What is the latest version of Dreamweaver? (CS3, 8, MX? What's the right version number?)
Hi Janine,
I see there are programs called Dreamweaver 8 and Dreamweaver MX 2004. Which version do you think would be the best for us?
Thank you for your time,
Sincerely,
David
Hi David,
I’m afraid many people are confused by the names for the different versions. The newest version is Dreamweaver CS3. Now that Adobe owns Dreamweaver, you'll find a complete Web suite launched with CS3.
Dreamweaver 8 was the previous version, and over the years, Dreamweaver has had a confusing naming system.
Macromedia named the first version Dreamweaver 1 and continued that way through Dreamweaver 4 (logical enough), but then they changed the name to Dreamweaver MX. The version after that one was called Dreamweaver MX 2004, and the version after that was called Dreamweaver 8.
Now that Adobe owns Dreamweaver, the latest version (which would be Dreamweaver 9, is called CS3). It's always best to have the latest version if possible.
Good luck with your Web site!
Janine
Help! I redesigned my site and now people say I’ve broken their links to my site.
Hello Janine,
I purchased your DVD set "Total Training for Macromedia Dreamweaver 8." I have really enjoyed the tutorials, which have helped me create the Web site for my small business in Denver, Colorado.
I have watched the section on broken links but didn’t find an answer to this question. After I redesigned my site, I was notified that other sites that linked to me were getting broken link errors.
It seems the only way to correct these links is to re-create the pages they linked to, but completing this site has taken me months so that is not my first choice. Any help from you would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
You ask a good question. When you change the names of pages in your web site, which is a common occurrence when you redesign a site, you risk breaking links on other sites that may links to specific pages within your site.
I just wish I had a better answer as to how to avoid this problem. You are completely right that you can re-create the old pages or rename your new pages so that they are the same as the old ones. You could save a little time by using Save As and creating copies of your new related pages with the same names you used in the old design. (Be sure to save these pages exactly the same as they were in the original site, including subfolders). Be careful if you create duplicate pages to accomplish this as you’ll have to update both sets of pages in the future, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that’s a pain.
Another option is to create “dummy” pages with those same names and then use the Meta Refresh tag to redirect anyone who visits the old page to the new one. It’s not a perfect solution, but at least you avoid having to update multiple copies of the same page. Here’s how you’d do that:
First, create a new page with the old name in the old folder (again, if it was in a subdirectory, it must be in a folder with the same name and it must match exactly). Then create a simple message on those pages, such as: “We’ve redesigned the site. Please click here to go to the ________ page.”
You could also add a Meta Refresh tag to automatically redirect visitors to the new pages. To do that, you choose Insert > HTML > Head Tags > Refresh and set the address and the number of seconds you want. The page will automatically be redirected to the new page after the number of seconds you enter.
Unfortunately, the Refresh option may cause you secondary problems with search engines. Because too many people have used that option to redirect unsuspecting visitors to pages unrelated to the information that matched in the search engine, many search engines block pages that use the Refresh Meta tag now. Playing the “search engine game” is a challenge, I’m afraid.
One other thing to keep in mind is that if you don’t do anything, most search engines will eventually “respider” your page and update the links. That can take days for some search engines and as long as a few months for others, but in the long run it may be the best option.
One other thing you can do: Go to Google and search for link:www.yourdomainname.com. You’ll get a pretty good list of the sites that do link to your pages (although it may miss some). Then at least you can inform anyone who links to you to update their links.
I hope that helps. If anyone reading this knows of another solution, please share by emailing Janine@digitalfamily.com.
I wish you all the best,
Janine
Should I use Dreamweaver or GoLive?
Dear Janine,
I have an older version of GoLive that I’m thinking about upgrading, but something tells me Dreamweaver may be the way to go instead.
Which program is best?
JC
Dear JC,
Dreamweaver is by far the most popular Web design program (especially among professionals) and you can’t go wrong making the switch. Indeed, Adobe replaced GoLive with Dreamweaver in the new CS3 version of their Creative Suite, and they are encouraging GoLive users to make the switch to Dreamweaver.
