Dreamweaver MX 2004 phần 1 pps

Hands On: Design a Frames-Based Page One Holy Grail Chapter 8 ■ Fundamental Link Concepts Inserting Links Building Image Maps Avoiding or Fixing Broken Links Hands On: Create an Image Ma

S A V V Y

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S A V V Y

®

C H R I S T I A N C R U M L I S H | L U C I N D A D Y K E S

C o m p o s i t o r : Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

G r a p h i c I l l u s t r a t o r : Caryl Gorska, Gorska Design

C D C o o r d i n a t o r : Dan Mummert

C D T e c h n i c i a n : Kevin Ly

P r o o f r e a d e r s : Laurie O’Connell, Amy J Rasmussen, Nancy Riddiough

I n d e x e r : Ted Laux

C o v e r D e s i g n e r : Caryl Gorska, Gorska Design

C o v e r P h o t o g r a p h e r : Angelo Cavalli, The Image Bank

Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Dreamweaver MX 2004 Savvy This book is part of a new wave

of Sybex graphics books, all written by outstanding authors—artists and teachers who really know their stuff and have a clear vision of the audience they’re writing for

Founded in 1976, Sybex is the oldest independent computer book publisher More than twenty-five years later, we’re committed to producing a full line of consistently exceptional graphics books With each title, we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry From the paper we print on, to the writers and photographers we work with, our goal is to bring you the best graphics books available

I hope you see all that reflected in these pages I’d be very interested to hear your com­ments and get your feedback on how we’re doing To let us know what you think about this or any other Sybex book, please visit us at www.sybex.com Once there, go to the book’s page, click on Submit Feedback, and fill out the questionnaire Your input is greatly appreciated

Please also visit www.sybex.com to learn more about the rest of our growing graphics line

Best regards,

Dan Brodnitz

Associate Publisher—Graphics

Sybex Inc

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It has been a long journey writing a book this long and detailed, and many have helped in many different ways to make this possible

First, I have to thank Wali for his love and support during a difficult and challenging writing schedule Without his support, none of this would have been possible

Next, I would like to thank Macromedia and the Macromedia developers for allowing

me to be part of the Beta team and to be involved first-hand in the final phases of testing and development of a new version of this software

This book would not have been possible without the contributions of the writers who stepped in at just the right moment to ensure that all the chapters could be completed within a very short timeline

I’d also like to thank all those who so generously agreed to the use of screenshots and/or trial versions of their products—in particular, Nick Bradford of TopStyle Pro, the team at StoreFront E-commerce software, Dave Shea of CSS Zen Garden, Manny Cline at Santa Fe Healing Art, and Dr Ken Stoller of Simply Hyperbarics

People I don’t know personally but whose work has inspired me include Jeffrey Zeld­man, Jeffrey Veen, and Eric Meyer I also want to thank all those web pioneers who gener­ously offered their help and knowledge to those of us trying to figure out how to create websites in the early ’90s

At Sybex, I’d like to thank Associate Publisher Dan Brodnitz and Acquisitions Editor Mar­iann Barsolo for their vision and support Willem Knibbe, developmental editor, was always there as a friend and advisor throughout the long process of this book’s development, and offered insightful and useful suggestions for making this the best book possible Susan Berge did an outstanding job as production editor, juggling a multitude of changing schedules and outlines A lot of other people at Sybex helped with this massive project without interacting with me directly, and I’d like to acknowledge their contributions as well Thank you all! I’d like to thank my agent, Danielle Jatlow, of Waterside Productions, for her incredible level of support and for helping me through all the tricky phases of bringing a book of this size to completion

And finally, I’d like to thank all the readers—the web designers and developers at all stages of their web careers who are interested in growing and developing their web skills, and who help keep the Web alive as an evolving medium

Christian Crumish and Lucinda Dykes have joined

together again for this edition of Dreamweaver MX 2004 Savvy Both of them have used

