Dreamweaver CS4: The Missing Manual

by David McFarland

Overview

When it comes to building professional websites, Dreamweaver CS4 is capable of doing more than any other web design program — including previous versions of Dreamweaver. But the software's sophisticated features aren't simple. Dreamweaver CS4: The Missing Manual will help you master this program quickly, so you can bring stunning, interactive websites to life.

Under the expert guidance of bestselling author and teacher David McFarland, you'll learn how to build professional-looking websites quickly and painlessly. McFarland has loaded the book with over 150 pages of hands-on tutorials to help you create database-enabled PHP pages, use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for cutting-edge design, add XML-based news feeds, include dynamic effects with JavaScript and AJAX, and more. This witty and objective book offers jargon-free language and clear descriptions that will help you:

• Learn how to control the appearance of your web pages with CSS, from the basics to advanced techniques
• Design dynamic database-driven websites, from blogs to product catalogs, and from shopping carts to newsletter signup forms
• Add interactivity to your website with ready-to-use JavaScript programs from Adobe's Spry Framework
• Effortlessly control the many helper files that power your website and manage thousands of pages
• Examine web-page components and Dreamweaver's capabilities with the book's "live examples"

Perfect for beginners who need step-by-step guidance, and for longtime Dreamweaver designers who need a handy reference to the new version, this thoroughly updated edition of our bestselling Missing Manual is your complete guide to designing, organizing, building, and deploying websites. It's the ultimate atlas for Dreamweaver CS4.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596522926
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/03/2008
Series:	Missing Manual Series
Pages:	1088
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

David Sawyer McFarland is the president of Sawyer McFarland Media Inc., a web development and training company located in Portland, Oregon. In addition, he teaches JavaScript programming, Flash, and web design at the University of California, Berkeley, the Center for Electronic Art, the Academy of Art College, and Ex'Pressions Center for New Media. He was formerly the webmaster at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Berkeley Multimedia Research Center. David is also the author of CSS: The Missing Manual and Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual.

