GCMW 102: Web Page Layout with Dreamweaver

In this class, you will learn the skills needed to layout and design websites using the powerful development application, Dreamweaver. Adobe Dreamweaver software is a Web development tool that lets you create dynamic, interactive Web pages containing text, images, hyperlinks, animation, sounds, video and other elements.

Originally developed in 1996, Dreamweaver creates leading-edge digital experiences that blend CSS best practices with standards compliant layouts for the Web, digital devices or desktop applications. Enhanced coding functions make it a breeze to navigate through complex site pages at design time, and improved layout tools expedite workflows from comp conception to client approval. New innovations throughout Dreamweaver help teams and individual developers alike reach the next levels in performance and functionality. Dreamweaver redefines the world of Web authoring.

Internet History

The term Internet is shorthand for interconnecting networks. The Internet is made up of hundreds of thousands of interconnecting computer networks world wide. The Internet was born of a need to develop a reliable communications network that was able to withstand a nuclear attack. The global internet’s progenitor was the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, created to enable widely dispersed teams of engineers working on the same government projects to share their information and computing resources. This same goal would describe the creating of the World Wide Web two decades later. The first ARPANET e-mail message was sent in 1972. E-mail took on an unanticipated life of its own as researchers quickly adapted it for applications beyond professional collaboration.

Early websites included many scientific sites, some of which were of interest to the average person. College students quickly learned about the Web and installed the workstation browser software that was made available freely on the Internet. Usenet discussion groups were filled with enthusiastic postings about the new medium.

Media historians note that the Web was responsible for the dramatic change from text based, online information to graphics oriented content. Directly related to the growth of the WWW was the diffusion of an enabling technology: relatively inexpensive home computers. By 2000, half of U.S. households had personal computers, and preinstalled software for online access set the stage for the Internet explosion.

The Internet phenomenon is one that truly compares to any media revolution in our lifetime. The idea of a truly interconnected world that had already begun with broadcasting and telephone technologies has blossomed via the Internet. This Internet phenomenon is now characterized as much by consolidation as it is by innovation. Will Internet technologies free us from the shackles of our 21st century lifestyles? Perhaps, but one thing is for certain: the increased ubiquity of the Internet will offer us more opportunities than ever for communication and information access.

Gregory Kelley, MA
Palomar College, Adjunct Faculty
Graphic Communications Department