Dreamweaver since Version 2.0 and continue to use Dreamweaver on a daily basis as their web design and development tool of choice

Since the early ’90s, Christian has been writing about technology, music, popular cul­ture, and the media Christian has packaged books and e-books, consulted on matters of information architecture and content-management strategy with Fortune 500 compa­nies, represented other authors as a literary agent, and written nearly 20 books on tech­nology, the Internet, and web development He maintains the website for this book at

http://dreamweaversavvy.com Lucinda started her career in a high-tech area of medicine, but left medicine to pursue her interest in the Web She has been writing code and developing websites since 1994, teaches web-related classes both online at eclasses.org and in the classroom, and main­tains a Dreamweaver MX 2004 blog at http://radio.weblogs.com/0132492/ She is the

coauthor of XML Schemas (Sybex, 2002) and Mastering XHTML (Sybex, 2002) and a con­ tributing author to XML for Dummies In those rare moments when she’s not online,

other interests include cryptography, holographic technology, and science fiction

In addition to Christian and Lucinda, other writers and designers contributed their specialized expertise to make this book as useful as possible for today’s web designer and developer

tributed to several books including Creating Web Pages Bible and has also authored two

books including FrontPage 2002 Weekend Crash Course Visit BCG and learn more about

Eric at www.butow.net

Michele Davis Michele Davis contributed Chapters 19, 20, 26, 31, and 32 She is a techni­cal consultant for companies implementing new documentation for PDF manuals, web-sites, marketing brochures, instructional design, training, and online help She is savvy in numerous applications and has written or coauthored several trade publications and works of fiction She can be found on the Web at www.krautgrrl.com

Jennifer Ryan Wilde Jennifer Ryan Wilde of chaotech design + development created the designs for the e-commerce, information, and intranet site examples used in the chapter tutorials To see more examples of Jennifer’s designs, visit www.chaotech.com

