Build Your Own Standards Compliant Website Using Dreamweaver 8 (Paperback)

by Rachel Andrew (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Build Your Own Standards Compliant Website with Dreamweaver 8 is written for any user of Dreamweaver who wants to create standards compliant, usable and fully accessible websites.

By applying Web Standards and best-practices, readers will learn to create fast-loading, easy-to-maintain and cross-browser compatible Websites.

This book focuses on using XHTML & semantic markup, CSS Layouts, and accessibility guidelines to show users how to make the most of Dreamweaver 8.

About the Author
Rachel Andrew is the Director of edgeofmyseat.com, a Web solutions company in the UK. She is a member of the Web Standards Project, serving on the Dreamweaver Task force.

Rachel's writing credits include: Dreamweaver Developer's Instant Troubleshooter (Apress), Dreamweaver MX Design Projects (Apress), Dynamic Dreamweaver MX (glasshaus), Fundamental Web Design and Development Skills (glasshaus)

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: SitePoint; illustrated edition edition (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0975240234
• ISBN-13: 978-0975240236
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #758,296 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Using Standards Instead of Hacks, January 30, 2006

By	M. K. Oeding (Bloomington Indiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's refreshing to construct a site using Dreamweaver and standards as they are, without an equal amount of hacks and tricks to kludge the site into cross browser compatibility. Rachel Andrew's straightforward and step by step guide shows how to do it right and in the right order.

Rachel spends about the first third of the book getting me up to speed on Web Standards and XHTML, and rightly so. This part of the book gives me the "whys" behind my choices of foundational coding including "strict" or "transitional" and "ems" or "points". It is one of the clearest and easiest to read treatment of Standards, Accessibility, and XHTML that I've ever seen.

The project site for the tutorial is straightforward and easy to use. It included common elements like header, navigation, and main content area so the concepts are easy to apply right away to my real world projects.

I enjoyed following Rachel's suggested workflow. Create a semantic document that includes all the features my site will need. Then organize it into content blocks that make sense. Then position them. My workflow routine has been the other way 'round: make the structure, then plug in the content. It seems like a content to design workflow will help avoid distracting elements that could be unnecessary.

Expert css coders may find this book too basic, but it's a must have for css or Dreamweaver 8 beginners and those transitioning from using tables for layouts. This book helped me get my ducks in a row and my priorities straight.

Rachel is not totally reliant on Dreamweaver 8 as a stand-alone to get my job done. When a third party application makes sense, she has no qualms about integrating it the right way. Even though she does not take me all the way through making a working form, she got me a lot further than other tutorial books. She even directed me to samples of Perl/CGI, ASP, and PHP scripts that come with directions on how to implement them on my own server. Offering specific resources for further study is a great way to soften the blow of "...is outside the scope of this book."

The chapter on alternate style sheets is a keeper also. She got me to think through the different user needs as well as media types and create specific css documents to address them.

Build Your Own Standards Compliant Website is a tutorial book that got me engaged enough to stop and think about web design from several different levels: workflow, coding, use of third party applications, and scripts. It did a great job of educating me for confident use of css and Dreamweaver 8.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE DREAMWEAVER CODE, February 24, 2006

By	John R. Vacca "Tech Write Independent Reviewer" (Pomeroy, Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Are you a Dreamweaver novice or a more experienced user? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Rachel Andrew, has written an outstanding book that will help you expand your knowledge and learn how to use Dreamweaver 8 to create sites that are accessible, standards compliant, and use CSS for layout.

Andrew, begins by taking a look at Web standards: what they are, why they're important, and who they're designed to help. Then, she shows you how to develop your site--thinking specifically about the layout and the structure of the site, and setting up your tools so you're ready to get started. The author continues by discussing XHTML, clarifying how it differs from HTML, and how you can work with it in Dreamweaver 8. In addition, she walks you through the process of using Dreamweaver 8 to create a document that validates as XHTML. The author also explores Dreamweaver 8's Cascading Style Sheets tools. Then, the author shows you how to use Dreamweaver 8's powerful CSS tools to create a style sheet for your document. Next, she provides some more information on the use of tools to help you create accessible Websites, discusses the process of validating documents for accessibility, and considers the ways in which users' differing needs can be met through good design. Next, the author shows you how to create a page design that you can use as a template for any internal pages that are developed for the project. Then, she briefly describes how to create a form using a variety of the accessibility features that Dreamweaver 8 offers. Finally, she looks at the ways in which you can utilize the power of CSS to provide visitors a variety of alternate style sheets with which to use the site.

After reading this excellent book, you'll learn how to use Dreamweaver 8 the right way. In other words, this book will help you do all of this without compromising accessibility or standards compliance.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great learning resource..., October 11, 2005

By	Chris Smith (Canada) - See all my reviews

This book does an excellent job of explaining web standards & accessibility, why they are important and how to apply them using Dreamweaver 8.

The author did a fantastic job in clearly explaining concepts, and going step-by-step through the process of building a fully functional Website in Dreamweaver 8 with a focus on CSS Layouts.

Along the way, I picked up many excellent ideas on how to improve workflow and maximize productivity in Dreamweaver 8.

Overall, a very useful & practical read.