Smaaz’s Blog

Using PHP Buttons In Dreamweaver

I’ll admit that I am not a coder and I don’t know much more than a tiny bit of PHP at the time of writing this. However, I have managed to create database driven webpages, and even password protected members only areas due to the extremely easy to use PHP buttons in Dreamweaver.

If you are interested in learning to do this for yourself, this lesson will point you in the right direction so that you can experiment and see for yourself how easy it is.

The first thing you need to do is to create an SQL database on your webhost. This can be done via CPanel or if not that, then ask your host how…anyways, creating an SQL database with 1 table is not hard.

The key is, to create it, record the information and then try to log in to that database via Dreamweaver.

You can do this by creating a new database connection in the ‘Application’ window of Dreamweaver.

This is one of the most challenging parts, and you’ll need to set up the site’s testing server. At first this can be tricky, but if you stick with it and get connected to your SQL databas via Dreamweaver, you’ll soon find ways to insert records, display records, and much more!

You see, once you are connected to the database, the table names will dynamically show up in Dreamweaver, and from there it is only a short step to learn how to insert records, repeat records, and display data in the database.

Of course reading a book can help you with PHP, but it is also fun to just jump right in the Dreamweaver buttons.

Even a total PHP dunce like myself was able to start creating little PHP/SQL applications once I figured out these basic steps.

So if you want to create PHP applications, but don’t know how to hand-code PHP, create a PHP/SQL database with 1 table, figure out how to connect to it via Dreamweaver, and start messing around with the Dreamweaver PHP buttons.

Add comment November 28th, 2007

Special Image Techniques with Dreamweaver CS3

Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 allows users to create web pages easily, using intuitive menus and buttons rather than learning cryptic HTML coding. Dreamweaver courses can help new users become comfortable more quickly, and can teach even advanced users a few new tricks. Here are some examples of the advanced techniques a student can pick up one of these courses.

Use the Alt field to reach all viewers
One problem with images is that not everyone can see them. Some visitors may be vision impaired and “viewing” your page on software that reads the text to them. Others might have images turned off so they can browse the web faster. If you put important information in your images, those visitors may be frustrated and leave, leading to lost business. Alt fields are also important places to insert keywords to enhance your search engine ranking.

When Dreamweaver courses teach you how to insert images into your web pages, they will discuss the Alt field on the property inspector. This is a line of text that will be displayed in browsers that have images turned off, or will be read to vision impaired visitors. By making your web site accessible to all users, you are able to serve a larger customer base and take a step toward improving your search engine ranking.

Use image maps for easy site navigation
Basic Dreamweaver courses demonstrate how easy it is to add images to your web site. At its simplest, an image is simply a decoration on the page. It is easy to turn the entire image into a link to allow the user to click on a thumbnail to see the full size image. Heat map studies have shown that users are more likely to click on images than on hyperlinked text.

A more sophisticated use of an image taught in Dreamweaver courses is to allow the user to click on different parts of the image to go to different destinations. For example, a travel agent could use a map of Europe to allow users to easily select their destination country and list hotels and other amenities in that region.

Give a page some flair with a background image
Most images on web pages are foreground images that the text flows around. Dreamweaver courses teach students how to add a background image that will display behind the text. A simple texture can give a page the appearance of parchment or vellum. A landscaping company might want a background of lush vegetation. Another company might want copy of the company logo behind the text on every page like a watermark.

A background image can add sophistication to a page and can even transmit subtle messages to the visitor. However, care must be used that such images don’t interfere with the text. The colours should be muted and low-contrast and the final product should be viewed at a variety of resolutions to be sure the desired effect is maintained. 

The Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on a Dreamweaver courses, visit http://www.MicrosoftTraining.net/. 

Add comment November 14th, 2007

Dreamweaver’s Approach To Css

Because of its ability to separate design from content, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) has become an extremely important technology in web development. A single CSS document can contain information regarding the position of elements on all the pages in a web site as well as style information such as font, sizes and colours. In terms of building websites, CSS definitely represents the future.

Adobe Dreamweaver has long had support for the use of CSS and has responded to the growing importance of this pivotal technology. Dreamweaver’s implementation of CSS is all the more important since many of the people using the program are not specialist web developers and rely on Dreamweaver to guide them through the maze of technologies which drive web pages.

Dreamweaver CS3 is the first version of the program which assumes that the user will want to use CSS to control the layout of their web pages. To assist inexperienced and would-be web developers, each time a new page is created, the program allows the user to choose allocate a preset CSS layout to the page. There are about 30 such layouts and they come in single, double and three column varieties.

CSS page layout is based in the DIV element, an HTML container which can be used to hold an arbitrary amount of web content. The CSS rules control the appearance and positioning of DIVs on the page. Dreamweaver CS3’s preset CSS layouts create a series of DIVs containing placeholder text and basic formatting. The placeholder text, as well as the code underlying the page, both contain useful explanations of how the page has been constructed and a few tips on how to personalise them.

CSS works most efficiently when you can place all of your CSS code in one external file and link that file to each of your HTML pages. Dreamweaver CS3 still does not make it easy for inexperienced users to create CSS-based pages in this way. If the user creates ten web pages based on Dreamweaver’s preset CSS designs, each will have its own code embedded within the page itself. There is, however, a great feature for moving embedded code across to an external CSS file. You just select a series of CSS definitions, right-click and choose “Move CSS Rules” which is available in the “CSS Styles” section of the context menu.

Moving CSS code into an external file is not something a beginner would be expected to think of doing and is not something that Dreamweaver recommends to new users. So, in spite of the improvements, some familiarity with CSS is still required to get Dreamweaver to handle CSS efficiently.

