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When anyone says that they use DHTML (Dynamic HTML), what does that mean really? The DHTML is basically made of 4 things and they are

1.Valid HTML or XHTML
2.Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
3.JavaScript
4.DOM (“The Document Object Model”)

If you use the JavaScript in order to interact with the customers, you might have created the dynamic page but you will really do not have DHTML until and unless you use all the 4 parts into it. Interaction between the 4 elements will give your readers an experience that will use all the powers of the 4.0 browsers.

One of the best sources to learn the DHTML is by the books that are written by some of the experts. The books written by the experts will let you know on all the things such as DOM, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

HTML 4.0 References
The very first thing that you must learn while starting off with the DHTML is the XHTML or HTML 4.0. Both the XHTML and HTML 4.0 are optimized for the DHTML and have the hooks built inside it in order to interact with DOM more seamlessly.
The structure of HTML 4.0 document from Web Design Group
This document will definitely give you a good overview on how the HTML 4.0 document will work exactly, that includes the structure of tags, on how to escape from the special characters, and at the end an HTML 4.0 validator as well.

JavaScript for the DHTML References
The JavaScript will be tricky as well but is an essential part of the DHTML pages.

CSS (“Cascading Style Sheets References”)
Along with the HTML coders who have designed HTML at their heart, CSS is the best tool that has ever come up with it.
The “Style Sheet Dependence” from Web Design Group
While most of the people are making use of the modern browsers, if at all you miss use the CSS, then you will be able to get some of the pages which will be pretty awful and this article will show on how to avoid this to happen.

DOM (“Document Object Model References”)
The DOM or “Document Object Model References” is one of the newest members of HTML family and also it is one of the hardest to master as it is very much stiff enough. You will definitely understand Dynamic HTML if you understand the DOM as it will be very much useful and important as well.
The DOM (“Document Object Model References) from W3
If at all you would want to start to learn the DOM, you must start at from the source.

Learning the Dynamic HTML
One of the best ways to learn the Dynamic HTML is by playing with it. You will be able to use the tools such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver in order to get started with coding but if you really want to know on what the Dynamic HTML is based on, then you should jump into learn the JavaScript and HTML.

One of the most common problems that all the web developers come across is how to include one bit of the HTML code into some other web page without actually rewriting the code every time. Unfortunately that cannot be achieved using straight HTML; you will have to opt for some other technology especially the server technology such as PHP or SSI or JAVA Script. HTML’s editor, Dreamweaver understands this problem and comes to rescue. Any web developer who would have got involved in building a website with more than ten pages would definitely recognize the value in having shared include files which once edited can be used for updating the entire website.

These special include files are most commonly referred to as the library files and are generally stored in the Files tab in the assets of your web site. Before creating a library file it becomes quite essential to first create a Dreamweaver site and then the library item can be made available as an asset to the entire site. In order to create Dreamweaver library Include file first you will have to open the library panel simply by clicking on the window Assets and then getting on to choose the library button. Now you will have to select that particular portion of the HTML that you would want to be converted to the HTML. This could be either a either a block of HTML or simply a section of the page in design view.

This selected HTML block is now to be dragged the library pane and finally dropped it there. Finally a name should be given to the library item which will help you in the future reference. Once your library item has been created it can further be used onto any page on your website by simply dragging the library item onto the new page and then Dreamweaver will do its part of job by displaying the relevant code and displaying it as a library item. The work does not get over just by creating the library item. Its main power is by re-using them as and when required.

The library can easily be placed on any page on the Dreamweaver website where it has been defined in. Once you edit this library item Dreamweaver will automatically update all the pages that are making use of this library item. You can achieve this by first opening the library item that needs to be edited by simply double clicking on that particular library item in the asset pane. Edit the library item whatever you want to and simply click save. Dreamweaver would immediately ask you if all the files that use this particular library item need to be updated; you will have click update and finally close all the log windows. If a lot of files need to be updated, it would take a little till the entire process is over. Always remember, once you have finished updating all the files it is mandatory to upload all the files on to your server. If this is not done then your customers will not have the access to the changed content.

As discussed earlier, the HTML editors are those software applications which are used to design, create and manage high end web sites without writing HTML code. With HTML editors like Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe Dreamweaver, anyone can make web pages. From novice to professionals to web experts, everyone is using these editors to effectively mange their web sites. But as every technology has its own merits and demerits, the HTML editors also have its own virtues and vices. Let’s have a look at both the positives and negatives of the editors, as it will lead to better understanding of these kinds of applications.

