My First Experience With DreamWeaver

One of the assignments for CIS 101 was to design a website from start to finish using Adobe Dreamweaver CS4, or another program of our choice.I was excited about this assignment since I have never used an editing program to design a site.

Web design is nothing new to me, but this was my first attempt at making a serious website. The sites that I created in the past were made with the help of sites like Angelfire.com and Freewebs.com and I relied pretty heavily on the templates that they offered. With Dreamweaver, I was able to put images and links wherever I wanted to, and to easily choose my own backgrounds and color schemes without any limitations.

Part of the reason I was limited so much in the past was my lack of experience with web design. Since I was in Middle School the last time I designed a page, I also did not have the technological ability that I do now. At that time I was more concerned with building my own computer and less concerned with making a quality website.

One of the features I really enjoy with Dreamweaver is the split view which allows users to see both a code view and a design view – this means that if something doesn’t show up properly on the design end, you can see which part of the HTML is affecting it, and solve your problems faster.

My only issue with Dreamweaver is that I was unaware of its existence for so long. A program that makes design this simple is something I wish I owned years ago. If programs like this had been around in my Middle School days, I would probably spend even less time doing homework and more time playing with new website ideas.