Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual: The Missing Manual

by David Sawyer McFarland

Overview

Available for both the Mac and Windows, Macromedia's Dreamweaver 8 is a professional web design and development program used by millions of Internet professionals to build high-quality static and dynamic database-driven web sites. It offers drag-and-drop simplicity, streamlined HTML coding tools, and powerful database integration features. But Dreamweaver 8 is missing one vital component: a printed manual.

Enter Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual, the completely revised fourth edition of this bestselling book by experienced web site trainer, Macromedia Certified instructor, and Dreamweaver Advisory Council member David McFarland. This book enables both first-time and experienced web designers to create visually stunning and highly interactive web sites.

With crystal-clear writing and much welcome humor, this new edition offers features such as:

• Live examples: With McFarland's step-by-step annotated tutorials, you'll learn how to construct a state-of-the-art commercial web site, complete with working forms, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and dynamic databases.
• Tricks of the trade: The book is bursting with undocumented workarounds and shortcuts for easing the process of building, maintaining, and updating professional web sites.
• Design guidance: You'll learn to create virtually every modern web feature, including forms, animations, cascading menus, and more--and you'll find out which browsers you need to provide special coding or do extra testing with.

No matter what your level of expertise is, you'll also learn how to manage your entire web site-whether you've just launched or if it's been around for awhile and takes up thousands of pages. Beginners with no web design experience will appreciate the step-by-step guide to designing, organizing, building, and deploying a web site; long-time Dreamweaver users will appreciate the advanced, real-world techniques for controlling the appearance of their web pages with CSS.

With more than 500 illustrations, a handcrafted index, and the clarity of thought that has made bestsellers of every Missing Manual to date, this is the ultimate atlas for the complex and powerful Dreamweaver 8.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596553227
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/23/2005
Series:	Missing Manual Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	960
File size:	31 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

David McFarland has been designing web sites since 1995. He's a professional web designer and educator who has worked with the University of California at Berkeley, Intuit, and Macworld magazine among others. He is a frequent speaker at web-related conferences and teaches web design and development at Portland State University. He is a Macromedia Certified instructor and a member of the Dreamweaver Advisory Council.

