A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or
more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two
months apart.
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons
are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have
to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until
the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each
lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such,
we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final
exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work,
including the final exam.
Week One
Wednesday - Lesson 01
In our first lesson, you'll get familiar with the code Adobe Dreamweaver generates in response to the steps you perform in the WYSIWYG interface. Intimidated by code? Don't be. By the end of this lesson, you'll be well on your way to a complete understanding of exactly how HTML, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript work together to build your site content. All previous non-coders will come away with these topics demystified, and code-savvy users will learn the various ways Dreamweaver enhances code editing.
Friday - Lesson 02
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) have been with us since the mid 90s. Yet, because of the slow state of browser development, CSS is only now taking its rightful place at the center of modern Web design. CSS governs content presentation, while HTML and XHTML handle document structure. In this lesson, we'll take a closer look at CSS, see how it works hand-in-hand with markup, and examine the various tools Dreamweaver gives us to work with CSS in a WYSIWYG environment.
Week Two
Wednesday - Lesson 03
Well-structured navigation elements are the backbone of every successful Web site. In the past, designers attempted to make their navigation elements stand out using various image and JavaScript-based effects, more often than not, guaranteeing their navigation was anything but well-structured. Fortunately, there's a cure: list-based navigation elements. In this lesson, we'll expand our CSS horizons and discover how to format our structured lists any way we like.
Friday - Lesson 04
In print design, there's a level of consistency that just isn't possible on the Web. This is because every copy of a book, magazine, or brochure is virtually identical. On the Web, we don't have the same luxury. People view our sites through different browsers, with different operating systems, and at different screen resolutions. Our job as designers is to try and create as much of a uniform user experience as possible given these rather wide parameters. It isn't always easy, but there are steps we can take to make it more so. Today, we'll discuss some basic Web design principles, develop a layout strategy, and begin building the first of our in-class site pages. This page will ultimately become the template for the subsequent pages in our site.
Week Three
Wednesday - Lesson 05
In today's lesson, we'll focus on Dreamweaver templates. Templates become a real asset when you have other people working on site content who are not Web designers themselves. A Dreamweaver template allows you to fix the layout of pages so inexperienced folks can't mess them up when they're updating content. No more, "Oops, Boss! I went to update the tip of the week message and now the links have disappeared!" You'll learn just what Dreamweaver templates do, how to build them, and how to apply them to the pages of our site.
Friday - Lesson 06
Do you own a printer? I bet you do or at least have access to one. Ever print a Web page? I'm sure you have. Now, do you own a cell phone too? How about a PDA, like a Palm Pilot? Maybe a Blackberry device? Guess what? All of these devices are Web-enabled. People use them to access the Internet, read their e-mail, and browse Web pages. Today, you're going to learn all about styling our pages for devices other than the browser. We'll look at the different types of devices we can style for and examine some of the tools Dreamweaver provides to make styling for devices easier.
Week Four
Wednesday - Lesson 07
I'm sure you've heard the word accessibility mentioned in reference to creating Web content. While I'm sure you have some idea of what it means, I've got a hunch you need to know more. Accessibility refers to Section 508 of the U.S. Federal Rehabilitation Act, and it deals with making site content accessible for users with disabilities. In today's lesson, we'll examine the deeper meaning of Web site accessibility, learn its basic concepts, and discover how to keep Dreamweaver on the ball, accessibility-wise, so anyone can use your site with ease.
Friday - Lesson 08
Have you been to YouTube to watch videos? Or have you been to Amazon.com to preview music? These types of audio and video files are known as media objects. A media object is any type of file that requires the browser to call upon a helper application in order to view or play it. For example, Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media, Real Media, and MPEG audio. In today's lesson, we'll talk about what media objects are, what software is required to play them, and the various techniques Dreamweaver has for placing this type of content in the sites we build.
Week Five
Wednesday - Lesson 09
If you've ever used Dreamweaver to create an image rollover or image-based navigation bar, you've been using JavaScript. In Dreamweaver, any predefined JavaScript-based effect is called a behavior. These Dreamweaver behaviors allow you to swap images, generate pop-up windows, as well as more than 20 other possible effects. In this lesson, we'll examine the interface for working with behaviors and discover how to implement some of the more useful ones.
Friday - Lesson 10
Forms allow information to be passed between the site visitor and the Web server. For the Web server to use the data visitors enter, there must be a processing script on the server. This script, or groups of scripts, accepts the data and does something with it. But in order to use a form, you need to build it first. In today's lesson, we'll focus on the creation of form pages, their formatting, and their layout.
Week Six
Wednesday - Lesson 11
Everybody wants to know how to build dynamic Web sites—sites whose pages are generated on the fly via databases and scripting languages. Well, we have to walk before we can run. So, we're going to start small, using the Extensible Markup Language (XML). In today's lesson, we're going to take a look at what XML is, create a simple XML database, and then learn how to pull data out of our small database and format it with the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)—all without a lick of programming!
Friday - Lesson 12
Everyone who wants to be a Web designer should have a firm understanding of who they're designing for and how best to meet the needs of their audience. In today's lesson, we'll step away from Dreamweaver and take a look at the single-most important component of the Web—people. You'll discover some of the basic truths behind how people read Web content and learn how best to structure your content to facilitate and fascinate your readers.