I’m guessing you already know what this article is about, but please read on to hear my side of the story. I am using Dreamweaver MX, not MX 2004. I think it is only fair to tell you that. My frustration comes from the CSS and FTP functions of Dreamweaver. I want to tell you up front that I think my ignorance is at least as much to blame if not more than Dreamweaver is to blame. Hear my tale of woe fair citizen…

I opened up my Dreamweaver and tried to use CSS to create several style sheets. I did make them easily enough. However, the only one that seemed to work was my <p> tag change. I changed the font and that seemed to work as planned. I also made a header CSS file, but that did not seem to function.

Next, I wanted to make a certain color for my navigation bar and a certain color for my page. Due mostly to my ignorance, I could not figure out the right tag. So, I used Dreamweaver’s bg settings to make the background color the custom color I created. This is all well and good and it does work, but I want to do it with CSS and not HTML settings. Therefore, this is a plus and minus in Dreamweaver. It is a plus because I could easily change the background color in Dreamweaver. It is a minus because I could not do it via CSS. Therefore, it’s a wash.

My final frustration came in the FTP section. I have created my index.htm page. Although it is not exciting, I wanted to post it so I can begin to get your feedback and begin tweaking it and making it better. I got the FTP settings from Comcast, tried setting up the remote server and tested it countless times only to be told the directory does not exist. I specifically created the folder on the remote server so I know it exists! This is where the majority of my frustration lies.

What’s next? I am going to import this page into FrontPage 2003 and try to FTP it from there. If that fails, I’ll use one of several FTP clients I have to get it up there, but I want to publish from the same tool I use to create the page. Is that too much to ask? I’ll let you know how it goes. The next time we meet here, I’ll share the address with you. If you want to take a look at a page done in CSS, look at my buddy Carl’s page. He wrote to me via this newsletter. His page is located here. I’ll see you soon.