Table of Contents

	The Missing Credits	xi
	Introduction	1
Part 1	Building a Web Page
Chapter 1	Dreamweaver 8 Guided Tour	15
	Welcome to Dreamweaver 8	15
	The Dreamweaver 8 Interface	18
	The Dreamweaver Test Drive	28
Chapter 2	Adding Text to Your Web Pages	57
	Adding Text in Dreamweaver	57
	Copying and Pasting Text	62
	Selecting Text	68
	Spell Checking	70
	Undo, Redo, and the History Panel	72
Chapter 3	Text Formatting	75
	Paragraph Formatting	75
	Lists	82
	Character Formatting	89
Chapter 4	Links	103
	Understanding Links	103
	Adding a Link	108
	Adding an Email Link	115
	Linking Within a Web Page	116
	Modifying a Link	120
Chapter 5	Images	123
	Adding Images	124
	Modifying an Image	127
	Editing Graphics	134
	Image Maps	142
	Rollover Images	144
	Flash Buttons	146
	Flash Text	150
	Tutorial: Adding Rollover Images	154
Part 2	Building a Better Web Page
Chapter 6	Cascading Style Sheets	161
	Cascading Style Sheet Basics	161
	Creating Styles	165
	Using Styles	168
	Manipulating Styles	173
	More about Styles	180
	Advanced Styles	186
	Style Properties	192
	Cascading Style Sheets Tutorial	208
Chapter 7	Page Layout 101	223
	Using Guides to Align Page Elements	224
	Table Basics	228
	Layout Mode	230
	Inserting a Table in Standard View	245
	Selecting Parts of a Table in Standard View	248
	Expanded Table Mode	249
	Formatting Tables	251
	Modifying Cell and Row Properties in Standard View	254
	Adding and Removing Cells	261
	Merging and Splitting Cells	264
	Nesting Tables in Standard View	266
	Tabular Data	266
	Tables Tutorial	271
Chapter 8	Advanced Page Layout	293
	Introducing CSS Layout	293
	The Basics	295
	Creating CSS Styles for Layers	296
	Applying the Layer Style	303
	Drawing with the Layer Tool	307
	The Layers Panel	308
	Modifying Layer Properties	309
	Nesting Layers	312
	CSS Layout Tutorial	314
Chapter 9	Under the Hood: HTML	327
	Roundtrip HTML	327
	Code View	330
	Quick Tag Editor	344
	Tag Inspector	346
	Comparing Versions of a Web Page	347
	Reference Panel	354
	Inserting JavaScript	355
Part 3	Bringing Your Pages to Life
Chapter 10	Forms	361
	Form Basics	362
	Creating a Form	363
	Adding Form Elements	366
	Validating Forms	382
	Forms Tutorial	385
Chapter 11	Dreamweaver Behaviors	399
	Understanding Behaviors	399
	Applying Behaviors	402
	Events	406
	The Actions, One by One	411
	Creating an External JavaScript Library	441
	Adding More Behaviors	443
Chapter 12	Flash, Shockwave, and Other Multimedia	445
	Flash	446
	Flash Elements	452
	Flash Video	458
	FlashPaper	461
	Shockwave	461
	Other Multimedia Controls	464
Part 4	Building a Web Site
Chapter 13	Introducing Site Management	467
	Structuring a Web Site	468
	Viewing a Site Map	487
	Site Assets	492
Chapter 14	Testing Your Site	499
	Site Launch Checklist	499
	Check Browser Support	501
	Validating Web Pages	506
	Find and Fix Broken Links	510
	Cleaning Up HTML (and XHTML)	518
	Site Reporting	521
	Accessibility	525
	Download Statistics	528
Chapter 15	Moving Your Site to the Internet	531
	Defining a Remote Site	532
	Transferring Files	542
	Check In and Check Out	551
	Synchronizing Site Files	557
	Communicating with Design Notes	561
Part 5	Dreamweaver Power
Chapter 16	Snippets and Libraries	573
	Snippets Basics	573
	Using Snippets	574
	Creating Snippets	575
	Built-in Snippets	579
	Library Basics	580
	Creating and Using Library Items	581
	Editing Library Items	583
	Snippets and Library Tutorial	586
Chapter 17	Templates	593
	Template Basics	593
	Creating a Template	596
	Defining Editable Regions	598
	Adding Optional Regions	610
	Nested Templates	617
	Building Pages Based on a Template	621
	Updating a Template	626
	Template Tutorial	630
Chapter 18	Automating Dreamweaver	641
	The History Panel Revisited	641
	Creating a Web Photo Album	646
	Find and Replace	649
Chapter 19	Customizing Dreamweaver	665
	Keyboard Shortcuts	665
	Dreamweaver Extensions	670
Part 6	Dynamic Dreamweaver
Chapter 20	Getting Started with Dynamic Web Sites	681
	Pieces of the Puzzle	683
	Dynamic Web Sites: The Setup	689
	Databases: A Quick Introduction	695
	Creating a Dynamic Page	698
	Connecting to a Database	699
Chapter 21	Adding Dynamic Data to Your Pages	705
	Retrieving Information	705
	Adding Dynamic Information	722
	Displaying Multiple Records	726
	Recordset Navigation	730
	Viewing Live Data	734
	Master Detail Page Set	737
	Passing Information Between Pages	740
	Tutorial: Displaying Database Info	744
Chapter 22	Web Pages that Manipulate Database Records	763
	Adding Data	763
	Updating Database Records	770
	Dynamic Form Fields	776
	Deleting Records	783
	Tutorial: Inserting and Updating Data	788
Chapter 23	Advanced Dynamic Site Features	807
	Password-Protecting Web Pages	807
	Additional Data Sources	818
	Advanced Server Behaviors	826
	Tutorial: Authentication	830
Chapter 24	XML and XSLT	841
	What Is XML?	842
	Building a Static Page from an XML File	847
	Creating Dynamic Pages with XSLT and XML	851
	Inserting and Formatting XML	855
	Advanced XSLT Tricks	867
	XML and XSLT Tutorial	872
Part 7	Appendixes
Appendix A	Getting Help	883
	Getting Help from Dreamweaver	883
	What's New	883
	Getting Help from Macromedia	884
	Help from the Real World	886
	Help Creating Your Own Extensions	887
Appendix B	Dreamweaver 8, Menu by Menu	889
	File Menu	889
	Edit Menu	892
	View Menu	894
	Insert Menu	896
	Modify Menu	898
	Text Menu	900
	Commands Menu	901
	Site Menu	903
	Window Menu	905
	Help Menu	907
	Index	909

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
Dreamweaver 8 is superb. Its printed documentation? Not so much. Which gives you an excuse to get a book that's better than anyone's "official" printed documentation.

Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual guides you gently and quickly through all the basics, then turns to enhancing your web page with CSS and other sophisticated page layout techniques. There's a full section on Dreamweaver's impressive interactivity, from forms and behaviors to Flash. There are detailed introductions to site management, testing, and publishing.

But this is a big book. So there's plenty of room for Dreamweaver 8's most powerful features, too. They're all covered in depth, from advanced server behaviors to XSLT. Throughout, David Sawyer McFarland annotates his step-by-step instructions with real, working insights. And roughly half the chapters contain live tutorials walking you through real development assignments. You won't just rely on this book: You'll look forward to doing so. Bill Camarda, from the November 2006 Read Only