by Richard Wagner and Richard Mansfield
Nine Quick Reference Guides_One Great Price!
Book I: Web & Page Design
Book II: Online Services
Book III: Microsoft Expression Web
Book IV: Dreamweaver
Book V: Cascading Style Sheets
Book VI: HTML/XHTML
Book VII: Graphics & Multimedia
Book VIII: Scripting
Book IX: Flash
Book II: Online Services
Book III: Microsoft Expression Web
Book IV: Dreamweaver
Book V: Cascading Style Sheets
Book VI: HTML/XHTML
Book VII: Graphics & Multimedia
Book VIII: Scripting
Book IX: Flash
 |
| Creating Web Pages All In One Desk Reference 3rd Edition For Dummies |
Richard Wagner is an experienced Web designer, the inventor of the
NetObjects ScriptBuilder Web tool, and the former vice president of product
development for NetObjects. A versatile writer with a wide range of
interests, he is also the author of XSLT For Dummies, C.S. Lewis & Narnia
For Dummies (both published by Wiley), and many others. His online home
is at Digitalwalk.net.
Richard Mansfield’s recent titles include CSS Web Design For Dummies
(Wiley), Office 2003 Application Development All-in-One Desk Reference For
Dummies (Wiley), Visual Basic .NET Power Tools, with Evangelos Petroutsos
(Sybex), and The Savvy Guide to Digital Music (SAMS). From 1981 through
1987, he was the editor of COMPUTE! magazine. Richard has written hundreds
of magazine articles and two columns. He began writing books full time in
1991 and has written a total of 40 books. Of those, four became bestsellers:
Machine Language for Beginners and The Second Book of Machine Language
(both from COMPUTE! Books), The Visual Guide to Visual Basic, and Visual
Basic Power Toolkit, with Evangelos Petroutsos (both from Ventana). Overall,
his books have sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide and have been
translated into 12 languages.
Authors’ Acknowledgments
From Richard Wagner: I was thankful for working with a superior editorial
team at Wiley during the production of this book. My sincere thanks to
Nicole Sholly, for her flawless management of this project. Thanks also to
Elizabeth Kuball, for her attention to detail and keen editing eye. Danilo Celic
brought to the book a strong technical insight that ensured an overall consistency
in quality and coverage. Many thanks also go to Steve Hayes, for his
steady hand on the project, as well as my agent, Matt Wagner. Finally, a special
thanks goes to my wife, Kimberly, and our three boys. I’ve got the best
“home field advantage” of any author.
From Richard Mansfield: I’d like to thank all the good people at Wiley for
their assistance with this book. Gratitude, in particular, goes to Nicole Sholly
for her helpful explanations and thoughtful comments. In addition, I thank
Rebecca Whitney and Teresa Artman, the copy editors, and Danilo Celic, the
technical editor, for their contributions to the book’s quality.
Introduction
If you’re interested in creating a Web site, chances are that you’ve at least
seen the terms HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Flash floating around.
Maybe your friends talk about their blogs or MySpace pages and you don’t
know whether you should do the same or dive into using a more powerful
tool, like Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Web.
However, unless you’re a professional Web designer, you might be a bit
unsure of — and maybe even a little intimidated by — figuring out where to
start. You have to know which of these technologies is important to know
about and which ones can be left to the techie-geek crowd. What’s more,
you need to know the least amount of information you need to have in order
to create a decent Web site.
Along the way, you may occasionally need to dig into the code of your Web
page and understand what’s going on behind the scenes. However, when
possible, you’ll probably want to use Dreamweaver or Expression Web to
handle most of that lower-level coding for you.
If these sorts of issues ring true for you, you have the right book in hand.
About This Book
In Creating Web Pages All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies, 3rd Edition,
we take you on a tour around the World Wide Web. The ten minibooks
packed inside these pages cover all the “required” technologies that you
need to know about to create Web pages. Here are some tasks that we show
you how to do in this reference book:
✦ Create attractive, professional-looking Web pages.
✦ Enjoy some of the most popular Web services, including MySpace, eBay,
Blogger, and Google Pages.
✦ Use Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Web to create Web sites.
✦ Make sense of HTML code.
✦ Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to style your Web site.
✦ Use graphics and multimedia effectively.
✦ Make your pages interactive, by adding JavaScript scripts.
✦ Use Adobe Flash to add animated Flash movies to your site.
