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  • As Edison Junior High's webmaster, I have always used FrontPage, to create and maintain our school's website. This summer, our district decided that all school webmaster should use a similar HTML editor when creating and maintaining their school's website. This would make troubleshooting easier and would allow each school homepage to have similar format. In doing so, our district decided to use Macromedia Dreamweaver 4.0 as the HTML software editor. There are many reasons why they chose this software...

  • Dreamweaver has many wonderful feature that allows an average person to create a professional and eye appealing web page with little training. It offers many different functions and tools that other editing program leave out and make steps/directions easy enough to follow that you really don't have to read a book to create a page. Basically the organization is similar to any other window software and has similar features that you would find in program such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint This makes it easy to use. I am very impress with the organization and the tool bars. Here are features that I found to be helpful.

  • Working tool bar which has ALL the feature you need while working in an area of the webpage. For example, it allows you to change your font, create targets or links, change background, insert table or frames, and to add wraps around pictures. Here is what the tool bar looks like.


  • Another feature that I find to be very helpful is that the editor allows you to view the HTML code that the program is writing for you. This allows you to make changes that would be easier for you to do in code or is not offered by the program. I have used this function once or twice to make changes that I could not figure how to do with the program. Of course, the more I use Dreamweaver, the more function/features I find out how to use. Sometimes though, it is easier to just look at the code and make the changes needed without trying to figure out where you went wrong with the editing software.
  • The object pallette is another helpful feature. It allows the designer to edit images that you insert into your page by adding functions that make the image look professional. The tool bar, once again, has similiar function to those you would found in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, therefore, making it very easy to use. One other feature I like, is that it offer the designer the option to create image maps.

  • Dreamweaver also has other features that make the program exceptional. It allows you to create photo albums (thumbnails), edit images, and add other things like flashes to images with a built in program called Fireworks. This program is also very easy to use. Basically, this program allows the designer to enhance his/her images.
  • Overall, Dreamweaver is a very good program. Though I am not an expert with it yet, I do find that I know how to workmore features with this program in the small amount of time that I have used it, than I knew how to do with frontpage in the whole year that I used it. For example, F7 is spell check or that F12 allows you to preview your page as it would look on the Internet (without frames or tables line on it). The program is truly set up for the most elementary webmaster out there. It seem like everyday I learn something new and I like the program more and more.



  • I found the challenges to be few and far between with Dreamweaver. Many of the challenges are very basic and minor. One problem that constantly occured is where pictures and images default to. For example, when making a bullet list, sometimes the bullet doesn't allow you to add a space in between. I left thelast two bullets on the feature list to show exactly what I am writing about. On the first bullet you can see a space in between the image and the second bullet. For the other two bullets, you can see that there is no space due to where the program's default has set the format for the bullet. Another challenge was that Fireworks does not have as many editing options for images as Adobe Photoshop Elements does. Fireworks is good to use for some photo editing purposes but overall I still use Adobe Photoshop Elements more. Beside those two challenges, I find that Dreamweaver is a much more user-friendly program than the other two HTML editing softwares that I have used in the past. I am very glad that our district chose to use it and I am looking foward to learning to more about Dreamweaver's capabilities.

  • This list links to my fellow CTER student's reviews of different HTML editing software webpages. This project is part of an assignment for Edpsy 490 NET offered through the University of Illinois, Champaign. (Master's Degree Program)

  • Click on the Books to Order (Good Tutorials for Dreamweaver)

BACK TO MY Edpsy 490 NET E-PORTFOLIO




Josh Norman
1400 Earl Street
Pekin, IL 61554
Phone: 309.477.4732
Fax: 309.477.4738

This page was last updated on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 by jrnorman@pekin.net