I reading an article published in the New York Times the other day and they were talking to Design Director Khoi Vinh and he mentioned in an answer to a question that their web designers still “hand code” their site rather than using programs such as Dreamweaver. In response to that here are 3 things why I think Dreamweaver is the way to go when creating your CSS. I haven’t fully handed coded a website for a very long time and tend to disagree with the fact that he thinks it “yields better and faster results.”

I would love to know how everyone else writes their code. Do you still use a text editor or use a program such as Dreamweaver? Let us know and post a comment with what you use and why.

1. The Template Pages Are Actually Quite Good
If you a beginner or even an intermediate or advanced CSS developer and are not all that confident with the whole CSS Layout thing and moving from a table based layout then this improved feature may just be your answer. Not everyone has the time to learn new things to get things done. I have written previous articles on creating CSS Layouts for a 2 Column, 3 Column, Liquid Layouts, and also Centering a Layout. But if you don’t have the time to learn these techniques then this section is for you.

File > New bingo there right in front of you are a plethora of CSS Templates to choose from. All of which provide great inline commenting so you can learn as you go. All these layouts render well in Firefox (Windows and Macintosh) 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0; Internet Explorer (Windows) 5.5, 6.0, 7.0; Opera (Windows and Macintosh) 8.0, 9.0; and Safari 2.0.

2. Checking for cross-browser CSS rendering issues in Dreamweaver
One Feature that I have in the past not really used all that often was the Target Browser Check in the older versions of Dreamweaver. In Dreamweaver CS3 it is now called Browser Compatibility Check (BCC) and I have actually been using this and have been quite happy with the outcomes. The BCC feature checks against the following browsers: Firefox 1.5; Internet Explorer (Windows) 6.0 and 7.0; Internet Explorer (Macintosh) 5.2; Netscape Navigator 8.0; Opera 8.0 and 9.0; Safari 2.0.

To Run A BCC Simply Select File > Check Page > Browser Compatibility. Any issues are then reported in the Properties Inspector at the bottom.

3. The CSS Panel
Although this has not really changed much in Dreamweaver CS3 it is worth pointing out. I kind of like this feature again I think the more “hard core” CSS developers may never use this but it is nice and easy for the beginner, that would rather find their way around a WYSIWYG Editor than learn the ins and outs of writing CSS in a text editor.

So while I think when starting out it is still good practice to learn CSS by hand as you still need to learn what properties and selectors to use, but Dreamweaver provides excellent options for creating CSS based Layouts.

Don’t Forget, If you would like to ask a question or have a problem that you need help with in regards to CSS, Word Press, or Design issues then go to my Contact Page and ask away. I will answer these questions as part of my Weekly Design Tips Newsletter

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