweaver and web design generally. Any help would be ace!
Chris

[Moox]

If your a newb to web development you should use frontpage, Dreamweaver is for the uberprofessional and it has a hard to learn GUI, I taught myself dreamweaver by saving websites to my harddrive then opening them in dreamweaver. Look around the web for javascript, it helps anywebsite

[AGA]

Bwa? Dreamweaver is hard to learn? Maybe if you're educationally subnormal, it is. The latest versions have very simple, visual design methods. And no, JavaScript does NOT help any website, it makes people hate you and wish you'd catch fire. You can do anything simple you need in HTML, and anything more complex in PHP.

[kristofski]

I may be a design student, but that doesn't mean I'm educated subnormally *grr*. I just don't understand what the hell it's talking about with alot of the help stuff. I'm sure if I found something that actually explained the different terms I'd be ok.

[AGA]

Open Dreamweaver. Open a new HTML document, then click 'view', 'design'. The properties bar at the bottom is used to change how text looks and stuff. The 'insert' menu at the top is used to insert images and links and stuff. It's really as easy to use as any word processor is...

[Fuzzpilz]

Also, read (and bookmark) the HTML and CSS specs at w3.org. IMO you're not really qualified to do anything public at all with HTML until you're able to do it manually with a pure text editor without syntax highlighting and autocomplete, e.g. Notepad. I'm not saying everybody should actually do that, but I really think you should be able to. There's far too much shoddy workmanship tormenting the web, and there's no good reason for it at all.

[kristofski]

Hey, thanks for that! I wish they'd just write something plain and simple like that, instead of pages and pages of stuff I don't understand... But then I'll probably encounter loads of problems and stuff cos I didn't do something. But then that's the joy of comptuers!

* kristofski goes to sleep under a bush somewhere

[kristofski]

Also, read (and bookmark) the HTML and CSS specs at w3.org. IMO you're not really qualified to do anything public at all with HTML until you're able to do it manually with a pure text editor without syntax highlighting and autocomplete, e.g. Notepad. I'm not saying everybody should actually do that, but I really think you should be able to. There's far too much shoddy workmanship tormenting the web, and there's no good reason for it at all.

Um... This is a good example of me not understanding stuff...

And as for shoddy workmanship, I have some great plans, so hopefully the content will overshaddow the probable crappyness of the actual site design.

[Fuzzpilz]

Start with the HTML 4.01 spec. The first sections have some general information that will help you understand how it all works. It's not rocket surgery, honestly, though you might run into some problems with IE's generally awful and broken implementation of various standards, which you may unfortunately have to work around if you wish to accommodate those poor souls who still use it (they are, regrettably, the majority).

[kristofski]

you might run into some problems with IE's generally awful and broken implementation of various standards, which you may unfortunately have to work around if you wish to accommodate those poor souls who still use it (they are, regrettably, the majority).

Including me...  *hides*

[rodekill]

I used to use Dreamweaver. I never got the control I wanted over the page.
I recently dug my hand into the coding by nad pot and have discovered that learning HTML itself was about 100 times easier than learning the DW gui. It's a lot simpler than it looks.

[Primus]

JavaScript does NOT help any website, it makes people hate you and wish you'd catch fire. You can do anything simple you need in HTML, and anything more complex in PHP.

I feel that when I see an entire site made with flash and no button around to skip that crap.

And yes, I use notepad for websites (I work with HTML), unless the page's more than 30 kbs, in that case I use another text editor, eg fast edit. Have alredy worked a little with php, but when I don't see I command everything and every aspect, I don't like too much...

My opinion is that Javascript is like wine: you like it, it's easy using it,Ã,  but a little bit too much and then people is watching you doing crazy things...

There are thousands of good free html courses /manuals / tutorials / etc. with examples around. It's just a question of googling. Don't leave here any links as I don't know what's your native language. Dreamweaver? What's that ?!

I started learning html by myself a few years ago, after I discovered (two days using it) how limited Frontpage was, and all that unuseful trash it placed in the code: it seemed like a page made in MSWord and saved as a html - by the way, don't do that!, MSWORD .html tranforms eg 5 kbs in 100+ kbs.

[Moox]

Html is a very easy language to learn
<head>
</head>
<body>
</body>

[TheDude]

It's a bit like this - Knowing Photoshop inside out doesn't mean you can draw, same as knowing Dreamweaver inside out doesn't mean you know HTML or how to make a webpage. So forget about DWeaver just now and start to learn HTML.

http://www.lissaexplains.com/ (yes, it says it's for kids :P)

If you need any help just PM me. I think Darth Mandarb is handy with HTML too and he'd probably be happy to help.

Html is a very easy language to learn
<head>
</head>
<body>
</body>

But then there's all the standards to adhere to... http://validator.w3.org/

I used to use Dreamweaver. I never got the control I wanted over the page.
I recently dug my hand into the coding by nad pot and have discovered that learning HTML itself was about 100 times easier than learning the DW gui. It's a lot simpler than it looks.

I don't get it, DW is notepad with 100's of bells and whistles. As long as you use the Code View you should have full control over what you're doing. You can turn off all the helpers.

[kristofski]

Thanks people, you've given me some good tips. It wasn't html I was having problems with, in fact I hadn't even got to the stage of trying to write it yet. It was the actual fundimentals of getting it started, on the help file it gives a very complicated description of stuff with lots of words and phrases I didn't know, and it doesn't explain itself very well, or say what stuff's for. however I've decided to ignore this for now, and when I get some actual content I'll work it all out in html then dive in and hope for the best. That's what I did with other computer programs I use and it seemed to work ok for them!
laters
Chris

[Mr Jake]

There are great tutorials/guides over at http://www.sbrady.com/hotsource/html

I used them when I was learning, and Webmonkey for CSS

[Hinders]

There are also some nice tutorials on HTML and maybe some dreamweaver at www.programmersheaven.com

[Primus]

... and when I get some actual content I'll work it all out in html then dive in and hope for the best.
Chris

You're welcome!

Well, you may look at pages you like its content, or else, then save it in a folder. Make backup(s) of the .html file, view the code and then cut some and reload the copied page as .html after the cuts you made. It will give you an idea of what you cut was doing. In general, the head and /head contents are most programming remarks or annotations, useful for browsers and so on; the "visible" part (the result of your page seen by surfers) usually comes into the body and /body tags.
Of course you must check a few html courses / manuals / tutorials and so.
Ah, you can rename a .html or a .htm as a .txt and vice-versa, but as a .txt it won't work as a .html or .htmÃ,  file, and vice-versa.

If you need any help, just PM.
Check this for a start, pls: (How not to create your homepage):
http://members.tripod.com/~igarcia/tutoren.htm

[LordHart]

Actually AGA, Javascript is needed if you want some CSS tricks to work in IE... since it's a piece of shit that isn't anywhere near standards complient.