Can I create all my pages in Photoshop and bring them into Dreamweaver as an image?

I just finished your Dreamweaver  For Dummies book. I found it to be right on the money.

However, I have a question. I’m a photographer and graphic designer. I’m most comfortable working in Photoshop. Can I create all my pages in Photoshop and bring them into Dreamweaver as an image rather than create them from scratch? If this is possible can I then create hotspots to link the pages for example a thumbnail linked to the enlarged photographs?

Thanks for any help,

Barry

 Thanks for the kind words. Yes, you “can” do that, and some sites are designed that way. There is even a ‘slicing’ tool in Photoshop designed for this purpose.

Before you rush off to do that, however, here are two reasons most web designers would not recommend that approach.

1. Images take longer to download than text so saving the entire page as an image often results in a web page that take a really long time to download — at the very least, make sure you are using the File> Save for Web and Devices dialog to optimize the images.

2. Search engines can’t ‘read’ the text on an image so your website will suffer when it comes to search engine results if all of your text is saved in images.

If you can live with those consequences, I make no judgement about your need to design your pages the way that works best for you. That said, what most of us do is create the design in Photoshop, Fireworks, or InDesign, then save the images (the parts that really have to be images), and reassemble it all in Dreamweaver using CSS.

I hope that helps you make the best decision for your website,

Janine