Your Total Training for Dreamweaver has been a great help! Don’t ever stop teaching web designing!!

My question: I designed a page in Dreamweaver 8, using layers, which I will convert into a template for the rest of my website. I used three layers: a header, a middle section (with two inserted layers for nav bar and text content section), and a footer. How do I keep the layers together so when I add more text to a page, the nav bar and content section expand in length and still stay attached to the footer? Right now the text section expands, but not the footer and the nav bar.

Thank you,
Shirley from Maine

Hi, Shirley,

Thank you for your kind words about my training. I haven’t stopped teaching Web design, but things have changed quite a bit since I created that Dreamweaver 8 video.

You ask a good question and you’ve clearly discovered some of the limits of designing sites with layers. Today most Web designers no longer use layers to create site designs because they lack the flexibility of other approaches to CSS. Indeed, in the latest versions of Dreamweaver, the Layer button was removed because of this trend.

My best advice is to upgrade at least to Dreamweaver CS3 (version CS4 just came out so version 8 is now two versions old – that’s a lot of dog years on the Web).

If you want to test the new version of the program, you can download it for a free 30-day trial by visiting www.Adobe.com/dreamweaver.

You’ll also find several free, written tutorials on using CSS with Dreamweaver CS3 and CS4 on my site at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver.

I hope that helps you to create the kind of design you want for your Web site and I wish you all the best,
Janine

I’m even more impressed with you for answering my email! Thank you for the information. (No need to reply.)

Shirley

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.