Imar I was curious about the presentation portion of your website at http://imar.spaanjaars.com/ViewContentList.aspx

Might be unappropriate here but I was wondering how you did your graphics and did you make tables for them in dreamweaver and then make a template off of that? At work we have the full dreamweaver suite and Fireworks is available to use for me and am wondering if Wrox makes fireworks books. Did you slice those images first. I guess even after going through the cookingplace tutorial i'm still confused as to putting images in tables is the best way to go etc I like your site

Hi there,

The images were indeed done with Fireworks. They were created by a designer I work with and then I tweaked and tuned them a little in Fireworks. Fireworks has the option to create multiple frames inside the same image. Good for animation, but also for quick and easy exports of multiple versions of the same image (e.g. "Over" state and normal state). I created one image, and exported it. Then changed the text, and exported again and so on.

The menu images are not placed in a table. The best way to look at the structure is to view the source of my site. You'll see a <div> called MainMenu with a bunch of <a> tags, each in turn containing a simple <img> tag.

I didn't make the site with Dreamweaver; that is, I don't maintain it with it. I did the initial design with DW and then moved all of the code into a custom .NET template solution (where the template is generated programmatically). That's also why you see such a lot of mess, including loads of JavaScript and obscure object names.

I am working on a .NET 2 version of the site, using Master Pages and other cool new concepts, so hopefully that'll reduce the clutter to some extend.

Cheers,

Imar
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Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.

Imar,

i looked at the source code and I do understand how you did it with the Div tag. What I am confused on is that through the working of "The CookingPlace" the main graphic was Tabled and then a template made from that. What would be the difference if for example I was going through that same tutorial and instead of using Tables for my graphics that I instead Div'd them?Thanks alot for your replies

There won't be much of a difference.

The CookingPlace uses a table because it features a complexed, sliced image layout, with many little images making up the design. A table is very useful for that.

Nowadays, tables for *design purposes* are considered old-skool web development, and you're advised to use a <div> based layout instead. However, this is obviously not required, so if <div>s are too complex, or your design needs tables, you can still use tables.

You can also mix them. Use 1 or two tables for a complex multi-column layout, and then use <div> tags for the rest.

Either way, Dreamweaver doesn't care. A template is nothing more than a bunch of HTML tags in a page that you cannot edit, and that control the look and feel of all the pages that are based on that template. Templates can contain tables, <div> tags or whatever else you see fit...

HtH,

Imar
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Imar Spaanjaars
Everyone is unique, except for me.

Thanks again Imar. Starting on chapter 9 :)