Table of Contents

The Missing Credits;
About the Author;
About the Creative Team;
Acknowledgements;
The Missing Manual Series;
Introduction;
What Dreamweaver Is All About;
HTML, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript 101;
Part I: Building a Web Page;
Chapter 1: Dreamweaver CS4 Guided Tour;
1.1 The Dreamweaver CS4 Interface;
1.2 Setting Up a Site;
1.3 Creating a Web Page;
1.4 The Dreamweaver Test Drive;
Chapter 2: Adding Text to Your Web Pages;
2.1 Adding Text in Dreamweaver;
2.2 Copying and Pasting Text;
2.3 Selecting Text;
2.4 Spell Checking;
2.5 Undo, Redo, and the History Panel;
Chapter 3: Text Formatting;
3.1 Paragraph Formatting;
3.2 Creating and Formatting Lists;
3.3 Text Styles;
Chapter 4: Introducing Cascading Style Sheets;
4.1 Cascading Style Sheet Basics;
4.2 Creating Styles;
4.3 Using Styles;
4.4 Manipulating Styles;
4.5 Checking Browser Compatibility;
4.6 Text Formatting with CSS;
4.7 Cascading Style Sheets Tutorial;
Chapter 5: Links;
5.1 Understanding Links;
5.2 Adding a Link;
5.3 Adding an Email Link;
5.4 Linking Within a Web Page;
5.5 Modifying a Link;
5.6 Styling Links;
5.7 Creating a Navigation Menu;
5.8 Link Tutorial;
Chapter 6: Images;
6.1 Adding Images;
6.2 Inserting an Image from Photoshop;
6.3 Modifying an Image;
6.4 Controlling Images with CSS;
6.5 Editing Graphics;
6.6 Image Maps;
6.7 Rollover Images;
6.8 Tutorial: Inserting and Formatting Graphics;
Chapter 7: Tables;
7.1 Table Basics;
7.2 Inserting a Table;
7.3 Selecting Parts of a Table;
7.4 Expanded Table Mode;
7.5 Formatting Tables;
7.6 Modifying Cell and Row Properties;
7.7 Adding and Removing Cells;
7.8 Merging and Splitting Cells;
7.9 Tabular Data;
7.10 Tables Tutorial;
Part II: Building a Better Web Page;
Chapter 8: Advanced CSS;
8.1 Compound Selectors;
8.2 Fast Style Editing With the Properties Pane;
8.3 Moving and Managing Styles;
8.4 More about CSS;
8.5 Using the Code Navigator;
8.6 Styling for Print;
Chapter 9: Page Layout;
9.1 Types of Web Page Layouts;
9.2 Float Layout Basics;
9.3 Understanding the Box Model;
9.4 Dreamweaver's CSS Layouts;
9.5 Modifying Dreamweaver's CSS Layouts;
9.6 Absolute Positioning;
9.7 Adding an AP Div to Your Page;
9.8 Drawing AP Divs;
9.9 The AP Elements Panel;
9.10 Modifying AP Element Properties;
9.11 Nesting AP Divs;
9.12 CSS Layout Tutorial;
Chapter 10: Under the Hood: HTML;
10.1 Roundtrip HTML;
10.2 Code View;
10.3 Live Code;
10.4 Quick Tag Editor;
10.5 Tag Inspector;
10.6 Comparing Versions of a Web Page;
10.7 Reference Panel;
10.8 Inserting JavaScript;
Part III: Bringing Your Pages to Life;
Chapter 11: Forms;
11.1 Form Basics;
11.2 Creating a Form;
11.3 Adding Form Elements;
11.4 Validating Forms;
11.5 Forms Tutorial;
Chapter 12: Spry: Creating Interactive Web Pages;
12.1 What is Spry?;
12.2 Tabbed Panels;
12.3 Accordions;
12.4 Collapsible Panels;
12.5 Spry Tooltips;
12.6 Spry Data Sets;
12.7 Live View;
Chapter 13: Dreamweaver Behaviors;
13.1 Understanding Behaviors;
13.2 Applying Behaviors;
13.3 Events;
13.4 The Actions, One by One;
13.5 Advanced Behaviors;
13.6 Adding More Behaviors;
Chapter 14: Flash and Other Multimedia;
14.1 Flash: An Introduction;
14.2 Making It Easier to Download the Flash Plug-in;
14.3 Adding Flash Videos;
14.4 The Land of Obsolete Web Technology;
Part IV: Building a Web Site;
Chapter 15: Introducing Site Management;
15.1 Structuring a Web Site;
15.2 Site Assets;
Chapter 16: Testing Your Site;
16.1 Site Launch Checklist;
16.2 Find and Fix Broken Links;
16.3 Validating Web Pages;
16.4 Cleaning Up HTML (and XHTML);
16.5 Site Reporting;
16.6 Accessibility;
16.7 Download Statistics;
Chapter 17: Moving Your Site to the Internet;
17.1 Defining a Remote Site;
17.2 Transferring Files;
17.3 Check In and Check Out;
17.4 Synchronizing Site Files;
17.5 Communicating with Design Notes;
Part V: Dreamweaver CS4 Power;
Chapter 18: Snippets and Libraries;
18.1 Snippets Basics;
18.2 Using Snippets;
18.3 Creating Snippets;
18.4 Built-In Snippets;
18.5 Library Basics;
18.6 Creating and Using Library Items;
18.7 Editing Library Items;
18.8 Snippets and Library Tutorial;
Chapter 19: Templates;
19.1 Template Basics;
19.2 Creating a Template;
19.3 Defining Editable Regions;
19.4 Adding Optional Regions;
19.5 Nested Templates;
19.6 Building Pages Based on a Template;
19.7 Updating a Template;
19.8 Template Tutorial;
Chapter 20: Automating Dreamweaver;
20.1 The History Panel Revisited;
20.2 Find and Replace;
Chapter 21: Customizing Dreamweaver;
21.1 Keyboard Shortcuts;
21.2 Dreamweaver Extensions;
Part VI: Dynamic Dreamweaver;
Chapter 22: Getting Started with Dynamic Web Sites;
22.1 Pieces of the Puzzle;
22.2 Dynamic Web Sites: The Setup;
22.3 Creating a Dynamic Page;
22.4 Databases: A Quick Introduction;
22.5 Loading a Database;
22.6 Connecting to a Database;
Chapter 23: Adding Dynamic Data to Your Pages;
23.1 Retrieving Information;
23.2 Adding Dynamic Information;
23.3 Displaying Multiple Records;
23.4 Recordset Navigation;
23.5 Viewing Live Data;
23.6 Master Detail Page Set;
23.7 Passing Information Between Pages;
23.8 Tutorial: Displaying Database Info;
Chapter 24: Web Pages that Manipulate Database Records;
24.1 Adding Data;
24.2 Updating Database Records;
24.3 Dynamic Form Fields;
24.4 Deleting Records;
24.5 Tutorial: Inserting and Updating Data;
Chapter 25: Advanced Dynamic Site Features;
25.1 Password-Protecting Web Pages;
25.2 Additional Data Sources;
25.3 Advanced Server Behaviors;
25.4 Tutorial: Authentication;
Chapter 26: Server-Side XML and XSLT;
26.1 Understanding the Technologies;
26.2 Creating Dynamic Pages with XSLT and XML;
26.3 Inserting and Formatting XML;
26.4 Advanced XSLT Tricks;
Part VII: Appendixes;
Getting Help;
Getting Help from Dreamweaver;
Getting Help from Adobe;
Help from the Real World;
Dreamweaver CS4, Menu by Menu;
File Menu;
Edit Menu;
View Menu;
Insert Menu;
Modify Menu;
Format Menu;
Commands Menu;
Site Menu;
Window Menu;
Help Menu;
Colophon;