You don't need a crutch. Cut and paste of existing mark up and css from
other sites is the ONLY crutch you'll ever need.
Seriously. What you have to do first is develop a proper design process,
one that does the right things at the right stage, and you'll find that
there are only two things you can do better with Dreamweaver than with
freeware, and only one thing you can do better with FP. If you are aren't
creating lots of entirely new designs then you won't really need a WYSIWYG
prototyping tool, at least not very often, and if you aren't managing a
large scale site of lots of sites you won't need anything more than a
sensible file structure and a competent FTP programme.
I don't know MX, never really used it. I've done a little bit of scripting
now and again, but by and large I know too many people who can do all the
dynamic site stuff quicker and better than I can. So any that needs doing
gets subcontracted.
For now I need to know how to create password protected areas for members,
web forms, polling, and how to properly integrate multimedia (online video
tutorials short movies) into the site. I have Camtasia which should take
care of the video unless you know of a better way, but I'm not sure how to
do web forms without using FP and don't know a thing about creating password
protected areas and polls which is what attracted me to Mambo / CMS sort of
solutions. I would like to become good at creating sites with those
requirements without being dependant on any particular type of web creation
software.
Knowing my requirements. What would you recommend I do?
BTW, I just wanted to thank everyone for their comments, you have no idea
how much this is helping me. Many many thanks.
--
Warmest regards,
Stephen Horrillo, Realtor / C.Ht.
For MLS & Computer Training:
http://www.BrokerAgentTraining.com
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