What You Don’t Have to Read
We structured this book modularly: It’s designed so that you can easily find
just the information you need and so that you don’t have to read anything
that doesn’t pertain to your task at hand. We include sidebars here and there
throughout the book that contain interesting information that isn’t necessarily
integral to the discussion at hand; feel free to skip over them. You also
don’t have to read the Technical Stuff icons, which parse out ubertechie tidbits
(which might or might not be your cup of tea).
How This Book Is Organized
split into nine minibooks. You don’t have to read the book sequentially, you
don’t have to look at every minibook, you certainly don’t have to read every
chapter, and you don’t even have to read all the sections in any particular
chapter. (Of course, you can if you want to; the book is a good read.) And,
the table of contents and the index can help you quickly find whatever information
you need. In this section, we briefly describe the topics that each
minibook contains.
Book I: Web and Page Design
Start off right by exploring proven Web page design principles. Book I covers
such topics as organizing an effective site, designing with white space, using
the rule of thirds, and avoiding the nine most common Web site mistakes.
Book II: Online Services
Some of the hottest names on the Web are online services that you can use
to create a presence on the Web. In this minibook, we show you how to
create a MySpace page, a blog on Blogger, and a full Web site using Google
Pages. Finally, we wrap up by showing you how to sell goods online through eBay.
Book III: Microsoft Expression Web
Expression Web is the flagship Web design tool from Microsoft. This integrated
Web site design and authoring environment sports a visual page
designer. In Book III, we walk you through the steps required to design,
create, and publish a Web site by using Expression Web.
Book IV: Dreamweaver
Available for both Windows and Mac, Dreamweaver has long been the industry
standard Web design software package. Book IV introduces you to the
key features of Dreamweaver and shows you how to quickly become productive in using it.
Book V: Cascading Style Sheets
We don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that Cascading Style Sheets (or
CSS, for short) is an essential technology to understand and work with as
you begin to create Web sites. CSS helps revolutionize the way you structure
a Web site by separating your page’s content from the formatting rules you
create. That may not sound like a big deal, but it makes your job as a Web
site creator much easier. In this minibook, you discover the power of this
technology by exploring all its major features, including inheritance, selectors, and cascades.
Book VI: HTML/XHTML
Web pages are written in the special tag-based languages HTML (short for
Hypertext Markup Language) or XHTML (Extensible HTML). Dreamweaver
and Expression Web generally do a good job of hiding the complex HTML
code from you in their visual environments. However, in some cases, you
can’t avoid peeking “under the hood.” Book VI comes in handy to help you
know what’s going on in the midst of the source code.
Book VII: Graphics and Multimedia
Graphics can make or break your Web site design. Book VII shows you how
best to obtain images, optimize them, and explore other important graphics
techniques, such as hotspots, image maps, and rollovers.
Book VIII: Scripting
In this minibook, you discover the world of JavaScript. Using JavaScript, you
can write scripts for your Web pages to make them interactive and respond
to user events (button clicks, for example). We introduce you to the key concepts
you need to know to be productive with scripting and then show you
how to seamlessly add scripts into your Web page and make them work.
Book IX: Flash
A Flash movie is by far the most important add-in to a Web page. In fact,
Flash movies are so widespread and popular that some sites are written
entirely by using Flash. With Flash, you can add interactivity and animation
that goes far beyond what HTML and JavaScript can do by themselves. In
this minibook, you discover how to be productive in the Flash authoring
environment and how to create basic movies.
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Product details
Price
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|---|---|
File Size
| 20,121 KB |
Pages
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671 p |
File Type
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PDF format |
ISBN
| 978-0-470-09629-1 |
Copyright
| 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc |
Table of Contents
Introduction.........
About This Book...........
Foolish Assumptions .........
Conventions Used in This Book ....
What You Don’t Have to Read ...
How This Book Is Organized............
Book I: Web and Page Design .....
Book II: Online Services.......
Book III: Microsoft Expression Web ..
Book IV: Dreamweaver................
Book V: Cascading Style Sheets.......
Book VI: HTML/XHTML.........
Book VII: Graphics and Multimedia ..
Book VIII: Scripting....................
Book IX: Flash ..................
About the CD...........
Icons Used in This Book...
Where to Go from Here...
