Posted on July 28th, 2008 by Ryan
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. Full Story →
Posted on July 25th, 2008 by Ryan
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…
Posted on July 23rd, 2008 by Ryan
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?
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. Full Story →
Posted on July 19th, 2008 by Ryan
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.
Posted on July 15th, 2008 by Ryan
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. Full Story →
Posted on July 12th, 2008 by Ryan
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. Full Story →
Posted on June 28th, 2008 by Ryan
Trellian is our new free Dreamweaver template and it comes with sweet CSS navigation courtesy of CSS Menu Writer. We wanted to showcase a few of our favorite Dreamweaver extensions, so we also generated the XHTML page structure in CSS Sculptor. The template is tableless and includes a multi-level CSS menu that can be easily customized in the code.
If you do your own website design, we highly recommend both CSS Sculptor and CSS Menu Writer. It’s truly amazing how quickly you can generate standards compliant site structure and navigation. What used to take the most time in developing a new site has been reduced to a matter of minutes so we can focus more on the eye candy and content.
You can preview the Trellian template or download it from our Dreamweaver templates page.
Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Ryan
We’ve posted a collection of pure CSS website layouts for download that we created with the CSS Sculptor Dreamweaver extension in order to showcase it’s speed and flexibility. We created over 25 layouts that all validate as XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 in less than 30 minutes! Full Story →
Posted on June 16th, 2008 by Ryan
Mozilla Developer Center has announced a release date of June 17th for Firefox 3.0. They are aiming to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. You can pledge your download here and be part of history when Firefox 3.0 is released!
Posted on June 12th, 2008 by Ryan
We just completed a new WordPress theme called ModXBlog (we don’t know why). It’s a really clean theme that has a lot of nice touches added. It’s AdSense-ready so you can immediately start making a few bucks with your blog and it has three different widget-ready sidebar areas.
It comes pre-coded for use with Breadcrumb-NavXT and Rob Marsh’s Post Plugin Library. The single post pages support Rob’s Similar Posts plugin by default, so make sure you activate that plugin when you install the blog. If you don’t, no big deal, the related posts area just won’t show up under the posts.
We’re going to build on this one in the future, with different color schemes and subject themes so check back soon for more downloads.
You can preview ModXBlog or download it here.
