Create a Website with Dreamweaver CS3

From affiliate marketers who want to create a website using the latest web applications, to web designers looking to build an engaging and interactive web experience for visitors, Dreamweaver remains the web authoring tool of choice for webmasters.

In 2007, Adobe launched Dreamweaver CS3 replacing the highly respected Dreamweaver 8. In 2006 after Adobe acquired Macromedia, the company decided to end GoLive since Dreamweaver was a far superior tool for creating websites and already had the dominant market share.

While the new CS3 edition is spectacular, it’s not for the WSYWIG crowd.

Caution Beginners: Don’t Go It Alone. Get Help Creating Your Website

Unless you’re among the rare breed who can learn how to build a website by yourself from tutorials, I recommend you get proper training in order to go further with Dreamweaver and the technical development of creating your websites.

I highly recommend a great online school, w3schools.com (it’s free), or go to the IWA for coursework for all skill levels taught by experts.

There’s also a decent basic tutorial specifically designed for Dreamweaver to teach newbies how to create a website called, The Killer Web Design Course. It is actually better than the IWA’s Introduction to Dreamweaver 4-week class since the Killer course also covers Fireworks.

Some of the Features of Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver lets you create a website with simple page construction using DWT, the Dreamweaver Template system. Or, you can create a new page from near-scratch, choosing a “New File” and selecting a Basic or Dynamic page layout, then assigning a DTD type of strict or transitional for HTML or XHTML. Click “Create” and the skeletal anatomy of a website page is ready for HTML, JSP, PHP, Coldfusion, or ASP.net AJAX.

The viewer control panels have split screens for files, assets, snippets, attributes, and behaviors on one side, while the other displays a full or split screen view for source code and the design page so you can see the results of your website creation without having to toggle. The new Spry Widgets allow the designer to grab common Ajax Elements from the toolbar.

Dreamweaver offers advanced browser compatibility testing to make sure you create a website that works in Windows, Mac, or Linux browsers. It only takes a single click to the CSS Advisor to view suggestions on how to fix a problem.

Build a Website Tutorial: The SBI Block Builder

The FTP feature in its Site Management lets you set up for Secure Firewall (SFTP), maintain synchronization between desktop files and those on the remote host, enable file cloaking, and select a default folder for images.

Dreamweaver also lets you create website templates for WordPress, Joomla, Mambo or any other blogger platform. Want more? It’s also got a mobile gadgets preview, access to Adobe stock photo service, offers drag-and-drop integration with Fireworks and Photoshop, and with the new buffed up CSS management tool you can convert inline CSS to CSS rules.

Why Choose Dreamweaver?

Because it’s Dreamweaver. It has no equal when it comes to creating a website. Dreamweaver aficionados liked Version 8 over MX, and there are folks out there still using Version 4. But along came CS3 with its advanced CSS features and the ability to easily incorporate the awesome Spry framework for Ajax components. For what you get, this is an incredibly powerful tool and is reasonably priced at $399 (upgrade from 8 or MX for $199).

I’ve only scratched the surface pointing out a few cool features packaged in this application. When you create your website with Dreamweaver CS3 it will not only look like it was designed by a staff of professional programmers and designers, you’ll have many options to make The Great Leap Forward into Web 2.0 with the integration of Spry and the popular Ajax to create a website with engaging and interactive pages and applications.

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