Book I: Web & Page Design ...........................................7
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Your Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Knowing the Lingo and the Basics.................................................................9
Navigating the Web ................................................................................9
Creating and publishing a Web site....................................................10
Surf and Study: Discovering What Works and What Doesn’t ...................14
Chapter 2: Best Practices in Web Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Applying Three Proven Design Principles to Your Site .............................17
Simplicity: Less is more.......................................................................17
Keeping things clean with white space .............................................20
Being consistent across the site.........................................................20
Understanding the Rule of Thirds................................................................21
Tweaking your page design with the rule of thirds..........................22
Balancing the rule of thirds with the background ...........................26
Background image positioning ...........................................................26
Finessing graphics................................................................................28
Avoiding Eight Common Web Design Problems.........................................28
Clutter eats your site alive ..................................................................28
Overwhelming your visitors at the start ...........................................28
Confusion comes with complexity.....................................................29
Mixing and matching design ideas never works ..............................30
Extreme symmetry is a yawner ..........................................................30
Forgetting about the visitor ................................................................31
Negligence is like moldy bread...........................................................31
Insecurity makes people nervous ......................................................31
Chapter 3: Organizing and Navigating Your Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
Creating a Site Hierarchy ..............................................................................33
Navigating Your Site with a Navigation Menu ............................................35
Book II: Online Services ...............................................39
Chapter 1: Creating Your Own Space on MySpace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
Going Social with MySpace ...........................................................................41
Setting Up a MySpace Profile........................................................................42
Customizing the Look of Your MySpace Profile .........................................53
Chapter 2: Creating a Basic Web Site with Google Page Creator . . .55
Understanding How Google Page Creator Works.......................................56
Signing Up for Google Page Creator.............................................................56
Creating a Basic Web Site..............................................................................58
Changing the Look of Your Site ....................................................................68
Changing the Layout of Your Page...............................................................70
Adding an Image to Your Page......................................................................71
Adjusting the Text on Your Web Page .........................................................74
Linking Your Pages Together ........................................................................75
Previewing and Publishing Your Web Site ..................................................76
Chapter 3: Blogging It: Creating Your Own Blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
Understanding Blogging ................................................................................79
Creating a Blog with Blogger ........................................................................80
Managing Your Blog Posts ............................................................................90
Designing Your Blog Look .............................................................................92
Changing the design template ............................................................92
Modifying the page elements..............................................................93
Changing the fonts and colors............................................................96
Making Posts Outside of Blogger .................................................................97
Posting to your blog from e-mail ........................................................98
Posting to your blog from Flickr.........................................................99
Working with Comments .............................................................................101
Chapter 4: Getting Started on eBay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105
Selling an Item at eBay.................................................................................105
Presenting Your Goods................................................................................114
Writing tips..........................................................................................114
Photo tips ............................................................................................114
Opening a Store in eBay Stores ..................................................................116
Book III: Microsoft Expression Web .............................119
Chapter 1: Getting to Know Microsoft Expression Web . . . . . . . . . . .121
Exploring the Expression Web Workspace ...............................................121
Exploring the Editing Window....................................................................122
Discovering the Tag Selector ......................................................................125
Working with Task Panes ............................................................................126
Viewing Your Web Site .................................................................................130
Customizing Your Working Environment ..................................................130
Customizing the task panes ..............................................................131
Customizing the Page Editor.............................................................131
Chapter 2: Express Yourself: Creating Your First Site
with Expression Web . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Creating a New Site ......................................................................................133
Working with the Home Page......................................................................135
Previewing Your Page in a Browser ...........................................................137
Publishing Your Site.....................................................................................137
Importing a Site into Expression Web .......................................................141
Chapter 3: Working with Text, Graphics, and Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
Adding and Editing Text in Your Pages .....................................................143
Adding text..........................................................................................143
Formatting text ...................................................................................144
Working with Pictures .................................................................................148
Adding a picture to your page ..........................................................148
Modifying a picture ............................................................................151
Working with Hyperlinks.............................................................................153
Creating a hyperlink...........................................................................154
Removing a hyperlink ........................................................................155
Creating an image map and hotspots ..............................................155
Chapter 4: Laying Out Your Page with Expression Web . . . . . . . . . . .157
Working with div Elements .........................................................................158
Adding a div element .........................................................................158
Sizing and positioning a div element ...............................................159
Formatting a div element ..................................................................161
Working with Layout Tables .......................................................................163
Inserting a layout table......................................................................164