C O N T E N T S A T A G L A N C E

P A R T I ■ P L A N N I N G Y O U R P R O J E C T A N D

S E T T I N G U P D R E A M W E A V E R 1

Chapter 2 ■ Web Pages Deconstructed 13

Chapter 3 ■ Setting Up Your Workspace and Your Site 27

Chapter 4 ■ Saving Labor with Templates and Libraries 59

P A R T I I ■ B U I L D I N G A W E B P A G E 8 5

Chapter 5 ■ Page Layout 87

Chapter 6 ■ Inserting and Formatting Text Content 117

Chapter 7 ■ Interactivity with Framesets and Frames 143

Chapter 8 ■ Making and Maintaining Hyperlinks 169

Chapter 9 ■ Cascading Style Sheets 189

Chapter 10 ■ Adding Graphics and Multimedia 213

Chapter 11 ■ Getting into Flash 239

P A R T I I I ■ A D D I N G I N T E R A C T I V I T Y W I T H I N

D R E A M W E A V E R 2 5 5

Chapter 12 ■ Incorporating JavaScript Behaviors 257

Chapter 13 ■ Designing Navigation Objects 285

Chapter 14 ■ Collecting Information with Forms 305

Chapter 15 ■ Community Building with Interactive Site Features 331

P A R T I V ■ D E V E L O P I N G W E B A P P L I C A T I O N S 3 4 1

Chapter 16 ■ Building Web Applications 343

Chapter 17 ■ Building an E-Commerce Site 353

Chapter 18 ■ Handcrafting Your Code 371

Chapter 19 ■ Database Connectivity 401

Chapter 20 ■ Working with ColdFusion 429

Chapter 21 ■ Working with ASP

Chapter 22 ■ Using PHP with Dreamweaver

Chapter 23 ■ Working with JSP

Chapter 24 ■ Working with XML and XHTML

Chapter 25 ■ Emerging Technologies

P A R T V ■

Chapter 26 ■ Controlling Access to the Site

Chapter 27 ■ Static Content Management with Contribute

Chapter 28 ■ Dynamic Content Management

Chapter 29 ■ Checking Browser Compatibility

Chapter 30 ■ Going Live or Delivering the Site

Chapter 31 ■ Maintaining a Site

Chapter 32 ■ Customizing and Extending Dreamweaver

Chapter 33 ■ Using Dreamweaver to Make Your Site Accessible

P A R T V I ■

Appendix A ■ Online Resources

Appendix B ■ Keyboard Shortcuts

Appendix C ■ New Features in Dreamweaver MX 2004

Index ■

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Introduction xxv

P A R T I ■ P L A N N I N G Y O U R P R O J E C T A N D

S E T T I N G U P D R E A M W E A V E R 1 Chapter 1 ■ Planning and Preparing for a

Getting Your Process Squared Away 6

Getting the Information Architecture Right 8

Setting Up a Navigation Scheme 23

Chapter 3 ■ Setting Up Your Workspace

The Integrated Workspace versus the

Turning On Accessibility Reminders 56

Chapter 4 ■ Saving Labor with Templates

Modifying Template-Based Pages 74

Selecting a Predesigned Layout 89

Working with Complex Page Layouts 109 Hands On: Design a Page with Tables

Chapter 6 ■ Inserting and Formatting

Hands On: Design a Frames-Based Page One Holy Grail

Chapter 8 ■ Fundamental Link Concepts Inserting Links

Building Image Maps Avoiding or Fixing Broken Links Hands On: Create an Image Map Separating Content from Presentation

Chapter 9 ■ Cascading Style Sheets

What to Use Style Sheets For How Styles Are Applied CSS Tools in Dreamweaver Working with Styles Working with Style Sheets Coding CSS on the Fly Previewing Styled Pages Checking for Browser Compatibility Using an External Editor

For Further Reading on CSS

Hands On: Design a CSS Table Time for Jazz

Chapter 10 ■ Adding Graphics and Multimedia

Inserting a Graphic (When the Art Isn’t Ready Yet) Deciding to Include Multimedia Video Formats

Using Multimedia Players Adding Sound and Movies Adding Media Elements Media Elements Use on the Web Can You Imagine?

Chapter 11 ■ Getting into Flash

Using Flash Exporting and Publishing Flash Files Adding Flash Content

Working with Flash Elements Creating Flash Objects

Hands On: Creating Flash Text Put the Multi in Multimedia

P A R T I I I ■

Chapter 12 ■ Dreamweaver Behaviors

Your Page

284

Chapter 13 ■ Designing Navigation Objects

Creating Rollovers Creating Navigation Buttons Making Buttons

Adding a Navigation Bar Pop-Up Menus

Adding a Jump Menu Hands On: Making a Nav Bar Keeping It Simple

Chapter 14 ■ Exploring Form Elements Working with CGI Scripts Editing a CGI Script Creating Target Pages Forms Resources Hands On: Using FormMail From Forms to Discussions

Chapter 15 ■

Interactive Site Features

Creating Community on the Web Adding a Guestbook

Using Discussion Boards Hosting a Chat

Creating a Blog

with Blogger

P A R T I V ■ D E V E L O P I N G W E B A P P L I C A T I O N S

Chapter 16 ■ Building Web Applications

Designing and Testing Web Applications Working with a Web Server

Choosing a Server Technology Setting Up Your Application Server Dreamweaver Site

From Applications to Transactions

Chapter 17 ■ Building an E-Commerce Site

Creating an Identity for an Online Store Marketing Your Site

Processing Transactions Hands On: Create a Shopping Cart Putting the e- in Everything

