Web Design and Graphics Room. Thread, Anyone here using Dreamweaver 8?

Yorkshire Carper · #1 7th-December-2007, 12:55 PM

Hi all, I'm just having a go at designing a website with Dreamweaver 8. I'm strictly a novice and so obviously keep coming up against problems and was wondering if there are any experts on IDF on the subject of web design and specifically using DW8?

An immediate question that springs to mind if anyone can help me is why is it that after I create some flash text in DW, say in blue and I set it to change to red when its rolled over that when you go to view the page online, the first time you hover over it theres a dotted box appears around the text and a message saying 'click to activate and use this control' once you click the text, ok it changes colour and from that point on whilst the page is open every time u hover over the text it carries on changing colour and the link to another page on my site works fine too when I then click the text. But surely the text should change the first time its hovered over and not have to be 'clicked' first to make it work?

cheers
Craig

Skyrunner · #2 8th-December-2007, 11:47 PM

This isn't anything to do with Dreamweaver Craig, or your web design skills. It's all down to Internet Explorer.:evil:

Read a basic explanation HERE

As a web designer, there are ways round this, usually involving a remote javascript file on your server. This is what I did to put a little flash graphic on my site, (don't look for it, it's not online yet!)

But if you put "Click to activate this control" into Google, you'll find lots of site giving information about how to get round this, some of them even provide code for you. (Just look for the links aimed at web DESIGNERS, as opposed to users who want to stop it happening in their browsers when they view pages.)

Though if all you are trying to do is to get your link text to change colour when you mouse over it, Flash is overkill, the simplest answer is to use CSS to get this effect. Easy to do, and won't cause any problems.... even in Internet Explorer!!!

Yorkshire Carper · #3 9th-December-2007, 12:10 PM

hi sky
Why does flash struggle to show the colour change of text as its moused over effect and yet CSS works ok? and can u point me in the direction of some help to achieve my aims in getting links to change colour via CSS?
cheers
craig

CPS · #4 9th-December-2007, 01:55 PM

This little bit of CSS does the job,added between the head tags.
You can have any color you like, but blue is the standard for an active link.
I use it on my website.

Code:

<style type="text/css"> <!--
a:link {color:blue;}
a:visited {color:blue;}
a:hover{color:red;
-->
  </style>

Yorkshire Carper · #5 9th-December-2007, 04:01 PM

Hey thanx for that peter it works a treat!

Also to Sky, I dont have a clue why, but when i logged onto Dreamweaver 8 today for first time since i created that bit of flash text which wouldnt work online, DW immediately put a message onscreen saying there was a problem with the coding and would I like it changing, so I clicked yes and hey presto uploaded the page again with the flash text on it and it worked this time!?
What made dreamweaver do that and does it always warn you when the code's not quite right and give the option for it to put it right?

Also going back to what you said Sky about using css for roll over links that change colour instead of flash text, when then is it better to use flash for rollover text or is the answer simply never?

Thanx
Craig

CPS · #6 9th-December-2007, 04:28 PM

The simple answer is, just that, keep your code work simple.
Dont use the fancy stuff unless you have a reason to do so.
Using the XHTML standard with CSS can do most everything.

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