Synopsis

Welcome to the Dreamweaver Basics. Web publishing is popular because content updating is easy, and that there are no hassles of colour separation associated with print media and high cost. Your content can reach masses in ways no print media can at a fraction of time and cost. Educators and students all around the world are quickly learning the ins and out of website designing and publishing. With the Dreamweaver program, you can start creating Web pages yourselves at your own workstation - saving all your pages in your own K drive; and that is all is required of you for your Web pages to become alive within the campus. Websites can vary from simple static , animated, to dynamic, database driven like Web portals such as Yahoo, Amazon.com, Audiogalaxy or Web applications such as Oddcast.com and Learning Management Sytems (LMS). Among these, only those "Websites with hyperlinks which are designed for educational purpose are called Hypermedia Learning Environments (HLEs). Hypermedia refers to a multimedia system in which contents are divided into chunk/pieces of information or nodes composed of various media and these nodes are connected by interrelated hyperlinks. Users can easily visit these chunks of information by following the embedded hyperlinks. We can say that hypermedia = multimedia + hyperlinks." [1] (Tan and Wong, 2003) In this workshop, you will learn how to author and publish Webpages one step at a time with Dreamweaver MX.

The are various types of HLEs are:

E-Learning Objects or MicroLESSONS™ - Standalone, Learning Management System (LMS) integradable reuseable and interoperable lessons & learning activities for students. Can be expositive, inquiry-based or both.

Web Quests or Web Safaris - Inquiry based online activities that embeds or route all pertinent information about an activity within and about its interface.

Virtual Field Trips - Experiential online field trips - virtual field trip that allows students risk free visits to places such as volcano craters, mangroves and war-plagued zones.

Educational Resources - Pages created to assist educators.

Scavenger Hunts - Activity based educationally directed online search projects - typically used in primary and secondary schools.

Online Tutorials - Pages that provide instruction on using a software or just how to perform certain tasks that sometimes incorporates screen capture or video play back on demand (known as dynamic visual display, or DVD in short).

In this course you will learn to develop a simple HLE with Dreamweaver MX. The tutorials are step-by-step lessons, designed to teach you the fundamentals of Web publishing. We recommend that you go through the tutorials using the sample files available in each section.

Prerequisite

Before you continue, please note that you must have the basic working knowledge of Windows. Attempt the exercises at your own pace. Cascade this window and your Dreamweaver program so that you can toggle the two. Read and attempt the exercises as you go along. Although it isn't strictly necessary it will be advisable to view the pages chronologically by clicking the hyperlinks on the left from top to bottom. That way there will be some kind of continuity. You may quit and come back anytime.

Duration

No predefined duration but you can expect to spend at least 15 to 30 minutes attempting each hands-on tutorial. There is no need to complete all tutorial in a single session. You can attempt one exercise each time and return for more. As subsequent tutorial calls for knowledge learnt and skill acquired in previous tutorials, you are advised to take short breaks in between.

By completing these hands-on tutorials, you’ll learn how to use Dreamweaver’s visual environment to add design elements as you create web pages and web applications. The tutorials are targeted toward beginner web designers who are looking to get a quick jump-start with processes they may already perform while developing web pages and applications. Each tutorial focuses on a specific web design feature or topic. We suggest that you complete the tutorials in sequence, although you may choose to review only the sections of interest to you.

Objectives

1.    State the definition of Dreamweaver;

2.    Describe how is Dreamweaver different from outher Website athoring and Management
       Tools;

3.    Describe the different parts of the Dreamweaver MX workspace;

4.    Describe two types of Websites;

5.    List the four steps in the Web creation process;

6.    Explain the different structural configurations of Websites;

7.    Perform the steps required to create a new Website in Dreamweaver MX;

8.    Explain the use of the Site Window;

9.    Set the size of a page in the document Window

10.  Design a Webpage in the layout view;

11.   Explain the use of the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) panel;

12.   Create a new CSS preset;

13.   List the file formats acceptable in browsers such as IE and Netscape;

14.   Insert images and perform namig and resizing functions;

15.   Link pages with the Property Inspector;

19.   State two other ways of linking pages

20.   Perform SIte-wide link checks for broken links.

This section ends.