Archive for September, 2009

Customizing Spry widgets

Posted on September 16, 2009 by jvarese | Comments (6)

It’s easy enough to insert Spry widgets in Dreamweaver, but customizing them is another matter. Surprisingly, there are not a great number of resources out there that show folks how to customize Spry widgets. Below are some of the more popular and useful ones that might help you get to where you want to go.
Spry widget samples (ADOBE)
Code and styling samples of all of the Adobe Spry widgets, directly from the Adobe Spry team.
Customizing Spry Menu Bars in Dreamweaver (JUST DREAMWEAVER)
Resource page offering various Spry Menu Bar information available out on the Web.
Creating Custom Spry Widgets: Dreamweaver CS3 (LYNDA.COM)
Video series showing how to insert and modify a Sliding Panels widget.
Tabbed Panels and Menu Bar widgets: Dreamweaver CS3 (PEACHPIT PRESS)
Basic tutorial on inserting and styling Tabbed Panels and Menu Bar widgets.
Spry Validation widgets (LAYERS MAGAZINE)
Video tutorial on inserting and styling Spry form validation widgets.
Building Spry pages visually (ADOBE)
The Dreamweaver Help system. Each widget contains a customization section, which links out to the larger Spry Developer’s Guide.

Get up to speed with CSS layouts

Posted on September 15, 2009 by jvarese | Comments (0)

We get a lot (and I mean A LOT) of queries about CSS layouts — what are they, how do they work, where do I go to start? Here are just a few of some of the best resources out there if you are trying to tackle this formidable but popular beast:
From table-based to tableless web design (ADOBE)
Popular two-part tutorial series on building a CSS layout from scratch, and converting table-based layouts to pure CSS.
CSS page layout basics (ADOBE)
Explanation of a basic CSS layout that breaks down the structure and rules that create the layout.
Creating a CSS layout from scratch (SUBCIDE)
An older but still quite useful step-by-step tutorial on creating a CSS layout.
Building your first CSS site (ADOBE)
Steps beginners through the process of defining structural elements and then styling them.
Tableless layouts with Dreamweaver CS4 (ADOBE)
Shows you how to create a simple two-column CSS layout.
Creating a simple three-column design (ADOBE)
Shows you how to build a three-column design, including using the “faux column” technique
Dreamweaver CSS starter layouts (ADOBE)
An article written for Dreamweaver CS3, but still useful as the starter layouts did not change in CS4.
Create a page with a CSS layout (ADOBE)
The Dreamweaver CS4 Help doc equivalent to the above starter layouts article.
CSS layout (HTML SOURCE)
A popular article describing many of the most common terms and principles used for CSS layouts.
In Search of the Holy Grail (A LIST APART)
Elegant article on creating the “holy grail” of CSS layouts: the three-column, fixed-width sidebars, liquid center layout.