If you want to try it out, you can get a free, fully-functional, 30-day trial version of Dreamweaver from www.adobe.com/dreamweaver.
And you’ll find instructions on how to get the most out of Dreamweaver if you’re already using GoLive in my Total Training video. (Follow this link to the Total Training Web site to learn more about my GoLive to Dreamweaver and other videos.)
Good luck,
Janine
Adjusting Flash settings in Dreamweaver
Hi,
I created a .swf file from Flash and placed it into a Dreamweaver file. All the photos in the animation are not showing up, and some of them are there but cut off (not the whole image)?! If I open that .swf file up directly or with my browser it looks fine. Any suggestions? There is also some fading of photos and also a "movie clip" button in the Flash file.
thanks!!
Sue
Sue,
If you're having trouble getting a Flash file to play properly in a page created in Dreamweaver, you can try adjusting your Flash settings in Dreamweaver. If you change the size you may avoid cutting off images, and if you adjust the quality control options, you may solve some of your other problems.
Open the page with the Flash file in Dreamweaver, click to select the Flash file, and then use the options in the Property inspector at the bottom of the page to adjust quality, size, and other settings and you may be able to get better results.
Hope that helps,
Janine
How can I create a navigation bar?
Janine,
I am a novice. Your training DVD on Dreamweaver 8 has been so helpful, but where exactly (what lesson/topic) can I find how to create a navigation bar? I don't know if I was daydreaming or what but I seem to have missed it.
Thanks and best wishes!
Michelle
Hi, Michelle,
Your question is hard to answer because there are so many ways to create a navigation bar, and the best solution depends on how you design your site. One of the best ways to manage navigation elements is to include all your main links in a template and then use the template to create the rest of the pages. That way, if you ever change the links, you can edit the template and make global changes to your navigation options.
Another increasingly popular way to create navigation elements is more about presentation and formatting than managing links. If you use CSS (and if you don’t, you should consider learning more about it), you may be interested in a tutorial I created for Layers Magazine on creating CSS navigation bars with the UL tag. If you’re a novice, you may not even appreciate yet why this is a good idea, but you can learn more about it in my recent tutorial.
You’ll find it and many other Dreamweaver tutorials at http://www.layersmagazine.com/category/dreamweaver/.
I hope that’s helpful and I wish you all the best with your Web design,
Janine
How can I use a template to make changes to all the pages on my site?
Hi Janine
I've been creating a Web site by using the templates feature. However, when I make a change to a non-editable region, it only updates the open pages created from that template. I make a change and then open a page that wasn't open when I made the change (although created from the template), and the change didn't happen, even though the log shows they were made in that very file. Whew, hope that all makes sense. Let me know if any of it doesn't, and I can clarify better.
Thanks again!
Ryan
Hi, Ryan,
I just hope I can give you a few answers here and there to help you on your way.
If you're setting up your templates correctly and Dreamweaver isn't being buggy on you (like how I shared the potential blame there?), then what you're describing shouldn't happen. (That's no help at all, huh?)
Okay, when you make changes to the "locked regions" and not the "editable regions" in a template, Dreamweaver should automatically update all pages generated from that template whether they are open or not. If they are open, you'll have to save them before you close them for the changes to be recorded. If they are not open, the changes should be automatic. When you save a template, Dreamweaver should also display a dialog asking if you want those changes applied to all pages created from the template. Make sure to say yes and note what pages are listed when it's complete so you can identify any pages that may not be updating properly.
If the update process is not happening, it may be that somehow the pages have become unattached from the template or that you are making changes to a region that is editable rather than to a region that is locked. By design, changes to editable regions will not be applied to pages created from the template.
If you're sure you're doing everything right and Dreamweaver is still not behaving, you may get better results by re-creating the pages that are not updating from the template. Just create new pages from the template and copy and paste your content into place in each page, save the new pages, and delete the old ones. I know this is extra work, but it may be worthwhile. It's better to get all your templates working well early in the process than to have update problems later, after you've created lots of pages with lots of content.