Chapter 18 ■ Handcrafting Your Code

The Ergonomics of Coding Writing Code

Debugging Your Code Hands On: Creating Your Own Code Coding an Application

Chapter 19 ■ Database Connectivity

Using Databases in Dreamweaver MX 2004 Creating Dynamic Pages

The Application Panel Group Live Data View

Adding Dynamic Content to Your Page

To the Bleeding Edge

Chapter 21 ■ Working with ASP

Getting Started with ASP The Root Folder

Setting Up an ASP Site in Dreamweaver Connecting to a Database with ASP Creating a Dynamic ASP Page Using Live Data View Using ASP in Dreamweaver From Proprietary to Open Source

Chapter 22 ■ Using PHP with Dreamweaver

Using PHP in Dreamweaver JavaBeans and JRun

Chapter 23 ■ Working with JSP

Getting Started with JSP The Root Folder Setting Up a JSP Site in Dreamweaver Connecting to a Database with JSP Creating a Dynamic JSP Page Using JSP in Dreamweaver Advanced JSP in Dreamweaver Other Technologies

Chapter 24 ■ Working with XML and XHTML

XML Concepts XML in Dreamweaver MX 2004 XML Templates

Supporting XHTML in Dreamweaver Validating XML and XHTML Documents Using XML News Feeds

Using XML and XHTML

Chapter 25 ■ Emerging Technologies

Understanding Web Services Accessing Web Services Understanding NET

500

to a Page What’s Ahead

P A R T V ■

S T A R T T O F I N I S H Chapter 26 ■ Controlling Access to the Site

Developing User Administration

Adding Server Behaviors Login Pages and Processes Restricting Page Access Personalization Features Testing, 1, 2 …

Chapter 27 ■

with Contribute

Introducing Contribute 2 for Contribute

in Contribute Using FlashPaper in Contribute 2 Dynamic Pages in Contribute Sites Static to Dynamic

Chapter 28 ■ Dynamic Content Management

Creating Master Detail Page Sets with ASP

A Walk on the Browser Side

Chapter 29 ■ Checking Browser Compatibility

Defining the Target Audience Evaluating Browsers

Avoiding Common Problems The Future of Browsers Getting Ready to Launch

Chapter 30 ■ Going Live or Delivering the Site

Quality Assurance and Final Testing

Optimizing Your Site for Search Engines From Staging to Production

Turnover (At Last!) Teach Them to Fish: Knowledge Transfer Hands On: Working Live

The Long Haul

Chapter 31 ■ Maintaining a Site

Managing Content

Journaling and Rollback Hands On: Updating an Existing Website Extend Your Reach

Chapter 32 ■ Customizing and Extending

Dreamweaver 595

Creating Custom Shortcut Keys 603 Changing the Default Document Template 605 Creating Dreamweaver Commands 606

Third-Party Tags: Creating Custom

Updating Dreamweaver Dialog Boxes 616 Hands On 1: Using the Advanced Random

Hands On 2: Add Custom Characters to

Hands On 3: Using an Extension to Create

Chapter 33 ■ Using Dreamweaver to Make

Using Dreamweaver’s Accessibility Preferences 626

Newsgroups and Mailing Lists 637 Blogs 637

Appendix B ■ Keyboard Shortcuts 639 Appendix C ■ New Features in

Useability 645 CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 647

Thankfully, we’ve come a long way since the early days of the Web when most pages had grey backgrounds and were filled with paragraphs of text punctuated by an occasional small graphic Dreamweaver MX 2004 allows professionals at any level of web development to use its features to develop websites and web applications as easily and rap­idly as possible This book is designed for readers at all levels of experience with the Web and with Dreamweaver If you are a beginner, you may choose to work your way through this book from Chapter 1 to Chapter 33, or if you are already experienced with web devel­opment, you might find it more productive to jump right in to your particular areas of interest

For those of you who are familiar with the first edition of this book, eight new chapters have been added and every chapter has undergone major revision and additions to incor­porate the new features of Dreamweaver MX 2004

