Who is this book good for?

I would say intermediate level web designers who are comfortable with code and concepts related to web design (like Web standards and semantic meaning of code etc …) and feel a need to brush up on some Web standards nerd stuff again while learning Dreamweaver 8.

The book is NOT FOR BEGINNERS to Dreamweaver or  to web design. Yet at the same time, the author goes into topics that experienced web designers will probably not need to learn … again:

• How to set up a web server.
• What SSI (server side includes) are.
• What XML is.
• How to plan a website … I’m talking real basic stuff. 

Why is this book not for beginners?

I think the problem lies in the way certain topics are covered; I think it would be too fast for most beginners. 

Other topics covered:

• Forms
• Accessibility
• Website structures/practices – sitemaps, using includes etc.

The positives:

The writing is clear and the editing is good, as is typical of SitePoint books - please keep in mind what I said about who the reader should be!

It is a project based based book, where you are guided through the process of building a website – this may be useful for some to see. You also get a look at how to use Dreamweaver in the context of Web standards and accessibility … some good tips can be found.

The negatives:

Besides what I mentioned above, I disagree with the author’s style of building websites: she combines modern code and structural practices but uses old style methods of web site construction/production: she creates the structure of the site first, then moves to styling it with CSS. 

This is a better approach than building everything up at once, but I am a big believer in starting out with page-level layouts first (by way of template,) then moving to adding elements to the page.

I also think she (like many other web designers out there today,) have smoked a little too much of the Web-standards-zealot wacky-tabacci, and have become overly enamored with XHTML and validations etc. To be fair though, my point of view is heretical … even if it is right!

For example: XHTML – please not again!

The author (like many other poor souls) love XHTML for a bunch of reasons that have little, if any relevance in the real-world. In fact, the reasons that they (the zealots) love XHTML so much, is actually lost with 80% of the users on the web today!

Let me explain:

You see, IE 6 and IE 7 will render XHTML as ‘tag soup’ – I don’t want to get into it here, but in a nutshell, IE 6 and IE 7 doesn’t read XHTML properly! So when either browser comes across an XHTML page, it reads it as crappy HTML.

On the other hand, XHTML makes pages that much harder to code, and it makes DOM scripting a pain in the butt. There is no real reason to want to use XHTML except (of course) if you want to be anal about code and you feel need to create work for yourself for no good reason …

How about another example of the authors poor choices: using CSS hacks.

Again, I don’t want to get into here but, CSS hacks are bad news since many will break in the new IE 7 - authors should not be teaching the use of hacks! 

I recently had this question put to me, and I thought it would make an interesting blog post:

"What’s Apache, Perl, MySQL?  As a web designer, will I need to know these for my clients?"

Apache, Perl, MySQL

Apache = a web server. The most popular (in terms of use) in the world. If your host is on Linux, they are running Apache.
 
You don’t need to know much about Apache as a web designer, since your hosting company will configure that all for you.
-

Perl = a programming language used a lot on Linux servers. It can be used to do all kinds of things but it is mostly known for its legacy as the programming language used to write CGI scripts – think guestbooks etc …

You don’t need to know much about Perl as a web designer. But Perl is still widely used and you will find that many scripts out there (like guest books,) are created with Perl.
-

MySQL = is a database program. Database software like MySQL are used to store information. Used a lot with things like message boards, e-commerce shops and other programs like that.  MySQL is often used with PHP (a programming language) to create database driven websites.

MySQL becomes important to learn IF you want to learn how to create dynamic/database driven websites.

A final point:

There is so much (out there) in the web design world, that you will probably never need to know or use. I can tell you from 12 years experience, that nobody knows everything – there is just too much. 

My advice is to concentrate on what you need NOW and to continue to work on basic skills … let the projects that come up dictate what you’ll learn.

INTRODUCTION

Following the Web Standards makes perfect sense when it allows you to build easy to mantain websites that work with the major browsers. It doesn’t make sense when using Web Standards forces you to use hacks, prevents you from taking advantage of a great technology/feature or makes your job as a web designer or developer more difficult.

Let’s take a look at 3 very useful technologies that are not in the Web Standards, but do not have any of the negative consequences associated with browser specific code:

1. IE conditional comments: for cross-browser CSS layouts.
2. AJAX – using the XMLHTTPobject: for behind the scenes browser to server communication.
3. The innerHTML property:  for quick and easy DOM manipulation.

Though each of the above are not part of the Web Standards, they provide terrifically useful functionality without any hangups.

IE CONDITIONAL COMMENTS

Though IE conditional comments only work in IE, it makes great sense to use them when you want to isolate code. Since all other browsers will see IE conditional comments as being only HTML comments, there can never be a down side to IE conditional comments. It is the proper way of dealing with IE 6’s problems with CSS code.

Example:

<head>

<link href="standardStyle.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media=screen>

<!–[if IE 6]>
<link href="ie_style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media=screen>
<![endif]–>

</head>

In the above example, we use IE conditional comments to hide IE specific CSS from all other browsers. Spefically, the IE conditional comments:

 (<!–[if IE 6]> and <![endif]–>) 

is loading the ‘ie_style.css’ style sheet only if the browser reading the page is IE6.

IE conditional comments are a replacement for dangerous CSS hacks that are commonly used to deal with IE’s occasional problems with standard CSS.

AJAX

The heart of AJAX is in the XMLHTTPObject – a JavaScript function built into every major browser but is NOT part of the Web Standards. Given how powerful AJAX is, and given how popular it has become, you can be sure that every major browser will continue to support it.

So as a Web Standards zealot, you have to ask yourself whether blind adhereance to the Web standards is worth missing out on this important tool? That is to say, if you’re a web standards zealot, you couldn’t/shouldn’t use AJAX since it is not part of the official Web standards … it’s your choice. 

 INNER HTML PROPERTY

InnerHTML is an easy to use property supported by all the major browsers that allows you to dynamically update/change web pages without having to do a page refresh.

Example using innerHTML:

var targetDiv = document.getElementById("targetDiv");
targetDiv.innerHTML = "<p>innerHTML is fast and easy!</p>"

Example using DOM methods:

var para = document.createElement("p");
var targetDiv = document.getElementById("targetDiv");
targetDiv.appendChild(para);
var txt = document.createTextNode("Dom methods are much longer than innerHTML");
para.appendChild(txt);

As you can see with the above examples, to insert text with DOM methods takes a lot more code than innerHTML. So, should you use innerHTML?

The answer: Browser makers typically don’t remove functionality, and given that innerHTML is supported by all the browsers and is easy to use, this is yet another example where I will break from the standards and feel comfortable about it.