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.

You’ll find instructions for creating CSS layouts at my site at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver.

All my best,
Janine

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