Adding Content to Pages

This tutorial shows you how to add content to web pages in Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. You can add many different kinds of content to web pages, including graphics, Macromedia Flash files, Macromedia Flash Video files, and text, to name a few. After you’ve added content to your pages, you can preview your work in a browser so that you can see what it will look like on the web.

Locate your files
In this tutorial, you’ll begin with the table-based page layout (index.html) that you created in Tutorial: Creating a Table-based Page Layout If you did not complete that tutorial, you can either complete it before proceeding, or you can open the finished version of the tutorial and begin with that.

The finished version of the tutorial, table_layout.html, is located in the completed_files/dreamweaver folder, within the cafe_townsend folder that you copied to your hard disk in Tutorial: Setting Up Your Site and Project Files

NOTE

If you begin this tutorial with the completed table_layout.html file, instead of the index.html file from Tutorial: Creating a Table-based Page Layout some steps and illustrations in the tutorial will not match what you see on your screen.

Review your task
In this tutorial you’ll add assets to the home page for Cafe Townsend, a fictional restaurant. You’ll learn how to add images, a Macromedia Flash file, a Macromedia Flash Video file, and text.


Insert images
After you create your page layout, you are ready to add assets to the page. You’ll start by adding images. You can use several methods to add images to a web page in Dreamweaver. In this section, you’ll add four different images to the index page for Cafe Townsend, using various methods.

Insert and play a Flash file
Next, you’ll insert a Flash file that plays a photographic slide show of Cafe Townsend’s featured food items. The Flash file you’ll insert is a flexible messaging area--or FMA--file. An FMA is a common type of Flash application that displays an informational message to the audience. The message can change based on the needs of the business. For example, if Cafe Townsend is holding a special event, the FMA could easily change (without affecting the rest of the web page) to display information about the event, instead of featured food items.



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Setting Up Your Site and Project Files

This tutorial introduces you to the concept of a Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 site and shows you how to set up the project files for the Cafe Townsend sample website. In Dreamweaver, a site generally consists of two parts: a collection of files on a local computer (the local site), and a location on a remote web server that you upload the files to when you’re ready to make them publicly available (the remote site). You use the Dreamweaver Files panel to manage the files for your site.

The most common approach to creating a website with Dreamweaver is to create and edit pages on your local disk, and then upload copies of those pages to a remote web server for viewing on the web. In this tutorial you’ll only learn how to set up the local site so that you can begin building web pages right away. Later, after you’ve completed the website, you’ll learn how to create a remote site so that you can upload your files to a web server.

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Learning Dreamweaver

Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 includes a variety of resources to help you learn the program quickly and become proficient in creating your own web pages. All of the Dreamweaver documentation is available in both electronic help and PDF format.

This chapter contains the following topics:

Where to start
The Dreamweaver documentation includes information for readers from a variety of backgrounds. This section helps you understand how to approach the documentation, depending on what your background is, and what you want to accomplish with Dreamweaver.

Getting the most from the Dreamweaver documentation
Dreamweaver includes a variety of media to help you learn the program quickly and become proficient in creating web pages. The Dreamweaver help system includes several documents that help you learn about Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver Extensibility, and ColdFusion. You can also consult a number of additional online resources as you learn how to build web pages.

Using the Dreamweaver help system
The online help system available in the Help menu provides detailed information on all tasks you can perform with Dreamweaver.


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Creating a Table-based Page Layout

This tutorial explains how to create a table-based page layout in Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. A page layout determines how your page will appear in the browser, showing, for example, the placement of menus, images, and Macromedia Flash content.

Tables are a powerful tool for presenting tabular data and for laying out text and graphics on an HTML page. You can use tables to create your layout quickly and easily. In this tutorial you’ll create a number of tables in a new Dreamweaver document. The rows and cells of the tables effectively act as container boxes for the content you’ll add later.



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Getting to know the Dreamweaver 8 workspace

The Dreamweaver workspace lets you view documents and object properties. The workspace also places many of the most common operations in toolbars so that you can quickly make changes to your documents.

This section is designed to give you an overview of the Dreamweaver 8 workspace. For more comprehensive information about any of the workspace elements introduced in this section, see Exploring the Workspace in Using Dreamweaver.
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Dreamweaver Basics

To get the most out of your Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 experience, you should understand the basic elements of the Dreamweaver workspace. This chapter introduces you to the most important and commonly used workspace elements, and tells you how to accomplish some basic tasks in Dreamweaver.
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Getting Started with Dreamweaver

This guide introduces you to using Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. The tutorials in this guide lead you through the process of creating a simple but functional website.

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