Our newest extension offering is ThemeDreamer from Virtuosoft.  We’ve been working with ThemeDreamer for several months and have been anxiously awaiting it’s release.  It’s still in beta, but you can download a trial which will deactivate upon the next release or buy ThemeDreamer at half of the final release price.

If you have ever tried designing a WordPress theme in Dreamweaver, you know it’s not very easy and the workflow is rather repetitive. Even with a local WordPress installation, you are continually editing, saving, previewing, re-editing, etc. ThemeDreamer takes a lot of the hassle out of creating WordPress themes by integrating with Dreamweaver’s design view. It takes the assortment of WordPress PHP files such as index.php, header.php, sidebar.php, footer.php, etc. and combines them to allow WYSIWYG editing in design view.

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Tags: dreamweaver, extension, themedreamer, wordpress themes

We just wrapped up the design of OpenSpaces, a new free template for Dreamweaver. It’s really a pretty cool template that is easy to customize the appearance of. There are actually five different templates included with OpenSpaces, with three variations with a header graphic and two without the header image.

Navigation is simple CSS navigation, so no drop-down menus in this template. We styled a left sidebar and a right sidebar and a cool header area where you can include any information, even an AdSense leaderboard ad if you style the enclosing div a little wider.

We also included two types of boxes to go on the full-width home page template, a three box layout and a two box layout. Each can be easily modified via the included Fireworks source file, simply by changing the colors and re-exporting the slices that are already optimized in the file. We included similar boxes in our Fruit Company template and I think people liked them as they were very functional and break up the content well.

Check out OpenSpaces on our free Dreamweaver templates page, and we also added an option for licensing our templates without the link back to our site. We’re probably too cheap on the prices, but we don’t do it for the money anyway.

Tags: dreamweaver themes, free dreamweaver template, xhtml templates

Eight years ago, after creating my first database powered website, I remember thinking man, this is cool stuff! Today, many dynamic PHP and ASP Dreamweaver sites later, I still have the same giggly, power-hungry feeling when I start coding the pages to display the database content. There is so much you can do with a simple database and a few lines of code, that static websites should be a thing of the past.

There is a really affordable set of database-driven website tutorials available from WebAssist that give you the foundation you need to start cranking out some really decent websites. The Database Starter Kits are available in PHP, ASP and .NET formats (.NET is currently available for Expression Web only) and they are only about ten bucks each. What you get with the starter kits is a complete interactive tutorial series that teaches the fundamentals of database website design, three complete databases (MySQL for PHP and Access for ASP and .NET) and a host of information that will get you started building your own dynamic websites.

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Tags: asp, database, dot net, dreamweaver, expression web, mysql, php

Web 2.1 is a really sweet template for those of you who like the web 2.0 look. Lots of bright colors glassy icons and gradiant effects in this free Dreamweaver template. We actually did two versions of the navigation, and you can download whichever version you prefer. The CSS version was created with CSS Menu Writer and there is also a DHTML menu courtesy of AllWebMenus Pro 5. In order to customize the DHTML menu, you will probably want to pick up a copy of AllWebMenus from Likno Software.

As with all our free templates, we included the Adobe Fireworks source file so you can easily customize the template to suit your needs. The file is all pre-sliced and optimized, so all you need to do is change colors and export the slices into the images directory.  We also included a bunch of vector web 2.0 icons, buttons, balls, and glassy dudes.  They’re at least fun to play with even though they might not fit your site needs.

Check out Web 2.1 on our free templates page.  You can preview both the CSS and the DHTML versions and download whichever you prefer.  The DHTML version is pretty slick, but the code is really clean (and SEO optimized) in the CSS version.

We also just introduced template licensing for all our templates. We kept getting requests on “how much does it cost to remove the link”, so we just posted some PayPal buttons that you can buy one, two or all the templates. It’s kind of a no-brainer since you can buy all our current and future templates for only 50 bucks.  We create our templates to help people create good websites in less time, and it does take some time to put them together, so if you feel like donating to our cause, please license a template or two or all…

Tags: css website templates, free dreamweaver templates, free themes, xhtml

Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Reviews

Adobe released Creative Suite 4 on October 15th and it consists of upgraded versions of the world’s most popular design software. The sites listed below are a compilation of the various reviews we’ve seen for Dreamweaver CS4. So read the reviews and form your own opinion if CS4 is worth your hard earned cash.  In our opinion, it was worth every penny.

So what’s new in Dreamweaver CS4?

View Dreamweaver CS4 features at Adobe.com

As the Dreamweaver CS4 beta makes it’s way onto desktops, there have been some initial reviews and opinions of the beta posted that I wanted to put together in a single post. Dreamweaver CS4 reviews have been generally postitive with the usual beta version “I wish it had this” or “I wish they’d revamp this” but Dreamweaver is still the best website design software available, with many interface improvements to speed up workflow. I also included some video from Adobe TV demonstrating some of the really cool new features of Dreamweaver CS4.

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Tags: adobe, beta review, cs4 review, dreamweaver, dreamweaver cs4

I finally got around to posting our review of WebAssist’s Super Suite extensions for Dreamweaver.  Super Suite is a collection of every WebAssist Professional Dreamweaver extension and we have used it extensively for over a year on many different website design projects. The Super Suite review is posted on our main JustDreamweaver.com site.

We are planning in-depth reviews of most of the extensions on our site, so check back often for the new Dreamweaver extension reviews.

Tags: super suite review, webassist

Are you still manually building your HTML or XML sitemaps? Has your site outgrown those free online sitemap builders? There’s a new extension called Surveyor for Adobe Dreamweaver 8 and CS3 that builds your sitemaps automatically from within a simple configuration wizard.

Sitemaps and SEO are like peanut butter and jelly

If you’ve read anything on SEO and website optimization, you know that an XML sitemap combined with a HTML sitemap gives search engines the breadcrumbs they need to find the pages in your site. One of the coolest features of Surveyor is it’s ability to not only build an XML sitemap, but it will also submit it to Google, Yahoo, Live Search, Ask and Moreover.

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Tags: dreamweaver, extensions, html sitemap, surveyor, webassist, xml sitemap

If you’re a WebAssist extension user and you’ve been wanting to get your hands on a new Apple iPhone 3G, here’s your chance. As part of their 2008 Do More/Win More competition, WebAssist is giving away a pair of 16GB iPhone 3G’s for winners of the best overall site and best overall CSS Sculptor layout and CSS Menu Writer menu.

Not only are a couple of iPhones up for grabs, but also well over $2,000 in free WebAssist software as well.  Entries for the contest can be submitted through August 31, 2008, and winners will be announced September 30.

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Tags: apple, dreamweaver, extensions, free, iphone 3G, webassist