1. Layout – This deals with how the page is going to look, where the navigation is going to be, the placement of graphics, tables, etc.
2. Color Schemes – This deals with what the primary colors of your site are going to be. Afterall, you want the colors on your site to be consitent and to compliment each other.
3. Main graphics – This includes the header of your page, how big the header is going to be, other major graphics that you may want to include as a part of the design of your site.
4. Tables – This is a part of almost any site, but it has to do with the order, structure, and look of your site.

Unless you are very creative and have had special designing classes, here is my primary suggestion:

Use Dreamweaver templates in building your web sites.

I have used many of them. Some paid. Some free. I have designed a few of them myself, but after a while, I ran low on creativity. I have also paid a firm in Dallas to create one for me.

I went to Google and typed in “Dreamweaver Templates. This pulls up a bunch of free and paid templates.

The free templates are not bad, and are good for creating a simple site. You will get what you paid for here… some free stuff. Let me caution you, though, on the free stuff. It may not be as free as you think.  Many times the programmers embed hidden or encrypted links from your site to theirs. This is especially true with WordPress templates. Be careful when you get something free, because you’ll end up paying for it one way or another. These are bad for hobbies and personal sites.

The paid templates are not bad. I got most of mine from Template Monster. They will cost you about $40-$60, give or take a little bit. You get a template with the HTML, Javascript, Flash, and CSS code. It has a bunch of graphics that come with it, and it’s all been laid out for you. You just need to make a few tweaks here and there to customize it. It would help if you had a program to edit the graphics, especially the PSD formatted graphics. I recommend Template Monster because you aren’t going to get any hidden or encrypted code. If you want to make money or run a small business, then try these paid templates. You can really get a professional look.

Custom Templates are great, but be willing to pay. I paid $1200 for my custom template. It was done by a company in Dallas, 123Triad.  They did great work. Generally speaking, you give them some design ideas, graphic ideas, etc. They send you back one or two ideas and work with their team to come up with a possible layout and design, and then you choose what looks good or sounds good. They give you 3-5 ideas for proofing. You make suggestions back and forth, and you finally have your finished design. The good thing about this is it is 100% unique to you and no one else can copy it. The custom templates are great if you are launching a major business or have been in business for a while and want to step up your professional appearance.

I suggest using templates, especially if you are going to be working on multiple sites over time. Fork out a few bucks, and you have a very professional look and design. It can also save you tons of hours of the initial design process.

1. Adobe Dreamweaver
2. Coffee Cup
3. Web Studio
4. Microsoft FrontPage

There are a dozen other ones, and then there are about a hundred other free HTML editors out on the market.  But… why Dreamweaver?

Here is one HUGE reason why – Jobs!!

If you go to any job listings board, Monster.com, Careers.com, or even just go to Google and do a search for “Dreamweaver Jobs,” you will find dozens, hundreds, and in some listings, even 2,000+ listings for employers wanting canidates with DW skills. Take a second and go take a look for yourself.

Not once did I see any listings for someone looking for a person who was good at WYSIWYG, FrontPage, Coffee Cup, or anything else. If there are, they aren’t going to be a serious employer.

The Bottom Line – The top employers and companies out there want a person to know how to use Dreamweaver. All these companies know that this is the number 1 HTML editor on the market. It is the standard by which all other editors are judged.

If, building your resume’ and making yourself more employable by being able to code and edit, so that a top company would want to hire you, then it is time you take the steps to learn Adobe Dreamweaver CS5. Period!!

Listen, it’s not that hard. I taught myself with a book I bought at Barnes and Noble more than a dozen years ago. But, it’s even easier these days with the online video tutorials.

As 2012 gets underway, take the time, learn, hone your skills, and build your resume.

Get plugged into a Dreamweaver Video Tutorial today.

Dreamweaver, Frontpage, and others all have this. If you have this, do you really need to learn to code?

I would say… definitely yes. Let me give you 3 reasons why you need to learn HTML, CSS, javascript, or whatever:

First, the code is more simple. If there are two programmers who design a web page that look very similar – one did it by coding the page – the other did it by using the WYSIWYG editor – here is what I found.

