OEP Web dev - the making stage

With under a week to go, I noticed my Gantt chart said that I should be finally implementing all the html, CSS and Flash in Dreamweaver.

Normally if I just sit down and get to it, I can make an entire piece, so this was the approach I had here - sit down, do it, and then the next day, go back and start perfecting.

In all, being a relative novice to Dreamweaver, I tried three different layout methods - frustrating yes, but a learning process nonethless. The first was slicing a Photoshop mock up for the layout and then inserting this into Dreamweaver. This works relatively simply and on clicking the button in Dreamweaver you do think what a cool shortcut. However I could see gaps in where I hadn't correctly sliced and some extended slices that I definitely didn't want.

Furthermore, if I wanted to alter the size by even a pixel it threw everything else out of order. So out the window went that layout technique.

The next method I thought I could try trusty old tables. OK, they're not cutting edge and tend to be sneered upon but surely tables ranks higher than a FrontPage website for kudos, right? Again, I set everything up, inserted all my pictures and noted is was better than the Photoshop automated approach, yet, I wanted to place some content exactly, or absolutely as Dreamweaver calls it and failed to successfully pull this off within my table. I inserted an AP div tag, it looked alright, but then on switching to the browser revealed it to be a no no.

So again, another technique was ditched.

The last method I tried I have always been slightly fearful of - div tags (&CSS). Everytime I tried to get my head round using an external document, along with div tags I couldn't see it through. However, after following a tutorial, remembering that code view does have it's benefits cos you can move things anywhere you like within there, whereas within the design view it can be restricted, I have actually succeeded.

It's good to learn some tricks of the trade, such as having a body div which you format text setup to centre and it will move everything to the centre of the user's browser. Furthermore, with CSS in Dreamweaver having it's own WYSIWYG approach, it really isn't as gruelling as I expected! However, at this stage, it remained internal CSS.

So, with a basic but finished product, I switched off ...

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