Welcome!

[ferny]

Hi guys,
I am new to the forum and have been learning Dreamweaver/webdesign for 6 months. I love Smashing Magazine for all the help it provides. I posted a link to my first site in "Look at my Design" which I used Dreamweaver for, the posts which came back seem to suggest that Dreamweaver was not a good way to learn webesign, what do you think?

Secondly can anyone suggest a book/reading material for a newbie that shows good CSS techniques and, if I am not to use Dreamweaver HTML?

Thanks for any help.

[Cipher]

I can recommend this one. Bought it myself and it's really good.

As for editors, i use Bluefish (Linux/BSD) or EditPlus 3 (Windows)

[DayDream]

Dreamweaver is fine, you just have to write the code for yourself. Get a book about HTML/CSS and go through it all the way. Learn by try & error. Unfortunatly I don't know any english books which I could recommend, but just take a look at amazon.com.

[Glnn]

Dreamweaver is an awesome tool for getting familiar with HTML if you ask me..
The auto complete function really helps when you don't know which tag to use..

The only thing you have to be careful with is using the design view... That way you won't learn HTML but how to make sites in dreamweaver..

I use notepad or notepad++ on windows, and my friends all use Coda for mac..

[Harland]

Yeah, stay with Dreamweaver. You don't necessarily have to design sites with it, but it's got a lot of useful features and it is supposedly the 'industry standard' so nearly every company uses it. SAMS teach yourself CSS isn't bad for a real basic approach. It gives good tutorials on rounded corners two & three column layout etc. After this go onto something a bit more advanced.

[Braxo]

Dreamweaver is fine when learning HTML and CSS. Just be sure to stay in code view. Only preview your pages in the various web browsers to see how your changes effect the design in the real world.

Then, as you begin to only use Dreamweaver for its code view, you will begin to find that it is bulky for what you really need. That is when you switch to Notepad++ on windows or Coda/Smultron/Textmate on the Mac.

I never personally used Dreamweaver and instead began with Smultron and used Firefox web developer to teach myself CSS and how it effects elements in the markup. I then used Coda because of its code completion and I built mainly static sites. Now I have moved to solely using Textmate building only dynamic web apps.

- Braxo

[suciuvlad]

i started watching Dreamweaver tutorials from Lynda, thats how i learned what a tag is and stuff so yes, i think dreamweaver it's a start. but only to know the very basics

[ferny]

Just bought a book: visual quickstart guide html,xhtml & css sixth edition. I have read the dreamweaver edition and it was brilliant. Going to work my way through it so I will let you know if it is any good.

Picking up on Braxo's point I have been told that because I used Dreamweaver for my website it is very bulky and the code is messy. Is this something that Dreamweaver can do, as the site functions well, and i thought it was fine?

[ajcates]

Dreamweaver is nice but is horribly way to complicated and if you don't have it set up correctly it can make a mess of your code.

I would defiantly recommend getting these tools instead if your on windows:
Filezilla(FTP) http://filezilla-project.org/
Notepad++(Text Editor) http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Firebug(Web Inspector) http://getfirebug.com
Web Developer(Big Helper) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

These if your on a mac:
Textmate(Text Editor) - http://macromates.com
Coda(Web IDE) - http://www.panic.com/coda/
Transmit(FTP) - http://www.panic.com/transmit/
CSSEdit(CSS Editor) - http://macrabbit.com/cssedit/
XScope(Screen Guides & Rulers) - http://iconfactory.com/software/xscope

Out of every single place I worked they all used these tools.

[ferny]

Thanks for the above ajcates, really helpful. Is it hard to explain how to set Dreamweaver up correctly or could you post a link to any helpful info?

[ajcates]

I honestly don't know I had taken a web design class at the community college and they were explaining how to do it while I was busy using web standards and real tools.

If you really want to use dreamweaver I would spend a couple hours inside it trying to learn all the settings. It is kinda like photoshop as in there are little things hidden everywhere in that program.

[graphixboy]

I think the point is that understanding how dreamweaver works does not mean you understand web any more than knowing how to use a hammer makes you a carpenter. There are so many ins and outs of web design that your shooting yourself in the foot if your using dreamweaver to do anything other than make your life better. I highly recommend using the many many great resources around the web (including this site) to learn html/css/javascript/etc. By all means use dreamweaver as an editor to help you along the way but be very careful to not simply learn how to let dreamweaver "do it for you"

[Braxo]

Picking up on Braxo's point I have been told that because I used Dreamweaver for my website it is very bulky and the code is messy. Is this something that Dreamweaver can do, as the site functions well, and i thought it was fine?

By bulky, I meant that Dreamweaver as a program uses a lot of computer resources, especially if you are just using it to edit code and nothing more. A text editor like Textmate would use much less.

As far as code being messy, I think it only becomes messy if you use the WYSIWYG portion of dreamweaver. I've never used it myself, but I'm sure that it doesn't generate streamlined markup and CSS.

- Braxo

[TT_Mark]

I only use the Code window in Dreamweaver, however it drains my system as it requires a lot of RAM, not good when I need to dual boot Windows for IE testing.

I'm considering investing in Coda

[ferny]

Has anyone else used Coda or can they suggest other tools they use?