Who Needs This Book

The line between designer and developer has become less clearly delineated as the Web has evolved over time, and most people producing websites today need to use a combination of design and development skills Dreamweaver is an ideal tool for providing features that are easy to use and learn for designers, developers, and the new breed of designer/developer This book provides information on planning, designing, and developing a website and

a web application For readers who are new to web design, we have provided detailed information on web graphics, including a bonus graphics chapter (included on the CD)

on slicing and optimizing graphics in Fireworks, Photoshop, and Illustrator For readers who are new to web development, we have provided comprehensive instructions on set­ting up a web server, connecting to a database, and using any of Dreamweaver’s five sup­ported server technologies to create web applications For readers who are already familiar with web development, this book also includes specifics on using Dreamweaver for web application development, as well as myriad web development tips and techniques

Conventions Used in This Book

To help you find your way through this book as effectively as possible and find the infor­mation you need, we’ve incorporated a number of design elements to call out material that might be of interest to you

New features in Dreamweaver MX 2004 are marked with this margin icon For a detailed list of new features, see Appendix C

Many procedures are broken down into numbered steps, and many chapters include tutorials that enable you to try out what you’ve learned with a specific project All the files you need to complete the tutorials are included in the Chapter files on the CD

Tips, comments, and warnings are called out as Notes

S I D E B A R S

Interesting bits of information and additional details that might not be essential to your understanding of Dreamweaver MX 2004 are boxed as stand-alone sidebars, like so These are usually much longer and more detailed than notes

Because there are many different ways of working with Dreamweaver and you might not need to make use of every possible feature of Dreamweaver MX 2004, you should feel free to skip around from chapter to chapter as necessary To minimize redundancy and pack as much fresh information as possible into this book, we’ve liberally included cross-references throughout to suggest when you might benefit from looking at another chapter

How This Book Is Organized

This book has five parts and comprises 33 chapters and three appendices Here’s a quick rundown of what you’ll find inside:

PART I ■ Planning Your Project and Setting Up Dreamweaver

This part is all about getting your project started and your site set up to optimize the devel­opment process Chapter 1 covers the essentials of website planning and preparation

Chapter 2 breaks down web pages into their component parts, based on how Dreamweaver works with HTML files and other web documents Chapter 3 shows you how to get the new Dreamweaver MX workspace set up for efficiency and comfort, and how to set up a website for the first time Chapter 4 explains how to use sitewide components—templates, assets, and library items—to save time and effort and maintain consistency

PART II ■ Building a Web Page

This part is the heart of the matter: how to assemble the essential elements needed to con­struct a web page Chapter 5 covers layout with tables or layers Chapter 6 is all about work­ing with text, including importing Word or Excel files Chapter 7 explains how to set

up framesets and frames Chapter 8 explains how to insert local and external hyperlinks

in your pages Chapter 9 discusses all the new CSS features of Dreamweaver MX 2004 and shows you how to use these features to develop cutting-edge standards-compliant designs Chapter 10 shows you how to add graphics and multimedia to your Dreamweaver pages Chapter 11 explores the Flash features incorporated in Dreamweaver as well as the specifics on inserting Flash files in your Dreamweaver pages

PART III ■ Adding Interactivity within Dreamweaver

This part takes you a step beyond flat, static web pages and shows you how to add movement and interactivity to your pages Chapter 12 introduces Dreamweaver behaviors—pre-made JavaScript routines you can add to your pages without learning how to code JavaScript Chapter 13 shows you how to incorporate navigation objects, including rollovers, naviga­tion bars, and jump menus Chapter 14 explains everything you need to know to use forms, including information on forms processing Chapter 15 covers community-building inter­active features, including guest books, discussion boards, and blogs

PART IV ■ Developing Web Applications

This part takes you into the world of dynamic, data-driven websites and rapid web appli­cation development Chapter 16 gets you started with setting up Dreamweaver for applica­tion development Chapter 17 walks you through developing an e-commerce site Chapter 18 helps you customize your coding environment for handcrafting your code Chapter 19

is a crash course in database development for the Web Chapter 20 shows you how to use Dreamweaver with ColdFusion Chapters 21, 22, and 23 feature the specifics of using

