Macromedia® Dreamweaver® MX 2004 Magic

Book description

As a serious Web designer or developer, you'll want to do one thing and one thing only when you lay your hands on the latest version of Dreamweaver: Start tinkering with all its new features. Problem is that's hard to do on someone else's dime. With Dreamweaver MX 2004 Magic, you don't have to! In these pages, Dreamweaver wizards Mossimo Foti, Angela C. Buraglia, and Daniel Short and several other experts draw on their own professional experience to offer 12 real-world projects that let you explore Dreamweaver MX 2004 at your leisure. With a focus on areas that can be troublesome for professional users-whether because they present thorny issues or because they draw on completely new features-each lesson provides need-to-know tips, proven techniques, and best practices. By working through the step-by-step tutorials (whose project files and code you'll find on the accompanying CD), you soon will be finding your way around all of Dreamweaver MX 2004's new features: dynamic cross-browser validation, improved CSS support, built-in graphics editing, and more. In addition to the code listings and exercise files on the CD-ROM, you¿ll find videos that clearly demonstrate step by step all the procedures you need to complete in order to create the projects.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Let Us Hear Your Voice
  3. About the Authors
  4. About the Technical Reviewers
  5. About the Magic Series
    1. How to Make the Most of This Book
    2. Conventions Used in This Book
  6. 1. Using CSS to Position and Style Your Pages
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Creating the Structure for the Page
      1. Defining the <div>s
    4. Creating Buttons and Background Shapes
    5. Taking Font and Link Styling to the Next Level
    6. Selectors, Siblings, Descendants, and the Cascade
    7. Now Try This
  7. 2. Creating Toggle-O-Matic Menus
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Forging Friendly Hyperlinks to Submenus
    4. Time to Identify: ID Attributes for Menu Buttons
    5. Getting Classified
    6. Containing the Menu with <div> Tags
    7. Inserting Submenu <div> Tags
    8. Design Time CSS to the Rescue
    9. CSS Requirements
      1. Menu Buttons
      2. Submenus
    10. Toggling with Extensions
    11. Now Try This
  8. 3. Managing Navigation Button States in Template-Controlled Sites
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Using Editable Regions
    4. Using JavaScript and Editable Regions
    5. Using Optional Regions
      1. An Explanation of the Elements
    6. Now Try This
  9. 4. Controlling Navigation Elements with Templates
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Controlling Document Meta Data
    4. Modifying the Submenu System
      1. Investigation
      2. Conversion
    5. Validating the Template
    6. Creating the Site Pages in Contribute
    7. Now Try This
  10. 5. Integrating Dreamweaver and Fireworks in Your Projects
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Setting Up Dreamweaver’s Launch and Edit in Fireworks Feature
    4. Creating Fireworks Color Palettes for One-Click Access in Dreamweaver
    5. Using Dreamweaver Image Placeholders to Design a Web Page Layout
    6. Converting Dreamweaver Image Placeholders to Images in Fireworks
    7. Creating Dreamweaver Library Items Within Fireworks
    8. Editing Image Library Items in Dreamweaver
    9. Now Try This
  11. 6. Translating a Fireworks Layout into a CSS + HTML Design
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Getting the <body> into Shape
    4. Styling the Tables with CSS
    5. Styling Individual Cell Properties with the Tag Inspector
    6. Styling Page Content with CSS Selectors
    7. Styling Individual Objects with Custom Classes
    8. Styling Navigation Links
    9. Inserting One Lone <div>
    10. Now Try This
  12. 7. Using Flash in Dreamweaver
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Editing Library Items
    4. Using Dreamweaver Flash Text
    5. Inserting Library Item Instances into Documents
    6. Using FlashVars
    7. Using the Flash Date Picker Extension
    8. Now Try This
  13. 8. Sending a Form to Email
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Adding Styling to Your Pages with CSS
    4. Add a Contact Form
    5. Add a Table for Form Layout
    6. Adding Text Fields
    7. Inserting a Radio Button Group
    8. Inserting a Select List and Assigning the Default Display Item
    9. Adding Check Boxes for Multiple Selectable Options
    10. Placing a Textarea to Accept Freeform Text Entry
    11. Placing Buttons to Submit and Reset the Form
    12. Build a Form-to-Email Processing Page with Server Behaviors
    13. Editing an Existing Server Behavior
    14. Now Try This
  14. 9. Setting Styles Dynamically
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Setting Up Your Base Styles
    4. Build Color Scheme Style Sheets
    5. Creating Color-Friendly Images
    6. Using the CSS Switcher Extensions
    7. Now Try This
  15. 10. Creating a Rotating Ad System in ASP.NET
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Serving Rotating Banner Ads
    4. Uploading Files by Applying a Server Behavior
    5. Creating an Upload Page for Ad Administration
    6. Prepare a Database Connection to Track Click-Through Traffic
    7. Writing the ADO.NET Code to Track Click-Throughs
    8. Now Try This
  16. 11. Creating Dynamic Navigation with Server.Execute
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Designing with <div> Tags and Includes
    4. Creating the Includes
    5. Powering the Content Switcher with Server.Execute
    6. Now Try This
  17. 12. Producing a Sophisticated Interface for CMS with ColdFusion
    1. It Works Like This
    2. Preparing to Work
    3. Setting Up Your Base Pages
    4. The Administrator Home Page
      1. Creating the Recordset
      2. Building the Master-Detail Page Set
    5. Inserting New Records
    6. Editing and Deleting Records
    7. Now Try This
  18. A. Installing Extensions
  19. B. Creating Database Connections
    1. Creating ColdFusion Data Sources
    2. Creating ASP.NET Database Connections
    3. Creating PHP MySQL Database Connections

Product information

  • Title: Macromedia® Dreamweaver® MX 2004 Magic
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: December 2003
  • Publisher(s): New Riders
  • ISBN: 9780735713789