Adobe Dreamweaver is one of the most widely used and one of the best visual web development tools around. It allows both experienced and inexperienced developers to build standards-compliant web sites without having to become fully conversant with all of the underlying technologies. On the client-side, it contains tools for adding sophisticated JavaScript and Ajax functionality. On the server-side, it allows for easy connection to data sources and has visual tools for creating data-driven search and results pages.

Dreamweaver offers the developer a choice of five scripting languages: ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, JSP and ColdFusion. This is specified as part of the site definition process: in the “Testing Server” category, the user must enter the parameters which will enable Dreamweaver to connect to a server which has the necessary scripting software. Either a local or remote server can be used.

Dreamweaver offers the same dynamic server-side features, regardless of the scripting language chosen. First, you are able to connect to a data source which can be a database server such as Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL, or a desktop database file such as an Access database.

The connection can then be used to retrieve a set of data, using a SQL command. Dreamweaver offers a limited amount of help in building the SQL statement but the developer will need to acquire a basic knowledge of SQL syntax in order to retrieve the required data.

Dynamic elements from the dataset can be used to populate the page via simple drag and drop and other visual techniques. A number of useful “server behaviors” are also available to add functionality to the page. For example, the “Repeat Region” server behavior will automatically repeat a given page item (such as a DIV or table row) as many times as there are records in a dataset.

Another useful server behavior is the “Recordset Navigation Bar which provides automatically generated links to the first, last, next and previous pages of search results. The code created by the server behavior will also cause the correct links to be visible or hidden; thus, for example, the first and previous links will not be visible when the first page of results is being displayed.

Whether building client-side and server-side pages, Dreamweaver offers developers the same ease of use. This means that making the transition to building dynamic, data-driven web sites can be a fairly painless process, even for inexperienced web developers.

You can find out more about Dreamweaver training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, a UK IT training company offering Dreamweaver training courses at their central London training centre.

Although Adobe Dreamweaver is a visual editor it is not a word processor; and, therefore, the text it allows you to create is HTML text and HTML handles text in a different way to print-oriented environments such as word processors and DTP packages. Although adding text to your web pages feels kind of similar to working in any text editor, you will sometimes find a few quirks in the way that Dreamweaver handles text.

Firstly, there is the question of structure. Browsers assign a structural importance to text based on the HTML element which contains them. Text inside a heading element, such as h1 or h2, is given more prominence than text contained within a paragraph element. Dreamweaver uses the paragraph element as the default container for text; so, if you create a blank page in Dreamweaver and type some text, as soon as you press Return, your text will be placed inside a paragraph element.

Text is treated in pretty much the same way when it is copied and pasted from another environment. Dreamweaver will recognise returns and use them to split the text into paragraphs. It will also attempt to translate any formatting to its nearest HTML equivalent. Thus, if you copy some data from an Excel spreadsheet and paste it into an HTML page in Dreamweaver, you will end up with a table containing the Excel data. Similarly, if text from Word which has been formatted using Word styles such as “Heading 1″, “Heading 2″ and “Normal”, Word will place all “Heading 1″ text inside h1 elements, “Heading 2″ text inside h2 and “Normal” text inside paragraph elements.

As they edit their text in Dreamweaver, users who are unfamiliar with HTML may be occasionally confused by the fact that Dreamweaver treats text as a separate entity to the element that contains it. Thus for example, in design view, if you triple-click on a heading to select it, what Dreamweaver actually selects is the text inside the heading. The heading element itself is not selected. Once users are familiar with HTML, this behaviour becomes less confusion.

Dreamweaver’s tag selector feature is a great way of keeping tabs on the HTML elements you are generating and manipulating while working in Design view. The tag selector is the area on the left of the status bar at the bottom of the document window. It displays the tags representing the element which contains the currently highlighted item. These tags can also be used to select an element and its contents. Thus, to select a heading, ignore the text and just click on the tag representing the element which encloses it.

A lot of new users get seduced by Dreamweaver’s split screen view where code and design views are each allocated half of the screen. Unless you creating something fairly intricate, like a complex form, split view is a bit wasteful. Just looking at the tag selector is usually enough to let you know what HTML elements you are working with.

