How to Create a Website in Dreamweaver 8 Tutorial

Dreamweaver takes much of the complexity and technical know-how out of website creation. Using this software, you can have a functional website up and running in a matter of minutes. All websites are a collection of files, and can include media files such as pictures and music and HTML web pages for text, format and layout. HTML is a special language used to create web pages, but you do not need to know HTML to create a website in Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver can produce the HTML code from user manipulation of website elements, and save it as an HTML file for upload.

Instructions

Creating a New Webpage

1. Open Dreamweaver 8. From the opening screen, click "Create new HTML" to make a blank website. Dreamweaver will create skeleton code for a blank website.

2. Go to the top of the screen and give your website a title, such as "My First Website in DW8." Save your current webpage using "File" -> "Save As." Give the HTML file a name such as "index.html" and click "Save."

3. Click the Design tab next to the title to enter Design Mode. This mode has no HTML code; it represents what your website will look like.

4. Pick the color of your website. Click the Properties tab on the bottom of the screen and select "Page Properties." Click in the "background color" box and select a color for the background.

Creating a Layout

1. Select "Insert -> Table" Put a "1" in the rows entry, "1" in the columns entry, and "800" in the "Row Width" entry to create a wide table with one row and one column (a simple text box). This is the Title Block for the website. Click outside to deselect it.

2. Insert another table. This time, put a "1" in the rows tab and a "4" in the columns tab. This makes a Menu Block right below the Title Block. Click outside to deselect.

3. Insert another table identical to the one in Step 1. This creates a Text Block below the Menu Block.

Adding Content

1. Add the header to your web page. Click in the Title Block and type the title of your webpage, e.g. "My first DW8 Webpage." Highlight the words, and in the Properties tab below change the format to "Header 2." Click the button that depicts centered text to center the title in the table.

2. Add some text to your website. Click in the Text Block and enter some text for the page, such as "Welcome to my website!"

3. Add some menu options to your web page. Click inside the first cell of the Menu Block and type "First Page." Then click inside the second cell and type "Second Page," and so on.

4. Create a second page. Go to "File" -> "New." Pick "Basic Page" and "HTML" from the General tab. Then click "Create." Save the new webpage as "link1.html" in the same folder as "index.html."

5. Create a hyperlink from "index to "link1." Tab over back to "index.html." Highlight the words "First Page." Then click the chain to insert a link to "link1.html."

6. Put a link back to "index.html" in the "link1.html" page. Open up "link1.html" and click the chain to insert another link. Put in "Back to Main Page" in the text field and "index.html" in the link field.

Tips & Warnings

• With a table layout, change the formatting of a particular table (background color, etc.) without changing the table itself. Click in the table and go to the Properties tab, then click "Table Properties."

• At any time, click the Globe icon above the page to preview the webpage in your preferred browser.

References

• Dreamweaver Resources