Dreamweaver with ASP, PHP, and JSP Chapter 24 details the use of XML and XHTML

in Dreamweaver Chapter 25 covers web services, ASP.NET, and Rich Internet Applica­tions (RIA)

PART V ■ Site Administration from Start to Finish

This part is about wrapping up your development project and handing over the site Chapter 26 explains how to control access with user registration and login Chapter 27 introduces content management with Macromedia Contribute Chapter 28 features dynamic content management using ASP and a database Chapter 29 shows how to use Dreamweaver to test browser compatibility features Chapter 30 discusses the issues involved with launching a site or turning it over to a client Chapter 31 covers the details

of using Dreamweaver for maintaining a site Chapter 32 explains how to customize and extend Dreamweaver to get the maximum use out of it as your primary web development tool Chapter 33 shows you how to use Dreamweaver’s accessibility features

Appendices

We’ve included three appendices this time Appendix A includes useful Dreamweaver resources that are available online Appendix B lists keyboard shortcuts in Dreamweaver Appendix C details the new features of Dreamweaver MX 2004

Note to Macintosh (and PC) Users

The authors of this book use both Macs and PCs for web design and development, and have used Dreamweaver MX 2004 on both platforms The majority of readers of this book will be Windows users, so most (but not all) of the illustrations in this book show Win­dows XP screens

Rest assured, though, that this book is perfectly designed for use with a Mac We have tested every command on a G4 PowerBook running OS X, and where necessary we’ve included separate instructions or screen shots to illustrate when the Mac version of Dreamweaver looks or functions in some way different from the PC version

Visit Our Website

This book has a website that can be accessed at http://dreamweaversavvy.com The site includes copies of the tutorial and example files; news about Dreamweaver, web design, and development; updates for the book; and a way to suggest improvements for the next edition

Join the Discussion

There’s a Yahoo!Groups discussion for this book, and any reader of the book is welcome

to join in on the discussion To visit the group’s web page, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/ dreamweaversavvy/ (To join the list, go directly to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ dramweaversavvy/join/—you’ll need to set up a Yahoo ID to participate.)

Contact the Authors

To contact the authors by e-mail, you can send e-mail to support@sybex.com

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P A R T I

of your project, experience has taught us that a successful web development project starts with some strategy First you want to take a step back and look at the big picture What is your site or application going to do? Who’s going to use it? How does it have to work? How should it be organized?

Next, to make the most of Dreamweaver, take a little time to understand how the soft­ ware creates, interprets, and displays web pages Get the software set up in a way that suits your workflow, and then finally start developing your site

Even then, before you get into the process of building actual pages, you’re going to need to spend some time setting up your site in Dreamweaver, and creating the shared templates, library items, and other assets that will enable a rapid, efficient development process

CHAPTER 1 ■ Planning and Preparing for a Dreamweaver Project CHAPTER 2 ■ Web Pages Deconstructed

CHAPTER 3 ■ Setting Up Your Workspace and Your Site CHAPTER 4 ■ Saving Labor with Templates and Libraries

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architecture of your site (fundamentally, the layout structure of the pages as a whole, and

the options for navigating the site), develop a look-and-feel (graphic design and interface),

and gather the content (the information you want to include on the site pages) When this

preliminary work is done, you can plunge into the development, staging, launching, and maintenance of the site

This chapter assists you in sorting through the elements of your preferred methodology before you get down to brass tacks with Dreamweaver Topics addressed in this chapter include the following:

■ When to use Dreamweaver

■ Nailing down your process

■

■

4 ■ chapter 1: Planning and Preparing for a Dreamweaver Project

When to Use Dreamweaver

As the Web has grown and developed, so has Dreamweaver Dreamweaver has evolved from an HTML editor to a full-featured web production and application development tool Each version introduces new features that make the web development process easier and faster whether you are involved in the front end (design and page production) or the back end (scripting and application development)

