HI ,

I am new to web design and programming and I made a small site on Dreamweaver . My problem is that when I preview the Site normally on my browser thru the Dreamweyver it looks exactly as I designed it but when I upload it to the server and view the site on firefox then comes the disaster , everything is scrambled and it looks really bad and it looses some colors . Any Idea ?? I would appreciate your help.

The Site looks good when I preview it on IE .

I've got two words for you as a newcomer: Dr*amw*av*r Sucks. Period. It generates bulky, unnecessary code, and much like FrontPage from Microsoft, tends to create a false sense of security among newcomers such as yourself that you will be able to create pages simply by going "point...click...point...click...point...click ..."

The reality of the situation is that web design is more complicated and comes with a lot more variables than that.

First step: Validate your HTML code: http://validator.w3.org
Next step: Validate your CSS (if any): http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
Next step: When you're done (or at least you've gone as far as you can with it) and you're still stuck, post the URL in here and others (or myself if I'm around) will be able to help.

Thanks man for your help. I have some errors on the page and I will try to fix them .
Thanks alot

If you wish, post your html here and we will make it correct.

You can make your website in Dreamweaver MX. This software is best for designing your HTML Files.

Best Regards

Musicmaza
<please create a forum signature>

I use dreamweaver, its a really good and helpful program but the best way to use it isnt with the WYSIWYG editor but just through coding, thats where it really shines and lets you fly ahead... and get really lazy - i cant type code in notepad anymore because my code is full of '</ ' instead of really closed tags because dreamweaver automates things like that to make it faster.

but yeah, try post your code/site up, its normally easier that way than for us to just sit and try to imagine what it looks like.

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

I've got two words for you as a newcomer: Dr*amw*av*r Sucks. Period. It generates bulky, unnecessary code, and much like FrontPage from Microsoft, tends to create a false sense of security among newcomers such as yourself that you will be able to create pages simply by going "point...click...point...click...point...click ..."

The reality of the situation is that web design is more complicated and comes with a lot more variables than that.

First step: Validate your HTML code: http://validator.w3.org
Next step: Validate your CSS (if any): http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
Next step: When you're done (or at least you've gone as far as you can with it) and you're still stuck, post the URL in here and others (or myself if I'm around) will be able to help.

That's incredibly harsh advice to give a beginner. Some of the best designers on the whole www use dreamweaver. If you know what you're doing you can clean the unnecessaries up in a few seconds! And first step isn't validating your code - it's making your code. Blah blah

I can't believe the pretentiousness of some of the people in here! Is this a 'help forum' or let's be a ****in' ponce forum?

z8 If you want -- pm me your site url and email address, I'll help as much as possible.

Dreamweaver is a very good tool.. BUT NOT used in WYSIWYG mode and it DOES create some very crappy code that way. I've used DW since version 1.0, however, never in 'design' mode alone. DW is a GREAT tool IF AND ONLY IF you KNOW how to code w/o anything except a text editor.

Do yourself a favor, LEARN HTML first, forget DW and use Notepad or some other simple editor. Once you've got that down, then using DW has it's benefits. Otherwise, you might just as well be using Frontpage - it's nearly as bad.

The reality of the situation is that web design is more complicated and comes with a lot more variables than that.

Adam is absolutely dead on. I've been doing web design for 10 years, there's a LOT more than just some point and click.

I can't believe the pretentiousness of some of the people in here! Is this a 'help forum' or let's be a ****in ponce forum?

You don't have to stick around You've been here a few hours and you think you know this place ?? It helps far more people if the OP would post his/her code or a link to it. That way EVERYONE with a similar problem can benefit when answers are given.

I agree with LadyRed and the other chap, dreamweaver is a great program but its not a magic pill that will make the coding pain go away.

Most designers including myself use dreamweaver for rapid development of websites, rather than clean code, it just makes everything quicker rather than acually better. You still have to edit the code by hand and make it clean and smaller. Once you have your basic template(s) then test and validate everything before starting to create every page, a little bit of pain at the start is better than a whole lot of pain near the end.

I would not recommend notepad, just keep on using dreamweaver but view the code and the design together, I think that is a good way to learn.

So when you insert an image with dw, look to see what code it has put to place that image, the next time type the code yourself. Once you know the code its faster to type it yourself than to use dw. Plus dw can complete the code for you if you wanted it to, and indent the code to make it easier to see whats going on, and you can change the colour of the tags to how you want.

Ouch! I can see that Dreamweaver does get alot of flack from the 'build it from scratch' HTML-er's. Its true, alot of designers start out with Dreamweaver and work their way up to the current standards and web practices. I do agree that everyone needs to validate their code. Check out www.csszengarden.com to learn more on the values of CSS design and assist with cross browser compatibility issues.

Thanks alot for the help and sorry for not being around for a while. I am developing my sites now on dreamweaver Mx and it is good for beginners.
Thanks alot

Just to add my shout, as a novice DW is the business. It let's us get sites up and running with a minimum of grief WHILST the software behaves itself. However, it does have some annoying habits, much like MS Access, in that sometimes altering a page is not enough, it somehow "remembers" the previous settings and acts as though no change has been made. It also leaves a lot of redundant code behind, for example, if you delete server behaviours, which can then create mayhem if you have the nerve to try and re-impliment these behaviours on the same page! The only way out then is to delete the whole page and recreate from scratch Still, as a learning tool it's pretty good

Cheers, Lol