Editing layout cells.............................................................................166
Chapter 5: “Been There, Formatted That” with Dynamic
Web Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167
Understanding Dynamic Web Templates ..................................................167
Creating a Dynamic Web Template ............................................................168
Using a Dynamic Web Template to Create a New Page ...........................171
Making Changes to Your Dynamic Web Template ...................................172
Attaching and Detaching a Dynamic Web Template................................173
Book IV: Dreamweaver...............................................175
Chapter 1: Getting to Know Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177
Introducing the Dreamweaver Workspace................................................177
Exploring the Document Window ..............................................................180
Working with Toolbars ................................................................................182
The Insert bar .....................................................................................182
Document toolbars ............................................................................184
Checking Out the Properties Inspector.....................................................185
Working with Panels ....................................................................................186
Customizing Your Workspace.....................................................................190
Showing and hiding a panel ..............................................................190
Undocking and docking a panel group ............................................191
Removing a panel from a group........................................................191
Saving a workspace layout................................................................191
Chapter 2: Nuts and Bolts: Creating Your First Dreamweaver
Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193
Creating a New Site ......................................................................................193
Creating a New Document...........................................................................198
Adding Content to Your Page .....................................................................199
Saving a Page ................................................................................................200
Previewing Your Page in a Browser ...........................................................200
Publishing Your Site.....................................................................................201
Chapter 3: Formatting and Layout Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Working with Text ........................................................................................203
Inserting text.......................................................................................203
Changing the text formatting ............................................................204
Working with Images....................................................................................207
Inserting an image ..............................................................................208
Modifying an image ............................................................................209
Connecting the Dots: Adding Links............................................................212
Creating and deleting a link...............................................................212
Specifying the target window............................................................214
Using named anchors ........................................................................214
Creating an image map and hotspots ..............................................215
Working with Tables ....................................................................................217
Divide and Conquer: Using div Elements..................................................218
Adding a div element .........................................................................218
Adding an AP div ................................................................................219
Chapter 4: Enhanced Page Elements: Flash Controls
and Spry Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
Working with Flash Controls.......................................................................221
Inserting Flash content ......................................................................221
Adding Flash buttons.........................................................................223
Adding Flash Text...............................................................................224
Working with Spry Widgets.........................................................................226
Adding a Spry Menu Bar....................................................................228
Adding a Spry Tabbed Panel.............................................................230
Adding a Spry Collapsible Panel.......................................................233
Chapter 5: Forms Follow Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237
Adding a Form ..............................................................................................237
Making Your Form Elements Accessible ...................................................240
Adding Form Elements ................................................................................242
Capturing text .....................................................................................242
Creating a drop-down list box...........................................................244
Adding a check box............................................................................245
Adding a radio group .........................................................................245
Powering up with buttons.................................................................247
Creating a Jump Menu .................................................................................248
Chapter 6: Working with CSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
Managing Styles with the CSS Styles Panel...............................................251
Working with styles of the selected element ..................................251
Working with all styles.......................................................................253
Creating a New CSS Rule .............................................................................255
Editing Style Properties and Rules.............................................................257
Creating an External Style Sheet in Dreamweaver...................................257
Applying and Removing a Style in Your Document .................................259
Linking to an External Style Sheet..............................................................260
Getting a Kick-Start with Sample Styles ....................................................261
Chapter 7: When DWT Calls: Using Templates for a
Consistent Look . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .263
Understanding Dreamweaver Templates..................................................263
Creating a Template.....................................................................................264
From scratch.......................................................................................264
From an existing page ........................................................................267
Using a Template to Create a New Page....................................................268
The Ripple Effect: Making a Change to Your Template ...........................269
Attaching and Detaching a Template.........................................................270
Chapter 8: Think Outside the Page: Managing Your Web Site . . . . .273
Creating and Configuring a Site..................................................................273
Editing Site Settings .....................................................................................277
Working with the Files Panel.......................................................................277
Managing local files............................................................................277
Managing remote files........................................................................278
Customizing Files Panel view............................................................279
Working with the Assets Panel ...................................................................280
Managing Local and Remote Files..............................................................281
Transferring files ................................................................................281
Automatically uploading files to the server....................................282
Viewing the Site Map ...................................................................................283
Displaying a vertical site map...........................................................284
