muscular Web design tools such as Dreamweaver 8 ( ) give anyone the ability to create Web sites without having to know markup languages such as HTML or CSS ( Cascading Style Sheets ) , advanced scripting speech such as JavaScript , or how to optimize graphics . Dreamweaver ships with pre - build templates that give you a dependable start , or you’re able to download templates from many different sites , some for free . The trouble with most of these templates is that they are n’t very flexible , and they usually postulate significant manual limiting to act well for your site . What non - technical vane house decorator need is an automate , adaptable , easy - to - use of goods and services guide - free-base prick that declare oneself a variety of good - looking options .
Enter WebAssist ’s SiteAssist 3.0.3 , a sorcerer - based Dreamweaver extension that steps you through the process of create the layout , prefer the navigation card structure , and building the Sir Frederick Handley Page for your web site . SiteAssist lets you choose from a wide variety of sympathetic page and piloting bar styles , and it lets you change your mind and redo the site at any time , without losing any tradition elements you may have specified . It ’s a very good tool for architect who need a expert assist .
Build with a click
SiteAssist comes with 16 predefined web site type , such as Administrative , Corporate , Intranet , Medical , Nonprofit , Online Store , or Real Estate , and each type contains a variety of appropriate Sir Frederick Handley Page . For example , the Education Site Type include page like Home , Course overview , Required record book , Assignments , About the teacher , and more . The site that I built did n’t check any of the admit internet site types , so I picked the one that had the closest idea to the form of pages I wanted .
In the Select Layout Options step , you pluck the overall look of your site by choosing one of 20 attractive designs from a pop - up menu . Eleven of these excogitation are mesa - ground , and the repose — new to this version of SiteAssist — expend fully standards - compliant CSS for layout . You then take the color scheme , baptismal font , and the dash of the navigation menus . As you make your choices , you could tick either of two large Preview areas ( one for Home Page and the other for Content Page ) to open a sample of the varlet in your nonpayment web web browser . Windows users will see thumbnail page previews in these areas , but that feature is not yet uncommitted for the Mac . WebAssist is working with Apple to enable live page previews in a next version .
In the next step , you refine the sailing menu and pageboy structure of your site in an outline - similar pattern . you may add and exchange the predefined pages issue by the Site Type , and you may choose from a tumid number of Page Types , such as textual matter - Only detail , Interactive Gallery , or Calendar . In the net two stair , you define what pages should be yoke from the website footer , then review your choices . Clicking the Finish clit build the site , adding pages and folders to Dreamweaver ’s Files panel .
Not quite what I wanted
After you ’ve finished creating your internet site , you’re able to open and edit pages as you ordinarily would with Dreamweaver . If you need to commute the site structure , design , or navigation panache , you just reenter the SiteAssist wizard to make the changes and update the site . Because the look of your site is base on a Dreamweaver template , you may also change the template using Dreamweaver ’s tools , and when you save the template , the rest of the land site mechanically reflects your changes . gayly , this does n’t bar you from make further change in SiteAssist .
you could make more elaborated changes to individual page by apply any of the included CSS styles , or by defining your own . One difficultness that I had was that the external CSS manner sheets SiteAssist created also included styles forallof the possible Site and Page types , which means that about 200 styles are available from the Style pop - up menu of Dreamweaver ’s Property Inspector . It would be good if SiteAssist built a tradition trend sheet that included only the CSS styles for the design currently in use . Another job is that the styles are n’t documented anywhere , so you need a fair amount of expertness to ferret out which mode affect your current layout , so that you recognise which ones to modify .
While the program includes a wide range of layout , a canonical three - column layout , often used to include advertising , is blazing in its absence . It ’s potential to alter the exist layout to add together a third column , but it really should be work up into the ware .
Macworld’s buying advice
SiteAssist 3.0.3 is a good pick for Dreamweaver designers who need to produce corking - looking , functional sites promptly , and for those who lack the expert expertness to bring on a full site from lolly . If you are responsible for create multiple vane site , SiteAssist will save you time and spare you the plodding of build a site ’s pilotage scheme .
[ LongtimeMacworldcontributor Tom Negrino has write leger on Contribute and Dreamweaver , including the good - sellingDreamweaver 8 Visual QuickStart Guide(Peachpit Press , 2006 ) . ]