Hope all that helps,
Janine
Is there a way to identify old files and images I don't use in my site anymore to clean them off my server?
Hi,
I want to get rid of any and all images which are not actually being used in the site at least one time. How to clear away litter of unused images (and such)?
I am a long-time user of GoLive, recently switching to DW. GoLive has a "Used" column, showing if an image is actually being used IN the website somewhere -- the Used column was a good way to see what deadwood images are hanging around (accumulating and getting in the way). Unused images not used in the site were easily identifiable and easily deleted. I help in clearing-house (in keeping my site tidy and not messy). What is the DW counterpart?
Laura
Hi Laura,
Dreamweaver does have a feature that will help you with this. First, you want to make sure that you have completed the site set up process and that the site you want to work on is displayed in the Files panel and active in Dreamweaver.
Then (you don’t even have to have a page in the site open), choose Site > Check Links Sitewide.
The results will display in a panel at the bottom of the screen showing broken links, but if you look in the top left of that new bottom panel, you’ll find a drop down list and can select Broken Links, External Links, or Orphaned Files.
Choose Orphaned Files and you’ll see a list of any images or other files in your site that are not linked to anything else.
Hope that helps,
Janine
Can I lock the content of an HTML document?
Dear Janine:
I wonder if you can help... I have been using Dreamweaver to create HTML email newsletters (selecting the completed HTML file as stationery in Outlook Express) and I was wondering if there is a way to lock the content so that it can't be edited by anyone else who receives the email. At the moment, once someone receives it they can forward it and edit the content and on some computers the format changes slightly when it is forwarded and the contents shifts slightly...
Any advice gratefully received.
Many thanks, regards,
Sarah S.. Mfuwe, Zambia
Dear Sarah,
One option to "locking your content" is to send your newsletters as PDF files. They’d have to be attachments, but saving them in Acrobat’s PDF format would prevent people from easily altering them before passing them on and ensure the formatting you want.
Another option is to send a very brief and simple email (which would not be likely to change much along the way) and include links back to your site where you have more information in a format that can’t be changed.
Hope that’s helpful. All my best,
Janine
How do I get the forms tag to work?
Dear Janine,
I am struggling with the Dreamweaver DVD tutorial, Lesson 6 in your Total Training video. The form template is not the same as that on the tutorial screen and I am unable to create what the tutor shows. Specifically, I am unable to create a holding space which should contain the whole box (form.html). I am using Mac OSX 10.39 and Dreamweaver 8.
Ian, Creative in the U.K.
Dear Ian,
I'm sorry to learn you've had some trouble with Lesson 6. I believe the problem is that you're not inserting the form tag properly. The form tag, which is on the forms insert bar, creates a red box around all of the form elements. It's easiest if you insert this tag first, then place your cursor in the box and add the other form elements that way. If you didn't insert the form tag first, you can add it to the top or bottom of your form and then click and drag the form elements into the box, or copy and paste them to move them.
I hope that helps, but if you're still having trouble, please send more specifics about what you're trying to do and what the page looks like so far and I'll be happy to try to help you further.
All my best,
Janine
Follow up
Dear Janine,
What a prompt response! Thanks for the info. I am finding the tutorial fantastic, almost addictive! And me being a print designer and all!
Thanks again - keep up the good work.
Regards,
Ian
How can I edit “Locked” templates?
Greetings, Janine,
Is there any way to go around the locked templates created in Dreamweaver?
I have Macromedia Contribute 3.11. Seems there should be some way, with those editors, to edit non-editable regions. Would rewriting the HTML code help?
Thanks for any tips you might have,
Cate
Hi Cate,
You can most easily change those locked regions if you have Dreamweaver. In that case, you would just download all of the pages of the Web site, including the template files, to your hard drive. Then open the template files in Dreamweaver and you can change the locked areas of the template as you would edit any other part of the page. When you save the template, Dreamweaver will automatically update the corresponding pages.