Displaying a horizontal site map ......................................................284
Working with the site map ................................................................285
Customizing the site map..................................................................286
Managing Links.............................................................................................287
Book V: Cascading Style Sheets..................................289
Chapter 1: Styling Your Web Pages with CSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291
Why Use CSS? ...............................................................................................292
Introducing CSS ............................................................................................292
Make the rules — don’t break ’em ...................................................293
Being (kinda sorta) insensitive about case.....................................294
Applying CSS Styles to a Web Page............................................................294
Using embedded styles......................................................................295
Using an external style sheet ............................................................296
Using inline styles ..............................................................................296
Inheriting Properties....................................................................................297
Cascading Styles...........................................................................................298
Chapter 2: Selectively Speaking: Working with Selectors . . . . . . . .301
Type Selectors: Selecting an Element by Its Type ...................................301
Class Selectors: Selecting an Element by Class........................................302
Combining type and class selectors ................................................303
Combining classes..............................................................................303
ID Selectors: Selecting an Element by id ...................................................304
Universal Selectors: Selecting All Elements..............................................304
Multiple Selectors: Selecting More than One Element ............................305
Descendant, Child, and Adjacent Sibling Selectors: Selecting
an Element Based on Hierarchy .............................................................305
Descendant selectors.........................................................................305
Child selectors ....................................................................................306
Adjacent sibling selectors .................................................................306
Attribute Selector: Selecting an Element by Attribute ............................307
Understanding Pseudo-Classes and Pseudo-Elements ...........................307
Chapter 3: Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .309
At Face Value: Assigning a Font Face.........................................................309
Sizing Up Your Text ......................................................................................311
Giving Your Font a Makeover: Adding Style..............................................313
Adding italics with font-style ............................................................314
Bolding your text with font-weight ..................................................314
Underline and decorate with text-decoration ................................314
Capping it with text-transform and font-variant.............................315
Spacing out your text.........................................................................316
Flexing your text with font-stretch...................................................316
All-Inclusive: Putting It All Together with the font Property ..................317
Color Me Beautiful: Setting the Text Color ...............................................317
Formatting Paragraph Properties ..............................................................318
Aligning text ........................................................................................318
Indenting your text.............................................................................319
Adjusting the line height ...................................................................319
Chapter 4: The Gang of Four: Formatting Box Properties . . . . . . . . . .321
Understanding Blocks and Inline Elements ..............................................321
Discovering the “Box” Properties Surrounding an Element ...................322
Padding the Elements..................................................................................323
Making a Run for the Border.......................................................................324
border-style.........................................................................................324
border-width .......................................................................................325
border-color ........................................................................................326
Saving time with the shortcut border property .............................326
Mixing and matching borders...........................................................328
Give Me Some Space: Adding Margins around An Element ....................329
Zeroing out default margin and padding settings ..........................330
Using automatic margins with auto .................................................330
Adding a Background ..................................................................................331
Getting Mousy with the Cursor ..................................................................332
Chapter 5: Positioning with CSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .333
Centering Elements on the Page ................................................................333
Breaking Normal Flow with Floating Elements.........................................334
Tweaking a Float with clear ........................................................................338
Creating a Layout Using float and clear ....................................................339
Aligning Text Vertically................................................................................342
Book VI: HTML/XHTML ..............................................345
Chapter 1: Exploring HTML and XHTML Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . .347
Under the Hood: Understanding HTML.....................................................347
Opening and closing tags ..................................................................348
Case doesn’t matter — sort of..........................................................349
The devil is in the attributes.............................................................349
Blanks are blanked .............................................................................350
XHTML: An Extreme HTML Makeover.......................................................351
Surveying the Document Structure of a Page...........................................352
The DOCTYPE element......................................................................353
The html element ...............................................................................355
The head element...............................................................................355
The title element ................................................................................356
The meta element...............................................................................356
The body element ..............................................................................357
Chapter 2: Working with Text and Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .359
Giving Your Document Structure ...............................................................359
Making a paragraph ...........................................................................359
Adding a line break.............................................................................361
Making a heading................................................................................362
Adding a horizontal line ....................................................................362
Grouping inline text............................................................................363
Emphasizing Your Text with Bold and Italics ...........................................364
Bolding text .........................................................................................364
Italicizing text......................................................................................364
Fontastic! Specifying the Typeface, Size, and Color ................................364
Setting the typeface ...........................................................................365
Sizing the text .....................................................................................366
Giving your text some color..............................................................368
