Good, reasonable Dreamweaver course?

Fand

I've been asked to do a website for an organisation of which I'm a member, mainly because I'm the only person with any web experience (aeons ago I used to have a hand-coded Geocities page).

They're prepared to stump up a little money for me to learn Dreamweaver on condition I'll then give them the knowledge.

Where do I find a good, fast, not too dear course?

And don't say "mess around with it, it's easy really". It isn't. Not if you're not used to making webpages.

decob

Originally posted by Fand
And don't say "mess around with it, it's easy really". It isn't. Not if you're not used to making webpages.

Get a Dreamweaver book and mess around with it.

failing that..
The Irish Times have some training thing, they have an 8/10 weeks HTML course which covers Dreamweaver.

buzz

I was asked to do the same a few months back, and since I didnt use dreamweaver AT ALL, I didnt like the idea.
I did a search in http://www.softseek.com, and found one, about 13 mgs... But worth the wait! I learned alot, and now I use dreamweaver on doing sites for greater detail!
Gimme a bell if ye have any problems!:D

Enygma

The tutorial that comes with Dreamweaver is actually very good (at least I thought so).
Might be a good starting point, you could end up paying a few hundred for a course just to sit there saying *I know that!*

Give your self a few days to do the tutorial and then see what you think, it just takes time not l33t skillz.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Originally posted by decob


Get a Dreamweaver book and mess around with it.

failing that..
The Irish Times have some training thing, they have an 8/10 weeks HTML course which covers Dreamweaver.

Does that cover Dreamweaver??
I thought it only covered icky m$ Frontpage.
My boss told me that over the summer- she had enquired about it- but maybe that was just a specific course!?

Das Kitty

I suggest doing the built-in tutorial too, but if your employers are going to pay for it you may as well get at least a book for your own reference when helping the rest of them.

decob

Originally posted by 80project


Does that cover Dreamweaver??
I thought it only covered icky m$ Frontpage.
My boss told me that over the summer- she had enquired about it- but maybe that was just a specific course!?

My cousin did about a yr ago and he did use Dreamweaver as well as Frontpage... but you could learn most of what they teach with any decent HTML book/tutorial

b20uvkft6m5xwg

I agree- there are so many un-official dw support sites its amazing. So if you get the software the best thing is to broach them first rather than fork out big bucks for piss nothing!! Although Realistically thats not goin to make you any good...The best way to learn is... surf the interent alot, see what works and doesn't and then spend the wee hours dossing around designing stuff:)

The inquiry was regarding my boss who was thinking of sending someone(full-time) in work on the course to learn dreamweaver, but now they are just goin to spend the money on me to do it for them. She had said she was thinking of sending someone on the frontpage session before I could be visibly seen fleeing her office shouting "GAAAAWWWWWWDDDDD NNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

Good to know they are doin DW course now though:)

p

Yo,

TBH if you havn't much web design experience then you should do their website.

For the cost of the course they could probably get a poor student to do them up a better one.

No offence, that's just the reality of it.

If you do decide to go ahead, make sure to do a web design course, not a dreamweaver one. You need to know the basics of building webpages, also, probably a few basics in a graphics package.

You'll need to know how to make a decent webpage, not just use the software.

TBH, i'd be surprised if any of the courses you see are any good.


- Kevin

Fand

Thanks for the suggestions, lads. I'll take a look at the Times's course, though their stuff normally costs an arm and a leg and neither I nor my associates have either to spare.

Twouldn't be cheaper to get a poor student to do us up a course, p, because the idea is that I learn it then pass on the knowledge.

At the moment I'm not a web builder - but I am a *very* good teacher. Once I've learned the basics I'll do a simple site, and pass on the knowledge to my associates. And you can bet that what it's taken 10 weeks to teach me I can teach in a couple of hours.

Sounds vain but it's not; some people are good at useful things; I'm <sob> good at teaching. Couldn't it have been flying gliders or being beautiful? Couldn't it?

logic1

Originally posted by Fand

Twouldn't be cheaper to get a poor student to do us up a course, p, because the idea is that I learn it then pass on the knowledge.

At the moment I'm not a web builder - but I am a *very* good teacher. Once I've learned the basics I'll do a simple site, and pass on the knowledge to my associates. And you can bet that what it's taken 10 weeks to teach me I can teach in a couple of hours.

Sounds vain but it's not; some people are good at useful things; I'm <sob> good at teaching. Couldn't it have been flying gliders or being beautiful? Couldn't it?