For more information on Dreamweaver training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, a UK IT training company offering Dreamweaver Classes at their central London training centre.

Dreamwaver has a huge arsenal of floating palettes known as panels. Some of these contain options that are duplicated both in the main and context menus or which can be accessed with keyboard shortcuts. You will therefore find that you do not need to keep all of Dreamweaver’s panels open.

One of the first document view keyboard shortcut any new Dreamweaver user should learn is F4. This is the shortcut for Window – Hide/Show Panels (or View – Hide/Show Panels). This very useful toggle causes all of Dreamweaver’s panels to disappear or reappear at their original positions.

Most of the options for showing, hiding and manipulating the various panels are to be found in the Window menu. However, in addition to the panels, Dreamweaver has two other tools palettes which are referred to as toolbars. One of these, the Document toolbar, is normally displayed at the document window. To make this toolbar visible, choose View-Toolbars-Document.

The first three icons on the Document toolbar are perhaps the most frequently used: Code, Split and Design views. The document title box is used to set the title which will appear in the title bar of the user’s browser (as opposed to the document’s file name). The file management pop-up menu contains options for uploading and downloading the document as well as commands to be used when working in collaboration. (These options are also available in the Site menu.) The browser preview pop-up menu allows you to preview your page in any of the browsers you specify using the Edit Browser List command.

Bear in mind that the Document toolbar is only visible if you are working in document view. In Dreamweaver, to be working in document view simply means to be editing an HTML, or other, document. If you are not in document view then you are normally working in the Files panel. There are three ways of entering document view from Files view.

Firstly, you can simply open an HTML document by double-clicking its name or by choosing File – Open.

2. You can also create a new blank file by choosing File – New.

Thirdly, you can activate a document which is already open by clicking its button in the Windows Taskbar or by choosing its name from the bottom of the Window menu.

If you would like to learn more about Web development training courses, visit Training Company . Com, a Computer training website offering Dreamweaver Classes at their central London training centre.

Dreamweaver templates are one of the program’s most powerful features. Templates allow you to control and update the appearance of an entire site. They are one of the features covered in detail on our Dreamweaver training courses. This article looks at how to set up, apply and modify templates. Templates facilitate site management by allowing you to modify and update several pages at once. A template is a web document (HTML, ASP, ASP.NET, etc. ) which contains a combination of locked elements and editable regions. When creating a new document, if you opt to base it on a template, the page will inherit all of the elements which the template contains. You individualise the page by modifying the content of the editable areas. If you later modify the template, all of the pages which are based on it can be automatically updated.

You can create templates from scratch or you can take an existing document and convert it into a template. To create a template from scratch

1. Choose New from the File menu. This displays the New Document window.

2. In the first column of the New Document window, click on New Template.

3. In the second column, specify the Template Type ((HTML, ASP, ASP.NET, etc. ).

4. In the third column, optionally choose one of Dreamweaver’s preset CSS layouts or click None to start with a blank page.

5. If you choose one of the CSS layout, in the forth column, you will need to specify whether the necessary code is placed in the head of the document, in a new CSS file or an existing one.

6. Click the Create button to generate your new template.

As soon as you start using templates, Dreamweaver creates a special Templates folder which it stores in the root folder of the site. All templates are automatically stored in this folder. You can also take a regular HTML document and convert it into a template.

1. Open the document which you wish to convert into a template.

2. Choose Save As Template from the File menu.

3. Enter a name for the new template and click Save.

All of the elements that you place on a template will be locked. They will appear on each page based on the template but will not be editable. To create the locked regions of a template

1. In the templates folder, double-click the name of the template you wish to edit.

2. Create the elements which you wish to appear on every page.

3. All of these elements will remain automatically locked and unchangeable on all pages based on the template.

4. If you save the changes you have made to the template at this point, Dreamweaver will remind you that you have not yet created any editable regions. Click OK.

You can get up to date information on Web development training courses, visit Training Company . Com, an independent computer training website offering Dreamweaver training courses at their central London training centre.