It is also disappointing that Dreamweaver still automatically generates CSS styles called “style1”, etc. each time the user applies a font or colour to selected text. Surely it would be easier to simply remove these basic attributes and just let the user either apply a style to the selection or, if no styles exist, create a new one. Perhaps this will be introduced in the next release of this excellent program.

The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Solutions, an independent computer training company offering Adobe Dreamweaver training courses in London and throughout the UK.

Add comment October 9th, 2007

Dreamweaver’s Approach To Website Accessibility

Accessibility, in the context of websites, refers to the degree to which the content you add to your web site can be accessed by your audience; all of them, not just the able bodied ones and those with 20/20 vision. Accessible websites offer good support for screen readers, cater for users who browse the web without viewing graphics and who wish to magnify the text on your pages to a level comfortable for their eyesight.

Dreamweaver has a number of features which enable web developers to ensure that content on their pages Is accessible. There are useful dialogs which appear automatically when content added to a page can be made accessible. Dreamweaver also allows web page creators to check their pages for any accessibility issues.

The main settings in Dreamweaver are located by choosing Edit - Preferences. On the left of the Preferences screen there are a series of categories. In the General category, you should ensure that the option to use CSS instead of HTML tags is activated. Also, in the Accessibility category, you should switch on all of the checkboxes for displaying a dialog of relevant accessibility attributes for form object, media (Flash, video etc.) and form elements.

So what is the result of switching on these various preferences? Well, firstly, Dreamweaver will use CSS tags whenever you format text or the background of the page. The CSS tags contain the formatting information and will be placed in the head area of the page away from the content which will be in the page body. The program will also display a dialog box with accessibility options each time you insert an image, form field or media element such as a Flash movie or video clip.

Thus, whenever you add an image to a page, a dialog will appear prompting you for alternate (alt) text. This attribute makes images more accessible by providing a description of the images to users accessing the web with a slow connection as they wait for the image to load or who have disabled the display of images. The alt text will also be spoken by the screen readers commonly used by web surfers with impaired vision.

In addition to the alt text, Dreamweaver also allows you to browse for or enter a path leading to a long description file. This option relates to HTML’s longdesc attribute which should be used for images whose content is too detailed or too important to be described in the short alt text.

When the accessibility options relating to forms are active, Dreamweaver will display a dialog of options every time a form or form element is added to the page. The first set of options relates to the addition of the LABEL tag which serves to associate descriptive text labels with the form control to which they relate. The dialog also allows you to specify the order in which elements will be accessed by pressing the Tab key on the keyboard.

Similarly, if you add a media element to a page, the accessibility dialog pops up and prompts you to enter up to three elements: a title, an access key and a tab index. The title should be a description of the media element and serves a similar function as the alt text which is used with images. The access key is an optional keyboard shortcut which can be used to make the media element active. The tab index is a number which indicates the position of the element in the tab order for that page. The tab order is the order in which elements are accessed when the user presses the Tab key.

Dreamweaver not only gives you help in making your page content accessible, it will also check your pages to see if they contain elements which are not accessible. To use the accessibility utility, click on the File menu then on Check Page and finally on Accessibility. The utility runs and then displays a list of elements on the page which are not accessible. If you double-click on any of the items in the list, the code representing it will be instantly highlighted allowing you to edit it.

The writer of this article is a trainer and developer with Macresource Computer Solutions, a UK IT training company offering Adobe Dreamweaver Classes in London and throughout the UK.

Add comment October 8th, 2007

How Dreamweaver Courses for Your Marketing Staff Can Cut IT Payroll Expenses

So many companies overload their IT staff with work that other department staff could be handling! With the IT staff generally being among the high paid staff members in the company, it just doesn’t make sense to bog them down with rudimentary tasks that others could be handling before they pass their projects on to the IT department. In London, where pay rates are significantly higher than almost anywhere in the world, sending your staff to Dreamweaver courses in London is a smart and economical move.

Why send your staff to Dreamweaver courses?
There are many people within a company that work on projects that eventually end up in the IT department. Copywriters, editors, marketing staff, and many more all help develop web-based content and products. So why shouldn’t they attend Dreamweaver courses? In London, people working in various areas of the company tend to be highly tech savvy. If given the right training, they could easily take some of the load off of your IT department.

For example, imagine a company that publishes a great deal of web content. Those who write content for your website or marketing newsletters can make it very easy or very difficult for your IT department to publish the content they provide. Passed along to IT in an HTML un-friendly format means that the web developer has to do a lot of extra work to strip out the formatting and position the design elements correctly.

After taking one or two Dreamweaver courses in London, these same writers and marketers can learn how to develop their content in Dreamweaver and pass them along to the web developer to be uploaded in one quick and easy step. Dreamweaver is not a complicated program and learning how to use it only requires a few days of Dreamweaver courses. In London where you can’t afford to lose time by sending employees to a semester-long course, these power-packed one or two day courses are a way to get results quickly.

What They’ll Learn in Dreamweaver Courses
In London, there are opportunities to get your staff up to date with the basics of Dreamweaver in just a few days. Best Training is one such provider of Dreamweaver courses in London that offers training both at your office or their London venues. A 1-day basic Dreamweaver course covers everything from introduction, to CSS formatting, to FTP publishing. A 1-day intermediate course covers more advanced material such as forms, behaviours and layers.

If you’re looking for ways to reduce payroll expenses, why not reduce the workload of your top paid employees by training others to handle some of their tasks! Asking copywriters and those who develop marketing materials to do these tasks is not beyond their scope. In fact, in many companies, those in these roles regularly use Dreamweaver and have a grasp of HTML. More than likely, they’ll appreciate the offer to learn more about this technology by attending Dreamweaver courses in London! 

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information about Dreamweaver courses in London, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net 

Add comment August 15th, 2007