Advantages of HTML Editors:

1. HTML editors allow you to draft web pages quickly. The most impressive aspect of these editors is that you don’t have to know about HTML codes at all in order to design your web site.
2. HTML editors not only help in creating the web pages, but it also maintains the site map and global structure of the whole web site. Thus, if in future the web site becomes complex you don’t have to face any type of issues while updating and maintaining it.
3. HTML editors help in maintaining consistency throughout the whole web site. If your web site contains large number of pages and if you want a particular element to be displayed on the top of each web page (for example your company logo), then instead of putting the element one by one on each of the HTML document you can simply put it one any one page and the editor will update it on the remaining ones.
4. HTML editors let you to insert complex elements into the web page with ease. For example: you can quickly insert flash animations, fireworks file etc. into your web site.
5. Forms, tables, frames and other important elements can be easily managed via HTML editors.
6. Not only in web designing, but the HTML editor also helps in generating the scripts for the web sites.
7. HTML editors also let you to easily embed DHTML effects into your web page.
8. With the help of HTML editor library, you can easily manage and access the frequently used resources.
9. HTML editors are WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) applications. So, you can easily know how your web page will finally look like on the web browser.

Disadvantages of HTML Editors:

1. No doubt that HTML editor makes it easy to create and maintain web sites but they are overloaded with lots of features. So, it is difficult for a newbie to first of all understand the working of the editor properly.
2. HTML editors are poor in error reporting. It may not very much effective in telling you about the bugs in the code.
3. The programming style (style of writing the HTML code) of a HTML editor is entirely different than your style. The editors write the code in a complex and professional manner. So, it would be difficult for an amateur web developer to understand it.
4. Due to lots of features, the HTML editors have become overcrowded. It is very difficult to know about all the available features and their usage.
5. No HTML editor is complete in itself. As the web standards are updated, these editors start getting obsolete.

Just like Microsoft FrontPage, Dreamweaver is also a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web development software. It was originally created by Macromedia, but later on in the year 2005 it was owned by Adobe systems. Thus Dreamweaver is now known as Adobe Dreamweaver. This application is used for developing high quality web pages without getting involved in HTML coding. All the designing can be done in the design mode easily.

If we look at the sole objective, there is no difference between FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Both of them offer excellent tools to create exciting web sites. But still, some people prefer Dreamweaver as they find it more interesting, easy and rich in functions than FrontPage. Dreamweaver allows viewing websites in many popular browsers. It has got a variety of tools and functions which can be used to add multimedia in the web pages. For example tools like flash tool, real player tool, windows media player tool and quick time tool can be used to embed and watch movies in different formats on the web sites.

One unique feature of Dreamweaver is that you can configure it to write the HTML code in the way you want. For example; if you want that all the tags should be in bold, then you can configure the Dreamweaver to generate the code in that way. Dreamweaver also supports syntax highlighting for the codes. It makes it easy to use java scripting and DHTML to control the behavior of different objects. There is a library which makes it comfortable to use and modify an HTML element which has been repeatedly used in different web pages of a web site. For example; suppose you need to use and design a navigation table on every page of your web site. In that case instead of putting the formatting the table on every page, you can define it in the Dreamweaver library. Once added in the library, you need to put the table and design it on any one page of the web site and it will automatically get added and updated on the rest of the web pages.

Apart from this, Dreamweaver supports a lot of other useful functions such as CSS, templates, forms, tables, automatically updatable hyperlinks, interactive frames, rollover images and much more. Adobe Dreamweaver can be used on both Macintosh and Windows operating systems. The recent version of the application has been improved to support CSS, java scripts, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, java server pages and PHP. Overall, Dreamweaver is fully power packed with captivating features. This program is used worldwide and is a real head turner. It is a mighty competitor of FrontPage.

The whole look and design of Dreamweaver is better than any other HTML editor. FrontPage 2003 supports Dreamweaver compatible web templates. You can use both of them creatively to make stunning web pages. Dreamweaver has been improved to work hand in hand with Microsoft Word and Excel. The latest version of Adobe Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver CS3 is fully loaded with high end features such as fireworks, spry effects, browser compatibility check, CSS management and lots more. No doubt, Dreamweaver is all time favorite of most of the web designers and HTML professionals.