Learning Dreamweaver: Steep Learning Curve?

[66217]

I am in the process of learning Dreamweaver, and I tried to find some good tutorials or books with no success.

Are there any suggestions as to what sites or what books can help me learn fast? I am in not need to become a professional designer, but I do want to know the bascis and a little more.

As for prior knowledge, I do used Dreamweaver about 5 years ago, but I have forgot most of it, and at that time I had a teacher who could explain me step by step.

Any suggestions?

 

[InLikeALion]

look into lynda.com. They have great video tutorials on all subjects that are easy to follow. Total Training's website has similar. Both have monthly memberships charges of about $25.

 

[nick9191]

TBH its nothing that difficult. Play about with it, you'll find it easy to use within a few weeks.

 

[Photomax]

Go to any major bookstore and for $40 you will find lots of decent books. Some have CD's with video as well.

I have owned several copies of Dreamweaver. Its a nifty program, BUT I am not convinced that spending a lot of time learning how to set and and build sites with Dreamweaver is worth it. Sure, doing so makes you versed with a major piece of software, but how much do you really know about building sites after all that effort?

I think you are better off learning how to write clean, valid XHTML and CSS. You don't need fancy tools. In the long run knowing how to create lean markup and "bulletproof" CSS is a much better skill than knowing your way around Dreamweaver. More often than not the code that Dreamweaver produces is not that great anyway.

My $.02 but your mileage may vary...

 

[InLikeALion]

Go to any major bookstore and for $40 you will find lots of decent books. Some have CD's with video as well.

I have owned several copies of Dreamweaver. Its a nifty program, BUT I am not convinced that spending a lot of time learning how to set and and build sites with Dreamweaver is worth it. Sure, doing so makes you versed with a major piece of software, but how much do you know about building sites after all that effort.

I think you are better off learning how to write clean, valid XHTML and CSS. In the long run knowing how to create lean markup and "bulletproof" CSS is much better skill than your way around Dreamweaver. More often than not the code that Dreamweaver produces is not that great anyway.

MY $.02 but your mileage may vary...

I work in Dreamweaver, but use it as much like Coda as I can (until I can prioritize cash for it). I hand code everything in it - just about the only 'features' i use are the auto-complete for faster html input, the auto-complete browser to make sure my links are correct, the validating/browser compatibility checker (this really helps me), and the built-in ftp.

But I find myself wanting it to do less. As I've said elsewhere, when I reopen projects in DW, a lot of time my carefully indented HTML hierarchies have jumped around, making it a messy lot of code to scan. Also, I want to become better at knowing my css code, and DW's interface is a crutch to that, because of taking the time to remember values for properties, I use its wizard window to see what is possible, select what I want and ok it. This means my knowledge of css is handicapped because I rely on it to tell me what my options are in every category, and thus it isn't committed to memory. It's kind of like never having to learn to spell because the ubiquity of spell-checker.

Dreamweaver is an ok integrated suite for web work, but don't rely on its' wysiwyg code. Photomax' advice is sound, and you should consider it.

Here is a great set of links I came across the other day for learning CSS/Standards based web development:

http://emersian.com/14/learning-css-for-beginners/

 

[monke]

Dreamweaver is like most of the Adobe programs. You learn the basic stuff and then it's almost like a dead stop and straight up hill.

I would recommend learning HTML and CSS first. That way when you start designing websites, they won't be controlled by Dreamweaver, they'll be controlled by how you code.

Few Starter Links:
Beginning Website Design and Development
Good-Tutorials: HTML
Good-Tutorials: CSS

If you have any questions, problems, anything, I've always found this forum to be extremely helpful and quick at helping/fixing anything.