CSS in use
Here are some enlightening articles I discover in this weeks homework:
Firstly, going over the concepts behind CSS, which I am rather sick of reading over and over about, I read
Understanding Cascading Style Sheets, by Jon Varese:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/understanding_css.html
-This article may be tired to me right now, but it is a great summary of the purpose of certain CSS elements and how to use them.
Next, the article: CSS page layout basics, which discusses the ever many ways to go about creating a layout- whether it be from scratch, Using the pre-designed CSS layouts, using AP elements…
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/css_page_layout_basics.html
Thirdly, there is CHRIS COYIER‘s The Difference Between ID and Class which discusses
And for ‘a demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design’ along with You being able to go in and modify their existing page, using CSS skills, see Zen Gardens site: http://www.csszengarden.com/
Increasing the Productivity…
Lesson 10 in the Dreamweaver book deals with making website work easier, quicker and faster. This is accomplished by creating a Template that will be the “mother”/ source of the cloned “childpages“. Basically, like the masterpage we created in our fireworks doc.
All that you do is take an existing page (easier to work from that then creating one from scratch) and “Save as Template” (extension will be “.dwt”)
*These will be stored in their own folder Dreamweaver creates @ site root level.
B/c this is the template, the regions that you want to edit need to be defined as “editable regions“. This is done by (Insert> Template Objects> Editable Region), in which you name accordingly.
This chpt. also goes over Library Items (reusable bits of HTML (¶’s, links, ©, nav bars, tables, images…that you reuse frequently in a site). You use an existing pg element to create one that is accessed in your assets panel. Another time saver is use of a Server-side Include, aka: “SSI” ,are used to “paste” the contents of one or more files into another. For example, a file (of any type, .html, .txt, etc.)
So this info will be helpful in making the most of my time when making a site. By using templates, Library items, and server-side includes, website design is not only quicker but easier to maintain.
Checkout my example:
http://bcts-potomac.aacc.edu/cat/cat06/Lessons/lesson10/index.html
