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7 Essential Dreamweaver Features that make life a whole lot easier for designers/developers.

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 Dreamweaver (DW) is web development software, made by Adobe, that lets web developers code,

dreamweaver generated code

test, run, and preview their programs within minutes. This web development software has tons of features and We’ll explore some of these in this blog.Most of these features are guaranteed to make your Web Development life much easier.

The top 7 features of Dreamweaver IDE:

1. Code Minimization

Whenever you are coding a web page that consists of more than hundreds, and even thousands, of codes, you may get overwhelmed and lost while navigating through different sections of the page. The Dreamweaver code minimization [-] feature makes it easier for you to select a chunk of code and, well, minimize them, so that you don’t have to bother with it until you decide to use (expand) it.

2. Code Formatting

While creating a web project, particularly the bigger ones, it’s not uncommon to see your code and its structure get tangled, disorganized, and clutterred. This clutter may not cause you problems straight away, but later on, especially during code editing and debugging phase, you will definitely wrack you brain because you can’t seem to locate different sections of codes inside the page. But with Dreamweaver’s ‘code formatting’ feature, order is re-established.

Here’s how you format code: Select the chunk of code, and under the ‘Commands’ menu at the top, click on the ‘Apply Source Formatting’ and viola, everything looks clean, organized, and clutter free!

3. Code Navigator

Dreamweaver offers a user-friendly and easy to understand interface development environment (IDE) to code projects, build apps, and create websites. Code navigator, for example, tells you exactly where you are in the site, and above all, styles important elements surrounding it, making it easier for you to navigate around the murky and complex algorithms inside the page.

4. Code Snippets

Web developers frequently use scripts and small programs (code snippets) that intermix together to create a giant working engine. Although coding each of these code snippets would be fun, why not use Dreamweaver’s built-in snippets instead. Not only will you save tons of time, but you’ll also utilize DW to its maximum.

5. Insert Menu

Just like code snippet, DW also offers ‘insert menu’ option that has a bunch of cool pre-written codes to integrate small applications into your web project. For instance, to make your web page SEO-friendly, you can use the meta keyword option, or insert web form and its elements (radio buttons, text fields, hidden fields, and so on) for contact us page, or create a smooth rollover navigation bar. You really don’t have to Google every time you require to use small and simple codes, DW has it all… and its recommended you use ’em!

6. Easily Find Embedded Files

If there are any Stylesheets or JavaScripts you have referenced in the web page, then the new DW IDE will help you access them, easily! This means that you no longer have to open dozens of tabs all at once. Instead, you just have to open the right one, and you’re good to go!

7. Find Replace Tool

During web development, you end up in situations where you might want to add a class to a bunch of list, or remove the class all together from all the files. Instead of opening every single file, all you do is use the Find and Replace tool, select the folder where you want DW to look for the matches, and look…you’re done!

8. Bonus: Live View

Developers often need to see a preview of their coding right away! And opening up the browser and checking for the change would be frustrating sometimes. Don’t worry! DW will let you preview your work live, and also shows the changes right away! Amazing, isn’t it?

To learn more tricks and tips that will make your programming life much easier you can consider joining our Dreamweaver training course.

Dreamweaver web design learning dillema: attend a classroom course or study online?

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Adobe Dreamweaver is the most popular web design tool around as such many small business owners purchase a copy with a view to becoming skilled enough at  web design in order to create or maintain their web sites.

Indeed there are tons of dreamweaver tutorials online which are somewhat useful,comprehensive and competitively-priced but invariably, they seem targeted towards people who want to build really fancy sites for other people as paid website developers, rather than you as a busy small business owner, a hobbyist or a member of staff that just needs to learn how to update the company web site. The learning curve is not just steep but you have to wade through a maze of technology at the same time. Try taking an online tutorial on divs, float settings & the z-index without sending your brain into melt down!

Dreamweaver is now at version CS5 and has changed immensely since the mid-late 90s, when it was much simpler. It has become enormously feature-laden in keeping with today’s advancing technologies. So it can be a real challenge to get your head around the software. Worse still trying to learn it in solitude without the benefit of being able to ask someone in the know when something starts to go wrong (as it oft will do). Remember, your  online video or web design book won’t be able to answer your specific questions!

This is where the clear advantage of intructor-led training kicks in: a few sessions of learning the foundations and various functional concepts behind the programme by a good teacher will set you up nicely…and then you can really start to play around confidently. Further learning will become a lot quicker and easier. You will save a lot more time too.

Still to keep things in balance, many people have no choice but to opt for the eLearning method of training, as they cannot dedicate time for a classroom session or find the travelling involved a deterrent. It is therefore necessary for them to be highly self-motivated and self-disciplined to sit through the various steps of an online dreamweaver tutorial.

The reason for this whole blog was a testimonial received recently from  Theo, one of Futuretrend’s recent  students.  His comments were:

“I’ve learnt more about Dreamweaver from George’s 2 day introductory class than I did from  months of reading online tutorials and books… and to be perfectly honest, I don’t have that much free time to spend reading online courses or tutorials. So I will be coming back when I need to progress to the next level. Thanks!”

Click here to find out more about Futuretrend’s Dreamweaver training programs.