Dreamweaver CS4 For Dummies®

Chapter 1. The Many Ways to Design a Web Page

In This Chapter

• Comparing Web design options

• Knowing about browser differences

• Developing a Web site

• Customizing your workspace

In the early days, Web design was relatively easy — and vanilla boring. You could combine images and text, but that's about it; no complex layouts, no fancy fonts, and certainly no multimedia or animation.

Over the years, Web design has evolved into an increasingly complex field, and Dreamweaver has evolved with it, adding new features that go way beyond the basics of combining a few words and images.

When I first started learning to create Web sites in the mid 1990s, it was easy to learn and easy to teach others how to do it. More than ten years and a dozen books later, it's a lot more complex, and I've come to realize that one of the first things you have to understand about Web design is that there isn't just one way to create a Web site anymore.

Today, you can learn how to design simple Web sites with HTML (HyperText Markup Language) in a matter of hours or you can spend years developing the advanced programming skills it takes to create complex Web sites like the ones you see at Amazon.com or MSNBC.

For everything in between, Dreamweaver is the clear choice among professional Web designers as well as among a growing number of people who want to build sites for their hobbies, clubs, families, and small businesses.

Before I dive into the details of creating a Web page in Dreamweaver, I think it's helpful to start by ...