Creating Links...............................................................................................369
Dissecting a URL.................................................................................369
Distinguishing between absolute and relative URLs .....................370
Making a link .......................................................................................371
Linking to a location inside a page...................................................372
Linking to an e-mail address .............................................................373
Linking to a picture, PDF document, or file ....................................373
Opening the link in a new browser window....................................373
Chapter 3: Presenting Information with Lists and Tables . . . . . . . . .375
Creating a Bulleted List ...............................................................................375
Making a normal unordered list .......................................................375
Using alternative bullets....................................................................376
Using images for bullets ....................................................................377
Creating a Numbered List ...........................................................................378
Working with Nested Lists ..........................................................................379
Working with Tables ....................................................................................380
Adding a border to the table.............................................................383
Sizing your table .................................................................................384
Sizing the columns of a table ............................................................386
Spacing your table..............................................................................387
Chapter 4: Adding Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389
Adding an Image...........................................................................................389
Positioning an Image on the Page ..............................................................391
Adding Padding Around Your Image..........................................................393
Specifying the Dimensions of the Image ...................................................395
Linking Your Image.......................................................................................395
Chapter 5: Divvying Up the Page with DIVs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .399
Introducing the div Element .......................................................................400
Positioning and Sizing a div Element on a Page .......................................402
Floating a div element on the page left or right .............................402
Centering a div element on the page ...............................................406
Positioning the div element in an absolute position .....................407
Formatting a div Element ............................................................................407
Adding a border..................................................................................407
Adding a background.........................................................................408
Creating a scrollable div....................................................................410
Structuring a Basic Two Column Page Layout .........................................411
Chapter 6: Creating Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .415
How Forms Work..........................................................................................415
Creating a Form ............................................................................................416
Adding Form Elements ................................................................................417
Powering your form with buttons ....................................................418
Working with form labels ..................................................................418
Adding a text box ...............................................................................420
Adding a check box............................................................................420
Adding a set of radio buttons ...........................................................421
Adding a multi-line text box ..............................................................422
Adding a drop-down list or multi-select list....................................422
Adding a hidden field.........................................................................423
Book VII: Graphics & Multimedia ...............................425
Chapter 1: Understanding Web Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .427
It’s a Rasterized World: Exploring the Two Types of Graphics ..............427
It’s All about Quality: Finding Good Graphics ..........................................428
Avoiding Graphics That Lead to No Good ................................................429
Choosing a Graphics Editor........................................................................430
Following Contemporary Design Trends ..................................................431
“Off with their heads”: Cropping creatively....................................431
Avoiding symmetry ............................................................................431
Remembering the rule of thirds .......................................................432
Chapter 2: Optimizing Your Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .435
Determining Which Graphics File Type to Use ........................................435
JPEG: A great all-around format........................................................436
GIF: Great for text and transparencies.............................................437
PNG: The new kid on the block ........................................................438
Avoiding Graphic Violence: Speed Up Your Web Graphics ....................439
Reducing the file size .........................................................................439
Cropping and shrinking the image ...................................................440
Making the image download “seem” faster.....................................442
Ensuring accurate image dimensions..............................................442
Chapter 3: Hotspots and Image Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .443
Understanding Graphical Links..................................................................443
Understanding Hotspots and Image Maps................................................444
Creating an Image Map by Using Expression Web...................................445
Chapter 4: Image Rollovers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .449
Creating Rollovers by Using CSS ................................................................449
Creating a Rollover with Expression Web.................................................455
Book VIII: Scripting...................................................461
Chapter 1: Understanding How Scripting Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .463
Surveying the JavaScript Scripting Language ..........................................463
Working with the script Element................................................................464
Executing JavaScript automatically on load ...................................464
Executing JavaScript on demand .....................................................465
Enabling JavaScript with an Event Handler..............................................466
Embedding Ready-Made Scripts into Your Web Pages............................467
Chapter 2: Programming in JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .469
It’s All about Objects ...................................................................................469
Making Sense of JavaScript Syntax ............................................................470
Case is all important ..........................................................................471
Semicolons mark the end of a statement ........................................471
Objects do dots ..................................................................................471
Curly braces are used to enclose blocks of code...........................472
Collections and arrays are zero based ............................................472
White space doesn’t matter ..............................................................472
Helpful comments are encouraged ..................................................473
Quotation marks come in a variety pack ........................................473
makeSureYouUnderstandHungarianNamingConventions.............473
Avoid reserved words........................................................................474
Different types of data .......................................................................474
Working with Variables................................................................................476
