Dreamweave MX 2004

[N00bie]

Hey Guys,

Im just finished doing my Cisco CCNA, but unfortuantely cannot find work.
Im looking at maybe doing some web design at Bedford college.

Should i look at doing this in Dreamweaver or doing a more basic XHTML and HTML focused course. This one still uses those languages but i guess specailises more in Dreamweaver?

 

[Tripnologist]

Skip DW and learn (x)html, css and js (or a library at least - check out jquery). Then learn php or c#/.net.

DW is only good in code view.

If you try and get a job and have to tell them in the interview that you can only build pages in DW, you will not get a call back, I guarantee it.

 

[N00bie]

Ok cheers for the advice

JS= javascript right?

 

[Tripnologist]

Yup.

tbf though, I'd just start out with xhtml and css and then move on to jquery. jquery does most of the js work for you though there will be times when you will need to do a bit of actual js, but it's pretty easy to figure out as you go along.

 

[N00bie]

Ahh fair enough, ive had taste of HTML and that at college but that was years ago im afraid.

 

[Tripnologist]

xhtml and html are the same thing, it's just that xhtml has stricter rules. Spend an afternoon picking up the basics of xhtml/css and then start making pages. If you don't have any ideas, pick a website you like and recreate the home page.

 

[swinnie]

Tripnologist has hit the nail on the head.

- XHTML and CSS
- Then move onto jQuery and JavaScript
- Then pickup a server side language, such as PHP
- Maybe venture into C#/.NET Development

 

[JonB]

Start over here: http://www.tizag.com/

 

[Draeger]

If you don't have any ideas, pick a website you like and recreate the home page.

This is an excellent suggestion. When I first started out I did exactly that for a few sites and found it helps you delve deeper than you maybe would normally into the coding of a site to see what makes it "tick" and work. A really good tip from Trip.

 

[FabienO]

Figure out which you prefer. Designing sites or Coding them. I wish I could design :'(

 

[ricky1981]

I don't think there's any issue with using Dreamweaver in code view, just avoid using the Design mode as you won't learn as quickly.

Personally I used to use Notepad++ unless I was working on a large site where some of the features in Dreamweaver (more advanced find/replace, dead/orphan link checker, etc) are very useful, particularly when you are dealing with code that you didn't write in he first place. Now I tend to just do everything in Dreamweaver but that's because we use ColdFusion so there are a lot of other benefits.

 

[N00bie]

Ahh sweet cheers guys for the input, i know now where i should start.
enlisted on a course for Basic Website Development. I wanna be able to code sites and hopefully later on go into designing.

 

[Tripnologist]

Ahh sweet cheers guys for the input, i know now where i should start.
enlisted on a course for Basic Website Development. I wanna be able to code sites and hopefully later on go into designing.

Be wary, I've heard that a lot of courses are outdated.
If the instructor starts telling you to use tables for layout, deprecated tags or inline styles, you should consider a new course.