If you don’t have Dreamweaver, you can download a fully-functional 30-day free-trial version from www.Adobe.com/dreamweaver.
You’ll find a few free tutorials about Dreamweaver on my site at www.digitalfamily.com/dreamweaver, including a lesson on creating and editing templates in Dreamweaver.
I wish you all the best with your Web site,
Janine
Can I center my Web page using CSS?
Janine,
I'm trying to figure out how to center my Web page design.Can I do this using CSS?
Thanks,
Ken
Ken,
The answer to this common question is so complex, I created a special section to explain the many approaches to design Web pages and why it's easier to center some designs than others.
In these tutorials, you'll learn the difference between tables, CSS, and Dreamweaver's fixed-position layers, and your best options for creating a centered Web page design.
Follow this link to learn more about Layers, Tables, and CSS.
Janine
Should I use Layers or DIV tags and CSS?
Hi Janine,
I recently bought and have enjoyed watching your two Total Training DVDs on using Dreamweaver 8. It’s fantastic!
However, in your course you use layers and I’m confused about whether I should go down this route. I understand from the Adobe help desk that the use of DIV tags should be the standard. I would be grateful for your comments on this. I wonder also if you might be planning to issue a training DVD that is dedicated to the use of CSS and DIV tags?
Many thanks and best wishes
Simon
Hi, Simon,
Thank you for your kind words about my videos. There is a lot of confusion about Dreamweaver's Layers and other CSS features. Layers are created with Div tags, and they are positioned with CSS, but most professional Web designers will tell you there are better ways to create CSS layouts.
Although the Layer's feature in Dreamweaver 8 is an easy and intuitive option for create page designs, Layers require absolute positioning in CSS, which has advantages and disadvantages. Many designers prefer Div styles that don't use absolute positioning because they are more flexible, adjustable, and allow centering.
Layers have proven so confusing that in Dreamweaver CS3, the Layers feature is now called an AP Div, an attempt, by Adobe to better clarify that Layers are Divs that us absolute positioning.
All that said, I must agree with Adobe that the ideal way to create Web sites today is by using div tags and CSS with styles that float or adjust to the browser window.
Here's a link to a tutorial I wrote for Layers Magazine that covers creating a centered CSS design with Dreamweaver that you may find a better approach.
All my best,
Janine
How can I add a search engine to my Web site?
Janine,
I would like to put a search engine on my company’s Web site -- something I can throw in the header that will search all the pages on my site and return what they are looking for. I’ve been through a couple of tutorials that explain how to search for things in a database, but that doesn’t seem like what I am looking for.
Do you think you could direct me somewhere that would explain how to do this? I would really appreciate it.
Best Regards,
Brandon
Although there are many ways to create a search engine for a Web site, doing it well is more complex than most people realize.
One of the solutions I’ve seen that is both simple to set up and powerful in its abilities is the search tool offered by Google. Many people don’t realize Google offers a highly customizable tool anyone can add to a Web site. You can learn more about it at http://www.google.com/coop/.
You can also use ASP.NET or PHP or any of the other dynamic site technologies supported by Dreamweaver to create a search system for a site, whether it searches a database or simply searches across the text of many pages on a site. Creating a custom solution is complicated and you may want to hire a dedicated search programmer to help develop such a tool if you choose to go this route.
If you search the Web, you will find other search tools that can be customized to work on individual Web sites, but again you may need an experienced programmer to set them up for your site.
I hope that helps. Please let me know what you find works best for your site.
Janine
Can you help me with my traffic counter?
Hi Janine,
You were so helpful before and now I have the church Web site almost complete, but I'm stuck in another corner. I added a hit counter on the front page. It took a number of tries to get it to appear correctly but that's all it does. I opened the Web site from different computers and went back several times to see if the numbers would increase but it did nothing.
How do I activate the counter?