Dreamweaver goes beyond enabling you to design and create web pages—it helps you manage your entire site from the top down Best of all, it enables a team of people to work together on the same project If you are working with collaborators, chances are not every­one is working in Dreamweaver That’s fine Dreamweaver produces clean code that even the most hardcore code jockey can’t complain about

With Dreamweaver, though, you can keep your part of the project all in one place, and you can do all of your work inside the application (at least after you’re done doodling on cocktail napkins)

Using Dreamweaver with Other Applications

Dreamweaver MX 2004 is an incredibly powerful web development tool, but of course it can’t do every single thing a designer or developer would like to do Macromedia wisely provides tight integration with its other popular web applications: Fireworks, Flash, HomeSite+, and ColdFusion You can also use files from Macromedia Director, Microsoft Word and Excel, and other graphics programs in your Dreamweaver pages

Fireworks and Other Graphics Software

Fireworks is a unique tool expressly designed for the development and optimization of web graphics Fireworks is where you can develop and refine the graphical look-and-feel for the site—the site’s logo, the graphics, the navigational elements, and so on The entire site won’t live inside Fireworks the way it will in Dreamweaver, but because they’re both Macromedia products designed to work together, any graphics you develop or import into Fireworks will flow easily into your site templates and pages over on the Dreamweaver side

For more information on using Fireworks and other graphics programs, see the CD Bonus Chapter, “Slicing, Optimizing, and Exporting Images,” and Chapter 13, “Designing Navigation Objects.”

You don’t have to use Fireworks to create and develop your site graphics, however Dreamweaver accepts web graphic files (GIFs, JPEGs, and PNGs) from any graphics soft­ware program including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Jasc Paint Shop Pro

when to use dreamweaver ■ 5

In Dreamweaver preferences (Edit ➔ Preferences / Dreamweaver ➔ Preferences) you can select external editors for specific file types For example, you can choose to have Dream- weaver open Photoshop when you want to edit a JPEG image To open the external editor, select the image and click on the Edit icon in the Property inspector For more details on using the Property inspector, see Chapter 3, “Setting Up Your Workspace and Your Site.”

However, there are two major advantages to using Fireworks with Dreamweaver:

• Fireworks is specifically designed for creating web graphics and includes a multitude

of special features for doing so

Flash

Flash is the web designer’s favorite tool for developing interactive movies, animations,

and every other kind of beast that slithers, crawls, runs, or flies across your screen Flash

movies are optimized for streaming over the Web, and widely accepted as a format The

newest version of Flash includes a professional version that features extensive video sup­

port as well as Flash application development Flash is the first choice when you want

your users to be able to, say, play a video game at your website Artists love Flash too

(see www.snarg.net/ for a hypnotic example of what we’re talking about)

You can create Flash text and Flash buttons in Dreamweaver (whether or not you have

Flash installed on your computer) Dreamweaver MX 2004 also includes support for Flash

elements—prebuilt Flash components that can be downloaded and added to your pages

Flash is integrated with Dreamweaver You can export Flash files to your Dreamweaver site, insert Flash movies in your web pages, and use Dreamweaver to set playback and dis­

play options If you have Flash installed on your computer, you can also use Dreamweaver

to update the links in Flash movies or launch and edit Flash files from Dreamweaver

For more details on working with Flash, see Chapter 11, “Getting into Flash.”

Director

Director is a multimedia authoring tool used to create interactive multimedia files, includ­

ing web content (Shockwave files), multimedia CDs and DVDs, games, movies, and car­

toons Files created in Director can include photo-quality images, digital video, audio, 2D

and 3D animation, and even Flash content Director files can be deployed to multiple envi­

ronments, including the Web, kiosks, CDs, and DVDs Chances are, last time you stuck a