The Web always changes, and the tools we developers use must also.
Dreamweaver MX 2004, the next generation of the popular Web development
program, is on its way, featuring improved support for cutting-edge CSS,
time-saving enhancements, and performance improvements. In this first look,
MX Developer's Journal presents an overview of the changes.
CSS Rises to the Top
Web development is a moving target; once you've mastered one technology, a
new standard comes along to take its place. Macromedia's dedication to
providing tools that allow Web developers to ride that "bleeding edge" is
evident in the significant enhancements to Dreamweaver's Cascading Style
Sheet support. From basic text formatting to complex CSS-based page layouts,
the program is infused with CSS.
In this release, Dreamweaver throws off deprecated formatting conventions
like the tag in favor of ... (more)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can be confusing. Not only do Web developers
need to know the different CSS properties, and the sometimes bizarre ways
that Web browsers render those properties, there are times when CSS just
doesn't seem to behave. You create a new class style - .highlight, for
example - that's supposed to change the text color to burgundy. But when you
select the text and apply the style nothing happens.
As you build more complex sites, with hundreds of styles, this kind of
problem seems to happen more frequently. In most cases, the CSS is behaving
just as it's sup... (more)
Extension Developer: Web Assist
Developer Web Site: www.webassist.com
Price: $99.99
Massaging user input is one of those tedious jobs most Web developers would
rather do without. But if someone leaves out important data while filling out
a Web form, your Web application might not work - after all, how can you
e-mail a user his weekly newsletter if he forgot to enter his e-mail address
in the sign-up form? Even worse, bad data can bring a Web application to its
knees. If you've ever tried to insert a word - "one" -- into a database field
meant to hold a number ... 1 ... you know wh... (more)
Unless you've been living under a rock - at least a rock without high speed
internet access - you've no doubt heard of Cascading Style sheets, or CSS.
Over the next few months we'll be featuring articles on how to use
Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Cascading Style Sheets to make your sites look great
and work better. This month we'll cover the basics - to bring novices up to
speed and to introduce thes concepts to other MX Studio users who may have
been too busy with ActionScript, Lingo, or CFML over the past few years to
keep up with this rapidly evolving Web standard.
What Is CSS?
Ca... (more)
I'm not one who normally tries to predict the future. I ignore stock market
tips, advice from psychics, and weather reports. But I think I can safely say
that 2004 will see some of the most fundamental changes in Web-site design
since the birth of Netscape Navigator. This is the year of CSS.
Sure, Cascading Style Sheets isn't a new technology - the original
recommendation came out in 1996. And if you've been building sites for the
last few years, it's likely you've been taking advantage of the formatting
control CSS offers - from typographic nuances like line-height and
text-ind... (more)
Dave McFarland is the Dreamweaver editor of MX Developer's Journal and author of Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual. Find out about his latest projects at www.sawmac.com.
Scott Sellers
Anthony Franco
Daniel Morris
Wayne Walls
Niki Acosta
Jereme Hancock
Oren Michels
Marvin Wheeler
Douglas Kim
