Hello, I am wondering if anyone could help me please.

 

I did a design for a new school website - it was designed in Microsoft Publisher. Can be seen here: http://crude-assassins.com/jon/Picture1.jpg

 

I am now trying to put that design into Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. And strugeling!

 

The only way I know is by using layout mode - where you draw layout tables and then cells inside them.

 

So far I have this: http://crude-assassins.com/jon/Homepage.html

WILL LOOK WEIRD IF YOU DONT HAVE CALIBRI FONT ON YOUR COMPUTER!

 

And I am happy with it - but what im finding is that using layout cells is very tempremental, and before I progress onto the complex links in the middle section of the design I wanted to know if there is an easier way.

 

Also what do you think about the loading time of the page linked to above?? It is very graphics intensive - is there anything I can do.

 

One thing I have spotted is that on the homepage the left hand side seems to be wider than other pages - if you click on the gateway link for example and then go back to the hopepage u can see a slight movement on the left hand side down the whole page length - how can I solve this.

 

Any help or comments from looking at my design or my efforts at the website so far would be very much appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Jonathan.

If this is for a real school then you will have to look into accessibility and usability as these are really important. It would probably be best to learn how to code rather than relying on dreamwaever as this would give you greater control and also as you are learning you will find out more about accessibility and making the site compliment DDA web guidelines. Probably not what you wanted to hear, but if you are doing something for a site that needs to take into account so many things you need to know how to make a site to meet these.

 

Not only is your code a mess but your site design breaks differently in different browsers so you need to remember to do browser checks. As in firefox all your images are all over the place. Remember that a messy code will effect your site, so that is another reason why you should learn to code if this is something you want to do as a profession and get paid for, you wouldn't want a builder to do a second rate job for you so why should people expect a second rate built website by you? (that wasn't meant as mean it just means that web design isn't as easy as using Dreamweaver in layout mode and hand drawing tables to fit)

 

 

If all this sounds to much for you than I would suggest that you just look at doing interface work and working a long side a coder who can create the sites for you based on your designs, as there is so much you need to take into account when creating sites.

Thanks very much for this, its certainly food for thought. At the moment this is just me playing around and trying to learn. Having seen the link to my design (the publisher one) and knwoing what it is im trying to create, are there any pointers that you could give me please as to how I can design it? I will be completely honest and say that im not able to code, and would not know where to begin to learn it - is there a way to do this in design view?

Thanks very much for any help in advance, Jon.

If you want to be a web designer then you need to know how to code, as it is how a design is made. Once you start learning then you will fin little tricks to making things so once a design is created you will know the best way to make it into a website.

 

The best thing I can offer is this site http://htmldog.com/ it is a great place to learn how to create sites the correct way. As the best way to start web design is the right way, it may not be as easy as design view in dreamwaever in the begining, but it will save you a lot of ime in the long run, as you will create more problems for yourself if you rely on software such as dreamwaever. So if web design is something you are intrested in for a long term hobby of career you should do it right