The person who did the coding would have almost half, if not less, actual code on the page. If you look at the actual source code that a WYSIWYG produces, it is at least twice as much code than the coder’s.

Simple code is easier to manage, easier to edit, and simply looks better (which would be important if you are not the only one viewing the code).

Second, coded pages rank better than WYSIWYG pages. While this is a very general statement, if all things were equal, and you had the same two near-identical pages again, the simpler page would rank better because it loads faster and is more easily read by the browsers.

I have seen this when I go to Google. I can find two pages that are similar. The coded page gets ranked higher.

Granted, there are many, many, many ranking factors when it comes time to get your web pages ranked in the search engines, but why not put things in your favor and learn to code.

Third, learning to code will get you a better job. Again, a general statement, but, who would you rather hire if you were the boss? If all things are relatively equal, except that one guy coded his pages and the other guy was a WYSIWYG guy… hands down the coder gets the job.

Why? Learning code takes extra work. It takes extra commitment. It demonstrates you will go the extra mile to get the job done right, and best. That is the kind of guy that gets hired and promoted, over the lazier person who plays with his WYSIWYG editor.

Take it for what it’s worth… but learn to code. It will not be a skill you’ll regret having taking the time to learn.

1. Go to the help menu within Dreamweaver and try and search for your issue. This is okay, but can be a bit hard to understand, and sometimes the index of the help menu never cooresponds with what you’re looking for.
2. You can go to Google and search for it. You can search for “HTML Table Attributes” and see what comes up. Then, dig through the different websites as one person tells you to be using CSS to control your tables and another person showing you how to use the style attribute to add it right into the Table tag. I did this for a long time. For several years, this was the only option. I would search, find, and code. It works, but I wasted a lot of time.
3. You can go to Barnes and Noble and get an HTML book. Not a bad idea.  I did this as well. I spent about $30 and bought a pretty comprehensive book on learning HTML. I used it as a reference for quite a long time. For the most part, this worked. But, a book like this has it’s limitations. In reality, you need about 3 or 4 books that will cover all the different aspects of coding. Still, with the pictures and examples, this is a good choice.
4. Then came along Dreamweaver Video Tutorials. Here is why I like them. With the right tutorials, you can easily find what you’re looking for.  In our example, we are looking for information on Table Attributes. You can watch, listen, and copy what is being done. Having someone talk you through the coding, the different variations and options, and then letting you see how the code looks, followed by examples, that is actually a better way to learn, retain, and emmulate what needs to be done in developing your website.

You can certainly do what you want. I like items #3 and #4 the most. I still like books. But, I prefer to watch, listen and learn.

One of the other things I like about watching video tutorials is that during the instruction the teacher will show you advanced ways to use that same code to take your websites to a higher level. That is something that you cannot pickup in any of the other 3 methods… at least not that easily.

On this site, I am not a part of or working for any particular company. I recommend the “Ask Brian Wood” video series because I think his stuff is the most comprehensive, easiest to follow, has the best understanding of Adobe products, and has very good, quick customer service. You can see a few of the banners on our site for the Ask Brian Wood Dreamweaver Video Tutorials. If you’re able to, I think they are the best of the best.

My first impression of Muse is that it is Adobe giving in to the Microsoft Frontpage-type audience and trying to reach an audience they have not been able to reach before – those people who either don’t want to spend the money on a full size, top of the line program like Dreamweaver, or those people who will never, ever want to learn HTML, and settle for some half-baked website.

As I looked at Muse a little closer, it is trying to compete against iWeb, Expression Web, Coffee Cup, and Frontpage, but wanting to take it up a notch were you do have more control over your site. You can place things with more precision and design a site that is much closer to using a real, grown-up editor like Dreamweaver.  It is a true WYSIWYG editor. I imagine it is a bit rough around the edges, and early users may get a bit frustrated. Waiting for version 2.0 may be a better option once they get plenty of user feedback on how to make it better.

All the stuff you learn from your Dreamweaver Courses about HTML, CSS, etc. – throw it out the window. You won’t need it with Muse. It is not made for people who even have a rudimentary understanding of HTML.