Declaring and assigning a variable...................................................477
Accessing a variable ..........................................................................478
Scoping out variable scope and lifetime .........................................478
Working with constants.....................................................................479
Basic Conditional Expressions ...................................................................480
The if statement..................................................................................480
The if...else statement........................................................................481
The switch statement ........................................................................481
Getting Loopy: Working with Looping Constructs...................................482
The for loop.........................................................................................483
The while loop ....................................................................................484
Working with Functions...............................................................................484
Operators Are Standing By: Connecting with JavaScript Operators.....486
Chapter 3: Understanding the Document Object Model . . . . . . . . . . .489
What Is the DOM?.........................................................................................489
Accessing DOM Objects ..............................................................................491
Using dot notation..............................................................................491
Using square brackets .......................................................................492
Using DOM arrays...............................................................................492
Accessing an element by its id value...............................................492
Accessing an element by its tag name.............................................493
Accessing and Modifying Properties .........................................................494
Calling Object Methods ...............................................................................494
Adding and Removing Nodes from the DOM............................................495
Adding new nodes..............................................................................495
Removing a DOM object ....................................................................496
Exploring the DOM.......................................................................................496
HTML elements...................................................................................497
The document object.........................................................................501
The window object.............................................................................502
The form object ..................................................................................504
The table object..................................................................................505
Inspecting Your DOM...................................................................................506
Chapter 4: Adding Event Handlers to Your Web Page . . . . . . . . . . . .509
Assigning Event Handlers ...........................................................................509
Linking from an HTML element ........................................................510
Connecting an event handler in code ..............................................511
Surveying the Events ...................................................................................511
Chapter 5: Useful Things to Know When Scripting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .515
Storing Scripts in an External Script File...................................................515
Creating a New Browser Window...............................................................516
Attaching a Script to a Link.........................................................................517
Modifying a Web Page on the Fly ...............................................................518
Validating Forms...........................................................................................520
Beating the Spammers: Scrambling Your E-Mail Links............................526
Testing for Features, Not for Browser Type..............................................529
Book IX: Flash ..........................................................531
Chapter 1: Getting to Know Adobe Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .533
A Matter of Timing: Making the Mind Shift to Flash ................................533
Introducing the Flash Workspace ..............................................................534
Exploring the Flash Drawing Tools ............................................................536
Exploring the Properties Inspector ...........................................................537
Exploring the Flash Panels..........................................................................538
Media components and elements panels........................................538
Design panels......................................................................................539
Scripting panels ..................................................................................541
Customizing Your Workspace.....................................................................541
Showing and hiding a panel ..............................................................542
Adding a panel to (or removing a panel from) a panel group ......542
Undocking and docking a panel group ............................................542
Saving a workspace layout................................................................543
Chapter 2: Working with the Stage and Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .545
Exploring the Stage ......................................................................................545
Exploring the Timeline and Layers ............................................................546
Creating a layer...................................................................................547
Working with layers ...........................................................................548
Using guide layers ..............................................................................549
Adding Movie Elements to the Stage .........................................................550
Adding lines, shapes, and text from the Tools panel.....................550
Inserting external graphics and media ............................................550
Adding user interface and video components................................551
Adding symbols ..................................................................................552
Working with Movie Elements ....................................................................552
Chapter 3: Working with Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .553
Understanding Symbols and Instances .....................................................553
Creating a New Symbol................................................................................554
Creating a symbol from an existing element...................................554
Creating a symbol from scratch .......................................................557
Working with Symbols in the Library........................................................558
Working with Common Library Buttons ...................................................559
Chapter 4: Making Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .565
Creating Animations in Your Movie ...........................................................565
Frame-by-frame animation ................................................................566
Tweened animation............................................................................568
Involving the User: Interactive Flash Movies ...........................................573
Adding sound to your movie ............................................................574
Importing an audio file.......................................................................574
Adding an audio clip to your movie.................................................574
Adding a sound effect to a button....................................................576
Chapter 5: Publishing Your Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .579
For Best Results: Optimizing Your Movie .................................................579
Optimization tips................................................................................579
Profiling download performance......................................................580
Outputting Your Movie for the Web...........................................................581
Appendix: About the CD-ROM ....................................587
Index........................................................................593
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