Adobe Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG and code based hybrid Web Design and Development program. Originally it was owned by Macromedia and served as a competitor to Microsoft FrontPage (now known as Expression Web) and Adobe’s GoLive product. When Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, they dropped their GoLive product and kept Dreamweaver.
Dreamweaver began in December 1997 with version 1.0 and Macromedia. Macromedia continued production until 2005 with version 8.0, and Adobe took over with versions 9.0 and 10.0, also known as CS3 and CS4. Dreamweaver CS3 replaced GoLive in the Creative Suite.
Creating HTML pages
The Adobe Developer Centeroffers a wide variety of articles and tutorials to help those who want to begin using Adobe Dreamweaver CS4.
Creating HTML pages inside Dreamweaver can be done with a few simple clicks. You can create HTML pages from templates or create blank ones to use to build a site from scratch. This tutorial from Bright Hub provides a guide to creating and saving documents in Dreamweaver.
Page Layout
- Tutorialized provides extensive tutorials on page layout in Dreamweaver.
Inserting Text and Pictures
- The Site Wizard provides help with inserting text and pictures in Dreamweaver.
Templates and Libraries
- Design Place offers a comprehensive Templates and Libraries tutorial.
Using SSI (Server Side Includes)
- Smart Webby discusses the use of Server Side Includes so you can learn how to use them in Dreamweaver.
Using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
- VTC offers free tutorials on how to create and use CSS layouts with Dreamweaver.
- Bright Hub provides tutorials on how to create new text styles in Dreamweaver using CSS.
Testing, Uploading, and Going Live
- Sitepoint provides help with setting up test servers so you can use FTP to upload the site live and debug it.
Adobe Dreamweaver is an excellent program for those who enjoy both coding by hand and using the WYSIWYG interface. It is an expensive program for hobbyists, but is considered and industry standard for professionals, and is suitable for novice users, although a professional web design education is always recommended. It is available for both Windows and Mac systems. It is available in many different languages such as Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean , Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. Some languages are available in Windows Only versions.