The eLearning Center for Gatlin Education Services

Develop practical skills for Dreamweaver, the HTML editor of choice for professional Web designers. Dreamweaver integrates a host of Web design tools in one easy-to-use application. Without any prior HTML knowledge, students learn to design sites, creating advanced layouts by using tables, manipulating colors, style sheets, and frames.

LESSON 1 Intro to Dreamweaver Lesson One kicks off with an introduction to Dreamweaver's flexible toolkit. You'll learn to customize, create, and save an HTML page, how to define a site and make it talk to your Web server, and how to manage files. You'll explore how HTML and CSS code is generated in Dreamweaver's WYSIWYG interface and learn how to use the Properties Inspector. In the exercise, you'll create a "favorite links" page, hooking up Web links, formatting text, adding images, and more.

LESSON 2 All About Tables Training Lesson Two explores how to use tables as a layout and organization tool. You'll look at a "best practice" table design on the Web, then find out how easy Dreamweaver makes it. You'll learn how to create tables, add content, adjust and nest tables, and explore design options using table borders, background colors, and patterns. In the training exercise, you'll use tables to design an e-commerce home page using a cool rollover navigation bar.

LESSON 3 Cascading Style Sheets Ready to create pages with some real style? Training Lesson Three introduces you to a key Web technology: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). With CSS you can refine the look of text and other features on your Web pages, training you to make global site design changes in a snap. You'll learn how to create internal and external style sheets using Dreamweaver's CSS Styles panel that will make your styles look great. In the exercise, it's off to camp—you'll design a Web site for an arts and crafts camp using CSS for text and background formatting.

LESSON 4 Designing Page Layouts Now that you're familiar with Dreamweaver's essential tools, you're ready to really design. Lesson Four focuses on the program's layout and advanced table design options. You'll look at how to create designs that are both complex and efficient. You'll also learn to create high-end navigation features using CSS. In the exercise, you'll create a Web site from scratch, coming up with your own high-end layout and adding CSS-based navigation.

LESSON 5 Tableless Layouts In Web design, it's all about staying on top of current technology and trends. Lesson Five introduces you to CSS positioning—a technology that allows you to create super flexible and efficient layouts instead of relying on restrictive HTML tables. You'll see how easy and fun it is to design a layout and build it with CSS, and you'll create a complete, tableless Web site in Exercise Five.

LESSON 6 Special Effects & Troubleshooting Lesson Six starts off by taking the mystery out of frames, a feature that designers either love or hate. You'll learn how framed sites are constructed and what some of their downsides are. Then, to make sure your sites function when they go live, you'll run through our top troubleshooting tips. In the final project, you'll apply all you've learned by debugging a mini-site, adding JavaScript behaviors, fixing up frames, and more. You'll also do your own redesign of the site's home page.