Learn Adobe
GoLive Basics

Looking to create beautiful Web sites, without all that tedious coding? Look no further! Just about anything you can publish on the Web, you can create in Adobe GoLive.

In this 6-lesson course, you'll gain a strong working knowledge of GoLive, from FTPing basic Web pages to creating advanced layouts, using frames, implementing CSS, adding multimedia files, and more. You'll be surprised at how much you can do, in Adobe's powerful yet easy-to-use application.

Each detailed, step-by-step project affords the opportunity to learn the software in the context of a design challenge — and you'll learn from one of the industry's leading GoLive experts. Nothing quite like getting your feet wet . . .

Instructor:
Margaret Penney is a teacher, designer, writer and media artist...get bio

Course Developer:
Paul Vachier is a technology author, Web developer, and long-time GoLive devotee ... get bio

Define a site in GoLive and use the Site Window to manage site files, working in Layout, Source, and Preview modes, and utilizing the Inspector palette.

Create a “favorite artists“ Web page in Layout Mode including five links, page descriptions, and keywords.

Format text and utilize font sets in GoLive and work with imported JPEG and GIF images as smart objects.

Redesign a home page, applying basic text formatting and using JPEG and GIF images as smart objects.

Redesign an e-commerce home page using HTML tables and the Layout Grid tool.

Develop an understanding of the pros and cons of using frame-based layouts and how they are created in GoLive.

Create a frames-based online photo gallery.

Design text using CSS formatting in GoLive, using internal and external style sheets and stationery.

Design an online press release page using specific CSS techniques for formatting.

Develop a basic understanding of how to incorporate multimedia and special effects to Web pages, including Flash, QuickTime, and other plug-in media formats.

Update an existing site design by adding basic multimedia and special effects.

Outline:

LESSON 1 Intro to GoLive Lesson One explores the nuts and bolts of building Web sites in Adobe GoLive. You'll learn how to define a site, set up a correct directory structure, and navigate around the different view modes. Editing protocols are mapped out, including how to select objects, use the Inspector Palette, and create links. Everything is put into practice in the exercise, in which you'll create a Web page showcasing your favorite artists, adding keywords for search engine placement, and FTPing your files to the Web.

LESSON 2 Text and Images What's a Web site without content? Lesson Two sets out the parameters for adding text and graphics to your site. You'll learn how format font faces, sizes, and colors in GoLive, and pick up rules of thumb for adding, adjusting, and aligning the two main Web graphic formats: GIF and JPEG. GoLive's Smart Objects feature gives you the ability to edit files created in Photoshop or Illustrator (and Save for the Web) without leaving the GoLive application. In the exercise, you'll try it out, by creating a home page design for a botany site that requires you to insert Web graphics, optimize non-Web graphics, add Smart Objects, and create fonts sets and image maps.

LESSON 3 Tables and Grids To create sophisticated Web layouts, you'll need to use HTML tables — or use GoLive's Layout Grid feature. Lesson Three explores both of these layout options. You'll find out how to create, select, and nest HTML tables, modifying their properties by resizing or adding color. Then you'll discover how to precisely place images or objects anywhere on a page using GoLive's Layout Grid. An ecommerce site design exercise gives you the opportunity to implement both tables and grids, with some rollover button effects thrown for good measure!

LESSON 4 Using Frames Frames may be the bete noire of Web design, but every Web designer should know how to use them. Lesson Four provides a frames workout that will give you confidence. The lesson explores the do's and don'ts of frame usage with reference to sites that use frames effectively. You'll learn rules of thumb for when (and when not) to use them. Then you'll dive into GoLive and look at how to create a frameset, edit it, and target frames. The exercise is out of this world, literally. You'll create a photo gallery of the solar system to build your working knowledge of frames.

LESSON 5 Using CSS and Stationery Don't leave CSS to the ubergeeks! says Paul. Lesson Five shows you how easy it is to implement CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in GoLive. The lesson begins by exploring some sites that use CSS to exercise superior controls over fonts and layout. In GoLive, you'll learn how to identify the different elements of internal and external style sheets, and implement class styles, ID styles, and element styles. To cut your development time, you'll learn about stationery, a feature that enables you to apply styles from one project to the next. In the exercise, an online press release for Widgets.com provides a creative challenge in applying CSS text and link formatting styles.

LESSON 6 Multimedia and Special Effects Looking to add sizzle? Web projects often call for the addition of Flash, Quicktime movies, DHTML, Javascript, and more. Lesson Six looks at how to add multimedia files such as Flash or Quicktime movies into your Web pages using the Object palette. GoLive puts many special effects at your fingertips too, actually enabling you to create layers and time-based animation or JavaScript actions without leaving the GoLive interface. You can create layers on HTML pages, using layers for precise layout, or animating them over time. An integrative Final Project asks you to juice up a Web design company's site, adding a Flash movie, a plug-in detector, a DHTML animation, and JavaScript actions, just using GoLive!

Tuition: $912 US