Dreamweaver in a Nutshell

Layers and Tables and Frames, Oh My!

You should already have a reference frame for thinking about Dreamweaver and have some idea about how you’d like to structure your site. If not, spend a few minutes sketching out your site’s major areas and a typical web page from each area. This exercise will give you something to work towards and a skeleton to hang your knowledge upon as you read this book.

You may know how you want your site to look but not know the best tools to achieve the desired effect. We’ll jump right in by facing some of the first decisions that confront a web site developer. Later, we’ll cover techniques for creating individual pages and managing your entire site.

Whether to use layers, tables, and frames when designing your pages is a controversial topic. Issues include ease of use, compatibility with different browsers (especially older ones), performance, and the ability for search engines to index your pages.

A recent survey shows that approximately 28 percent of sites use frames (http://www.securityspace.com/s_survey/data/man.200107/techpen.html).

The same survey shows that JavaScript is used in over 40 percent of sites, but far fewer sites use CSS stylesheets, Java, Flash, and Shockwave.

Tip

Dreamweaver’s Templates, Library, and HTML Styles features generate HTML supported by older browsers. Layers and Cascading Style Sheets generally require 4.0+ browsers but can be converted to tables and HTML markup using File → Convert → 3.0 Browser Compatible. Most users have ...