Changing to CSS | WPDFD.com Forums

Leila said:

01/21/04, 021 48 2004 2004:%i:1074700128 10:48:48

I am really new at this, so am only beginning to understand '0 & 1 language'! Please be kind!! ...

I am about to start designing a website and really want to get something up and running quickly.

If I designed a site using Dreamweaver, is it easy to transfer the site over to a CSS form at a later stage? Or would it require starting from stratch again?

I don't feel like I know enough about CSS yet to be confident with it.

Alanat said:

01/21/04, 021 52 2004 2004:%i:1074714745 14:52:25

Leila, The important thing at this stage is to get something up. Don't worry about techniques and the hows and wherefores, you can come back to that later.
Good luck.
-A

Mpj said:

01/22/04, 022 17 2004 2004:%i:1074788273 11:17:53

Leila, you can convert your site to css in stages at a later date.

Get you site up then start playing around with some of the easier CSS techniques, text formatting for example. This can be applied to the existing text in your site quite easily.

Using advanced css will require more modifications to your site so go one step at a time and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Joe Gillespie said:

01/22/04, 022 00 2004 2004:%i:1074794453 13:00:53

Leila said:
If I designed a site using Dreamweaver, is it easy to transfer the site over to a CSS form at a later stage? Or would it require starting from stratch again?

Hi Leila, the crucial thing here is, which version of Dreamweaver are you using? If you have Dreamweaver MX 2004, then go into preferences, general, and tell it to use CSS instead of HTML tags. This will make it a [red]lot[/red] easier later on as you won't have to remove all the nasty tags. All your text formatting will be done with CSS already making it very smple to tweak later on.

Joe

Leila said:

01/22/04, 022 46 2004 2004:%i:1074804367 15:46:07

Thanks for all the replies ... it has put my mind to rest a little. I'll start climbing the hill step by step.

I only have 'UltraDev 4' version of Dreamweaver ... can I set the preferences in that for CSS tags??

Joe Gillespie said:

01/23/04, 023 59 2004 2004:%i:1074837575 00:59:35

Leila said:
I only have 'UltraDev 4' version of Dreamweaver ... can I set the preferences in that for CSS tags??

I don't think so, but I don't have that version installed any more to check. Look in Preferences, General. Might be worth upgrading before you go much further as it will save time later.

Joe

Cece said:

01/30/04, 030 38 2004 2004:%i:1075480720 11:38:40

Note about Dreamweaver...when you use CSS with Dreamweaver, in order to see your site in layout mode, all div position must be absolute. I am sure you are using layout mode as a beginner.

I am like everyone else on the forum, don't bother with CSS until you understand how html and Dreamweaver works first.

Jdenny said:

04/02/04, 093 14 2004 2004:%i:1080904458 06:14:18

When you do want to get into CSS, I thouroughly recommend learning a bit of the theory first at www.W3Schools.com and then look at the CSS code produced by other sites (especially blogs belonging to web developers), and try to find web sites that don't use loads of similar CSS rules in one page.

This way you can avoid copying bad habits of other newbies and programs like dreamweaver that over-use the class="" attribute and don't make good use of the 'cascade' feature of 'Cascading Style Sheets'.

Baxter said:

04/02/04, 093 03 2004 2004:%i:1080929031 13:03:51

I would suggest the first and foremost thing is to concentrate on righting good clean code from the get-go. THAT will make it much easier to switch over at a later date. Littering your code with font tags and junk is where you really run into a problem.

Use some simple css to set you text and such... things that you ARE comfortable with.

here's a website built entirely by a complete newbie. Two weeks ago he knew nothing. I gave him some coaching and advice, but it's his work, and it's css based and will grow easily as his skills grow. Not the world's greatest site, but a solid effort, and (I think) a good example of how a newbie can use CSS to make their life easier, not harder:
http://www.mg-mgb.com/