Anne
Hi Anne,
If you want to keep track of visitors to your site, my best recommendation is www.statcounter.com. They have free and paid levels of service and I know lots of professional designers who are using them.
In general, I don’t recommend counters that show the world how much traffic you have on the main page of your site. For one thing the numbers can be misleading to site visitors. More importantly, a service such as StatCounter will give you lots more than just the total number of visitors so you can learn a lot about where visitors come from and what they do on your site.
All the best,
Janine
Is there a timeline feature in the new Dreamweaver MX 2004?
Hi Janine,
I am playing with Dreamweaver, and I can’t seem to find where you can record layer paths, use the timeline feature, etc… I noticed in your latest Dreamweaver book that the entire chapter was removed (comparing to your previous MX book)… So did Macromedia completely remove this from Dreamweaver? And if so, do you basically only replace this functionality by using Flash?
Thanks for your time!
Darrin S.
Hi Darrin,
Macromedia took all of the timeline features out of MX 2004 when they released it, but they got enough complaints that they put it back in,and kept it in version 8. The problem is, they haven't updated these features in the past two versions. As a result, you may run into problems because animations or other features you create by using the timeline may not display consistently across different browsers. You'll also get more complex code than necessary, which can slow download times.
My best advice if you want to create animations is to use Flash. You'll have much better design control, faster page loads, and many more options. Dreamweaver is a great Web design tool, but when it comes to animation, I strongly recommend you work in Flash and use Dreamweaver to add the animations to your Web pages.
Happy Web weaving!
Janine
ow do I fix broken images?
Hi Janine,
The guy who created our church Web site has moved away, and the church staff understands little about web development. I have just as limited knowledge but am a graphic designer so if I can figure it out, at least our pages will look pretty!
The problem I'm having is when I set up pages with photos or imported graphics. When I upload the page to the server, although the images are imbedded in the page, they don't show up (I get the dreaded X'd image). I've uploaded the images to the same folder as the index page and also placed them in a designated image folder. Neither fix makes any difference.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks for your help,
Anne H., Littleton, CO
Hi Anne,
There are so many reasons that photos may not show up properly when you upload your Web site. It can be a bit tricky to find the problem sometimes, but one of the best ways to avoid this problem is to make sure you've used Dreamweaver's site set-up feature and saved all your files in one main Web site folder. That way when you upload your site everything stays in the same relative location and links and images don't break.
Another common, and easy mistake, is to name your image files with spaces or special characters. Although they will work on a PC or Mac computer that way, most Web servers are UNIX, which can’t handle spaces or special characters in filenames, so as soon as you upload the site, the image links break on the server.
If that’s not your problem, it may have to do with where your images are stored. You said you tried saving them next to the index file as well as in a separate images folder. Either option should be fine, but you have to make sure that when you set the link to the images they are in the same relative place on your hard drive as they are on the server.
Hope that helps you solve your broken image problem.
All my best,
Janine
Trying to create a rollover image and running into trouble, what’s causing it?
Hi Janine,
First I would like to say that your Dreamweaver 8 for Dummies is very, very good. I have already learned so much more with this book than I could have ever imagined on my own.
I don’t know if you take questions about your book, but I’m in Chapter 9 right now where you explain how to insert a rollover image. I’m not sure what is going wrong, but I entered all the information in correctly (or so I believe). When I go to the preview browser and roll over the image, the second image comes up, but when I roll off the image, the one that popped up doesn’t go away to show the original image.
What could be causing this?
Best Regards,
Brandon
Brandon,
To get your images back the way they started when you create a rollover, you need to set up a Swap Image Restore as well as a Swap Image. That is useful for more complex designs, but if all you want is a simple rollover, Dreamweaver 8 gives you a much easier way.
I think the best way to show you how it works is to refer you to a video clip on my site, excerpted from a recent training about Dreamweaver. I hope you find it helpful.
http://www.digitalfamily.com/videos/dreamweaver/clips
All my best,
Janine
From: Simon Lovegrove (BT Internet) [mailto:simonlovegrove@btinternet.com]
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