What's the best way to learn Dreamweaver so I can build a small business site?

[Northern Lawn]

I signed up for total training video series but it's kind of dry..very poor actually.

oh, and learn at home not going to take a school course has to be fast two, I have about a month before fall season starts.

 

[olds]

Find someone that already knows it.
Kill them and eat their brains.

 

[Northern Lawn]

Find someone that already knows it.
Kill them and eat their brains.

Plan B!

 

[Northern Lawn]

Btw, I'm somewhat familiar with the menu layout as I have some experience with photoshop and illustrator.

I also googled top 10 make your own site but none of those seemed to work or there were problems or looked to cheesy.

 

[Jodell88]

Actually learn CSS, javscript and the like

 

[Jinny]

dont. learn html and css.

 

[Crono]

dont. learn html and css.

This. Or just get a CMS with a theme if you want to save time. eits did a good job with a Wordpress one. I prefer Drupal, though.

I don't think it is worth learning to use a program like Dreamweaver, not for a single site.

 

[SheHateMe]

I use Dreamweaver to build websites, but I never use any of the WYSIWYG features. Just built the code from scratch.

Also, get a book...Lynda.com is helpful too, I guess. I learned HTML just by messing around and gathering resources.

 

[Rastus]

Find a site you like, steal it, modify it to do what you want (and to make it unrecognizable too).

 

[Paladin3]

My wife had a static site for her retail store and I was tasked with turning it into a dynamic site complete with a shopping cart and database for products and customers. I'm a photographer, know Photoshop quite well and figured I could use Dreamweaver to help me out. I started trying to fumble my way through Dreamweaver and the rudiments of HTML and CSS, but then quickly realized I was over my head.

While still a pretty big task for someone with no programming ability, it was much easier to download an existing open source shopping cart and add existing mods and tweaks until I had created the site we needed.

I used Zen Cart and did a lot of research and forums reading. I found a free design template that worked, but it took many mods and tweaks to get it where we wanted it. The process from learning the basics to creating my database to going live took me almost three months. That included a bunch of photography and content generation too, as my wife sells almost 500 different products online.

The way I look at it, telling someone to learn HTML, CSS and Java to build a website is kind of like telling someone with a new computer to write their own OS for it. There are tons of people out there who have created websites and are willing to share the code they used to do so. Why reinvent the wheel, especially when you have no idea how?

BTW: http://www.mischievousmoose.com. (And I know it's very far from perfect.)

 

[Northern Lawn]

You make a lot of sense but the same could be said about Illustrator. I use it to design my own fliers even though it takes me 10 hours to do something mediocre that a pro could do in 1 hour and make it look great.

I did try those drag and drop make your own, I also just checked out drupal... i do feel it's over my head though.

 

[Jodell88]

You make a lot of sense but the same could be said about Illustrator. I use it to design my own fliers even though it takes me 10 hours to do something mediocre that a pro could do in 1 hour and make it look great.

I did try those drag and drop make your own, I also just checked out drupal... i do feel it's over my head though.

CSS and HTML are very easy to learn.

 

[Colt45]

wysiwyg is terrible.

just do some derping at w3schools and such... should be able to produce something better in no time.

 

[Northern Lawn]

wysiwyg is terrible.

I don't understand that phrase, I googled but still don't get it.

 

[Zim Hosein]

I don't understand that phrase, I googled but still don't get it.

WYSIWYG

 

[GregGreen]

I don't understand that phrase, I googled but still don't get it.

He's just saying that WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get, pronounced wizz-ey-whig) editors aren't very good at what they are trying to do.

You might try going down to your local Barnes and Nobles and checking out the Programming section. There are some books that are really good that should be able to help you out. I've always found it easier to look at code samples in text than to try and watch some how-to video on the interwebs.

 

[LuNoTiCK]

Use wordpress.