Week 9 - Dreamweaver

Adobe Dreamweaver is a web design program.  You can build a complete web site from the beginning without having to know or write very much HTML.  This program makes it easy for beginners to start creating their very own websites.  You are able to enter information and the program automatically creates the code, but you are also able to enter the code manually if you like.


Adobe TV has a video that talks about what Dreamweaver is:




There are some good tutorials for using Dreamweaver at Internet 4 Classrooms.

I created my very first webpage using Dreamweaver and I am very happy with the results.  I played around with the features and was able to get the heading and menu items to look how I wanted by using a table.

Here is what my page looks like:

You can view the actual page here.

I found How To Use Dreamweaver particularly helpful and it also had a list of useful vocabulary which I have listed below:

Vocabulary:

• Anchors: (also called targets) For the purpose of hyper-linking two places on the same web page or to, the target of the hyperlink.
  Image map: an image on a webpage that has geometric areas defined that function as clickable links.
• Bandwidth: The amount of data you can send through a network connection. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second (bps).
• Bit: one binary digit - this digit is represented either as a 0 or 1. Bits are usually used to measure transfer speed.
• Byte: a byte is 8 bits. Bytes are usually used to measure storage space.
• Contrast - To show differences when compared.
• Coordinates: Any of a set of two or more numbers used to determine the position of a point, line, curve, or plane
• Folder: another word for a directory on a computer. Folders are used to organize and store files.
• GIF: A image file invented by the CompuServe Company that uses indexed color-space. GIF files work better for graphic and clip art images.
• Hierarchy: a relationship between people or things that is organized.
• Home page: The first page on a Web site that acts as the starting point for navigation. Usually the home page offers hyperlinks that you can click to go to other pages on the web site.
• Hyperlink: An address to another webpage either internally within a wesite (relative link), or a web address to a webpage outside on the WWW (hardlink).
• Hypertext [ HTML Hypertext Markup Language] A term coined by Ted Nelson to refer to a nonlinear system of information browsing and retrieval that contains associative links to other related documents.
• Hypertext is the basic organizing principle of the WWW. The coded format used to create WWW documents. HTML commands control how a piece of text will appear. Files in html format are viewed with a Web browser.
• Image map: an image on a webpage that has geometric areas defined that function as clickable links.
• JPEG: (Joint Photographic Experts Group) A file format using lossy compression. Commonly used for photographic images on the Internet.
• Pixels: The basic unit of the composition of an image on a television screen, computer monitor, or similar display.
• Resolution: the amount of pixels per inch on a screen or dots per inch in print.

(source:  http://www.ncsu.edu/viste/how_to_use_DW/vocabulary.html)