One of the early complaints from some of the early users is that there are no templates and help with design. This is kind of important for those who are just getting started. I’m sure there will be templates created on the secondary market for people to purchase, but all you’re getting is the program, and that’s it.

My opinion is that Adobe entered a market that wasn’t necessary for it to enter. In reality, Dreamweaver has a WYSIWYG editor. You can build a site that is split screen or just the WYSIWYG editor. I have a friend who uses Dreamweaver CS4, and he has never touched a line of code. He just builds from the WYSIWYG editor, makes adjustments with the editor boxes at the bottom of the screen, and builds some nice sites.

I think the folks in the board room at Adobe got this one wrong. Why enter that market when you are the king of the universe with Dreamweaver? I don’t think Muse was built to be a stepping stone. If anything, make DW a little more friendly on the WYSIWYG side of things to capture a bigger audience there.

So, try it if you like, but I can think of something better to do with $149 than to buy Muse. You could buy the academic version of DW for about that price and have the best. Oh well… they didn’t ask me. Save your money and your brain and stick with Dreamweaver.

I have found the process pretty much the same in both versions of Dreamweaver, and even all the way back to version 8.  There may be just a few minor differences, but the process is all the same.

One of the things to practice when you are done with the video is to be able to add an image in the WYSIWYG mode, and then being able to add an image in the code section of your screen. This can give you practice in both and may allow you to control the placement with more precision.

So, open Dreamweaver, open a page, and follow along with the video below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Like I mentioned in the last post, there needs to be a balance of textual content and the colors and graphics on your site.  Here are a few things to avoid first of all:

1. Stay away from the animated GIF sites. The last thing you want is to make your site look like is from 2003 with all of the flashing arrows, dancing monkeys, and bouncing balls.
2. Don’t put up a huge picture. When you take a photo with your digital camera, it is about 3-5 mb. in size. You don’t want that on your site. It will take forever to load.
3. Don’t just slap up a graphic or photo. It looks sloppy.

Here are a few tips for actually using graphics on Dreamweaver:

1. Organize your photos and graphics. Put them in tables, align them into the text of y our webpage. Place them on your site in an organized fashion. This is usually done by using the <table> commands and putting them in columns and rows. Or, you can use the align=”right” command to place the picture on the right side of your text.
2. Get a simple photo editor like Adobe Photoshop Elements and learn to resize your photos and make them smaller. Realistically, you can take a 3 meg photo and reduce it in diminsion and size to where it is now only 70-100K, with little loss of resolution for a standard web page.  If you really need the high res photo, then put the 70K photo on your webpage as a link to the larger 3meg file. The primary key here is faster page load time.
3. Make sure your photos stay within the theme of your site as best as you can.
4. Don’t steal photos. Use your own or use a service like http://www.bigstockphoto.com  I use them all the time. They have tens of thousands of photos and graphics for any theme or niche. They are dirt cheap.  I usually get the smaller, 1 credit photos, which are more than enough for what I need on my site. Listen, the very last thing you need is a letter from a lawyer demanding you remove their photo from your site and pay them a settlement fine. Stick with royalty free images.
5. Finally, check out other sites in your niche. Find the ones that are ranked well and doing well. See how they are using graphics and then use some of their ideas to build your own.

The different Dreamweaver Video Courses will teach you how to add graphics and images to your site. The right use of graphics are your site can and will set your website apart from others. Some people just don’t bother and their sites are boring. Some just throw up a bunch of photos and it’s a mess. Do it right and you’ll build a loyal base of visitors to your site.

Tip #1 – Plan your site first – This may sound completely obvious, but most people skip it. In other words, what are you truly wanting to share on your site? What are the main pages/topics going to be about? How do you plan to grow your site on an ongoing basis? Just get out a piece of paper and write down the main topic or niche of your site. Under that, write the 3 – 10 different main sub-topics. These will be the main pages of your site.

Tip #2 – Planning for growth – This is the second step before design. You now have the main topic/niche, and then 3-10 subtopics or pages. Now, each of those subtopics is probably going to have a few pages coming off of it as sub-subtopics. This is the growth of your site. You will be adding to your site by building pages off of your sub-topic pages. These are like “support” pages that provide depth to your site.

