Information Technology Services

Creating a Web Site in Dreamweaver

Getting Started with Dreamweaver

• Introduction to Dreamweaver
• Setting Up A Local Site (don't skip)
• More Dreamweaver Resources

Dreamweaver is a full-featured Web editor that a majority of the professionals in the Web industry use to help them build Web pages and sites. As you can imagine, a software package that is full-featured and of professional quality will probably take some effort to learn to use, but once you are comfortable with it, the power is yours! (Plus, it will look very good on your resume...) Dreamweaver is available on all NDSU cluster workstations and the computers in the Technology Learning Center. The instrumented classroom computers also have Dreamweaver installed.

In the steps that follow, we have tried to include the practical information you will need to start using Dreamweaver, but since it is such an extensive program, we suggest you spend some time taking the tutorials which come with the package so that you have a well-rounded start to your journey.

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For Dreamweaver to work properly, it is essential that you define your site. This simply means identifying the folder that contains your Web files. Following is a link to a document explaining how to do that and more: Getting Started With Dreamweaver (PDF)

Start the Dreamweaver program. From the Start button, you might find it under Programs > Adobe > Adobe Dreamweaver CS3.

Please note that if you only keep one copy of your work on a disk or hard drive, you are playing with eventual disaster. Disks go bad, and the files are lost forever. To avoid this, each time you finish working on your project for the day, copy all the files over to another disk so that you have two copies of your work. It's called "backing up" your work, and it's a valuable habit to get into.

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• Dreamweaver CS3 Tutorials
  These tutorials are part of an online help collection developed by staff at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. These are excellent tutorials--visual, short, and clearly written--especially for students getting started with Dreamweaver. If you're a beginner, start with the tutorials under the heading "Environment." Or look through the list and try out a tutorial on a topic of interest to you.
  
  
• Dreamweaver: Free Training and Tutorials
  Wow! This Web page contains links to around 40 online learning resources for Dreamweaver. Check out the sponsor of the page intelligentedu.com: "One of the Very Best Computer & I.T. Education and Training Gateways on the Web Today!"

• Dreamweaver Depot
  This site contains links to an impressive collection of Dreamweaver Objects, Commands, Actions. A Search tool allows the user to search the site, and there are numerous links to other sites related to Dreamweaver.
  
  
• Dreamweaver: Yaromat
  This is another useful site for Dreamweaver users that contains many Dreamweaver extensions.
  
  
• Web Design: Massimo's Corner of the Web
  For the more experienced Web developer, this site contains more Dreamweaver extensions to download.
  
  
• Dreamweaver: Getting Started with Dreamweaver
  This TLMC tutorial will show you how to get started in Dreamweaver by creating a local folder and defining a site. For Dreamweaver to work properly, it is essential that you follow these guidelines.
  
  
• Web Design: Webmonkey
  This site contains a wealth of information for Web designers.
  
  
• Web Design: Creating a Web Site
  This user-friendly Web site offers short tutorials on many aspects of Web design. Great site!