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Newbie here - upgrade/training?

tiptechqa posted this at 18:21 — 22nd April 2004.

They have: 2 posts

Joined: Apr 2004

I just took an online class (once a week for 4 weeks) to learn the basics of Dreamweaver along with the book "Training from the Source". I am basically an author of our online help with RoboHelp, but then started this.

I redesigned our old web site (created in NetObjects Fusion) with Dreamweaver MX (not 2004, but the older version). It turned out OK, but we would like to continue to enhance it.

I need to get advice on a couple of things
- should we upgrade to DW MX2004?
- any suggestions for more training/classes? (I am still a beginner, but would like to advance in both the technical terms/requirements and the development of the web sites)

I had a few problems with DW MX during my class and the development of our site
- I can't get the layers to work in my template at all (not all that important, but I would like to be able to use on a page or two)
- I kept getting errors when I set my project to automatically save to the network each save, so I just turned that off and save my project and copy to the network site when finished with updates,

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks,

C'

Megan posted this at 18:57 — 22nd April 2004.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Welcome, tiptechqa! I'll do my best to answer your questions here:

  1. Yes, you should upgrade to MX 2004. They've done some wonderful things with the MX versions.
  2. Learn CSS or at least how to use it in Dreamweaver. It might be better to buy a book than to look for courses. CSS is *the* way to go for visual design now so you're going to need to know how to use it.
  3. Don't try to use layers unless you know what they are and what they are trying to do in the code (see point 2)
  4. Probably best to keep a copy of all changes on your hard drive, just in case something happens to the live site.

If you give us the URL to your site we might be able to offer more detailed advice.

Megan
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tiptechqa posted this at 19:08 — 22nd April 2004.

They have: 2 posts

Joined: Apr 2004

Thanks Megan! I took what I thought was a very comprehesive class - it covered a lot each week, but only briefly.

I learned how to create a CSS - I used it on the site right away.
I also used layers briefly in the class and would only like to use it on one or two pages on the entire site
And I always have kept a copy of what I do on my local drive, it was just the auto publish when I saved a change. It updated on the local drive and network at same time, now I manually do that.

tiptech.com is our site - again, suggestions/comments welcome!

Thanks again!

C'

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