Tip #3 – Site layout. You need to consider a design that supports this kind of layout. It’s like a heirarchy of pages. Do you want the navigation menu on the top, left or right side? How wide do you want your site? 720-1000 pixels is about norm these days. Will your site have columns or tables? I hope so. It helps organize your information so it doesn’t look like someone threw up on your web page.  Sketch out on paper the layout. When in doubt, go to the top websites on the internet and see how they look.

Tip #4 – Put together some color schemes. Don’t go crazy here. You want color schemes with colors that work together. Again, you are not going for a design that looks like someone threw up on your page. One cool trick is to go down to a hardware/paint store and look at all the color swatches and see how those colors blend and work together. They pay people thousands of dollars to coordinate those colors. You can benefit from their work. That’s probably the best advice on this whole page.

Tip #5 – You need a balance of graphics, text, video, social media, etc. – The reason I said balance is that you need to build a site that is first of all for human visitors. Humans like content, pictures, video, etc. That is what keeps them on your site and not hitting the back button too quickly. However, you also want to build a site that is friendly to the search engines so they can index your site, so that people can find it when they search in Google. Google cannot read video, graphics, animation, flash, etc. If your site is only graphics, Google will not be able to read it. You need to have a decent amount of text as well so that Google can know what your site is all about. Like anything, you need balance. All text is boring, boring, boring. Too much graphics, animation, and jumping monkeys on your site can be turn off as well.

Just understand, you are not creating the first ever website. It may be your first ever website using a Dreamweaver Tutorial, but you’re really not creating something brand new that’s never been done before.  Go and study some other sites that you like, take bits and pieces of their ideas to help create your own. Web Design, especially with Dreamweaver, is fun and rewarding. It’s even more rewarding when you follow some of these tips and you build something that gets ranked well and great reviews from your visitors.

Merely finding a site installed and operating is just one half the battle. The site ought to be developed taking specific factors into account. A negative web design choice can potentially cripple your site. So examine a few key elements to bear in mind when coming up with our web site.

Right on top of your list is your target market. Every site has a unique potential audience and should really be made accordingly. Content will be as important as colors, artwork, typography and also design of the webpage.

Very clear communication is crucial when coming up with a web site. After all the intention of the site would be to supply an exact message to your market so communication is essential. Think of the long-term ramifications of your website design. A web page filled up with showy animated graphics might attract a number of internet browsers at first, but could shortly fizzle out as consumers encounter problems with bad website functionality, reduced speed of launching websites and insufficient content.

Your web-site really should be intriguing, notable and fact filled, effortless to navigate as well as good enough to return to over and over. Make your webpage users really feel invited and secure if navigating your website and don’t at any time compromise user friendliness for style. A site with stunning designs but very poor navigation is certain to irk your visitors and leave them disappointed.

Thorough focus to detail demonstrates your professionalism. Don’t clutter your site with all types of material but maintain a beneficial steadiness of content material, images, typography, colorings and also content labeling. Superior typography plus a right mixture of colors unobtrusively increases your web site with high caliber craftsmanship.

If we want to develop our business in The Web, then it’s recommended to produce the best inventive site, so people can visit our web site and want to go ahead and take specifics of our services and products. It is said that the first impression may be the final impression as well as your web-site will be the very first impression on your target prospective clients. The impression should be put together by your innovative internet site in customer’s mind so it will be vital to make more innovative web page for first impression on our client’s mindset so that they want to visit the web-site yet again. To create one of the most original website, comply with below guidelines.

1. About Pages
If you want to get the thoughts of your visitors, then feedback is important. A “Contact Us” page can help to begin a relationship among you and the customers. You must offer your email address so a customer can contact you for support. An “About Us” page must be included to supply the information regarding your company. The information may be year of establishment, growth, and also name of country from where you work. You need a link to these places on your Home Page.

3. Professional
Your internet site needs to be professional, in proper title pages. This content needs to be well positioned and any unnecessary content has to be avoided. With a brand new site, it needs to be able to show your visitors that your site is growing. Don’t be afraid of too much white space either. Let the white space frame and border your content so visitors can easily view and read your site.