Sounds a bit like the blind leading the blind. What if you sit the course and find that it's all beyond you.

.logic.

Fand

Since the purpose of the course is to teach beginners, if I sit down and find it's beyond me it'll be a bad course, and I'll want my money back.

Remember, a huge amount of knowledge isn't the main basis for teaching: it's the ability to transmit the knowledge that one has.

beaver

The ability to transmit knowledge is completely useless if you don't have knowledge that other people want and need.

TBH, I don't think the best person to learn from is necessarily the best teacher, rather someone who knows their area brilliantly and can teach reasonably well. It helps enormously if you want to learn too, of course.

In any case, if you can teach people in a couple of hours what it took you ten weeks to learn I wish you every success - you'll be very rich

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Originally posted by Fand
Since the purpose of the course is to teach beginners, if I sit down and find it's beyond me it'll be a bad course, and I'll want my money back.

Remember, a huge amount of knowledge isn't the main basis for teaching: it's the ability to transmit the knowledge that one has.

Go and give it a try anyway. If dont like it ask for your dosh back. If theres any probs just quote the EU "Doorstop Selling Directive". ie..... I thought I'd like it but now I want to quit, so hand back my cash"

logic1

Originally posted by Fand
Since the purpose of the course is to teach beginners, if I sit down and find it's beyond me it'll be a bad course

Or you may just be a slow learner. Either way I don't think someone who has sat a beginners course in HTML is in any position to go teaching other beginners. But if they choose to listen to you more power to them.

And your statement:

And you can bet that what it's taken 10 weeks to teach me I can teach in a couple of hours.

Is simply a ridiculous comment to make. I know several training companies and people that work in them and I can assure you it would be physcially impossible for a beginner to competently teach other beginners a 10 week course in a few hours.

.logic.

p

Originally posted by logic1


Is simply a ridiculous comment to make. I know several training companies and people that work in them and I can assure you it would be physcially impossible for a beginner to competently teach other beginners a 10 week course in a few hours.

.logic.

Unless it was a course than had 2 hours per week.


- Kevin

Shiminay

In all honesty Fand, Dreamweaver mightn't be the best thing to start on as you don't have so much experience in the field. Also, it's an expensive piece of software and good training courses in it cost a mint (£1000 to £1500 for the best ones).

Try looking into other editors - Macromedia's Homesite springs to mind or even <flameproof pants on>FrontPage<flameproof pants off>.

<edit>Forgot that Macromedia and Allaire have merged</edit>

Homesite is cheap and very straight forward and a good tool to start with. FrontPage has the advantage of being an MS Office product which pretty much all computer users have come across at one point or another in their lives and so it's not unfamiliar territory.

Here's a review of Homesite 5

I once taught a class using Dreamweaver and I regret using it - I had to spend so long explaining how the software worked that I didn't have enough time to spend on the HMTL end of things. But that's me and not you, so maybe you can do it better

Anyway, if you're still keen to go ahead with Dreamweaver (it is the best afterall), then best of luck! There are loads of web based tutorials as others have pointed out, so they're probably your best bets for a start.

beaver

For gawds' sake, don't touch Frontpage. It'll churn out bull**** code that won't work in non-MS browsers. Don't even consider it. Put it out of your head. Don't even imagine that you could start of using it because it might be an easy way to learn. It's not.

I'm curious as to why the company in question doesn't just hire an experienced designer to make the site and pass along some knowledge to the other employees... I mean, if I wanted to learn about cars, I wouldn't hire someone to learn the basics of car mechanics and then try to teach me. I'd hire someone who has experience of working in a garage.

Shiminay

Originally posted by beaver
For gawds' sake, don't touch Frontpage. It'll churn out bull**** code that won't work in non-MS browsers. Don't even consider it. Put it out of your head. Don't even imagine that you could start of using it because it might be an easy way to learn. It's not.

That's not entirely true mate - FrontPage2000 will behave itself for small and simple tasks such as learning the fundamentals of HTML.

Word has to be avoided like the plague - Dreamweaver even has a tool to demolish "Word HTML" because it's so apallingly bad.

Fand

Hmm. That review you send me to says:

The good: Highly customizable; better performance and stability; updated file support; backup and deployment tools.
The bad: Steep learning curve on advanced features; unhelpful error messages.
The bottom line: This new and improved version of an outstanding code editor is more stable and remarkably well tailored toward the professional Web developer.