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Premium Content articles are the very best articles from the world's leading internet technology, subject-matter experts. We have many categories of content below on a wide variety of subjects that have all been commissioned from big name authors.

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Tables to CSS

This article is for those people who are comfortable using Dreamweaver to lay out sites using tables, but would like to discover more about how to use CSS for more than just basic text styling. We will take a tables-based layout that includes several of the design tricks common when creating sites using tables for layout, and look at how we can use CSS to make a tables based layout cleaner, leaner and more accessible but without making that huge leap into total CSS layout. This is a perfect solution for those legacy sites that you don't have time to fully redesign but that need to be improved in terms of their accessibility, or as an easy introduction to CSS in Dreamweaver.

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Creating the Data Repository

In the first article we took a look at the issues that required investigation prior to upsizing your existing database solution to Microsoft’s premium database, SQL Server 2000.

Within this article we will take a look at installing SQL Server 2000 locally, creating a database andatable in preparation to working with the data within Dreamweaver. We look at the three most common tools that you, as a developer, will be using. Then we look at creating a database within SQL Server, and the differences between Access and SQL Server in this area. We take a look at a database and its associated transaction log, discuss how to set the file sizes to allow for normal growth, and finally we create a table ready for use to use within our Dreamweaver application.

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HTML or XHTML: Which should I use?

Dreamweaver MX has great XHTML support. So how do you choose between HTML or XHTML for a project, and why? This article will help you know why you might want to consider XHTML, when to stick to HTML, and how to deal with management, client, and workflow concerns related to making the language choice.

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PHP Primer - Back to Basics

While Dreamweaver MX is a powerful application for visually creating your web pages, you will, before long, find that you get stuck into the PHP code. In this, the first in a series of articles that looks at the PHP language, we kick off with a look at the basics of how the language works and find out about variables and variable types.
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Scripting Forms

Sooner or later, you’re going to have to script that form! In fact, it probably will be sooner than later.

Any web site that works as an application almost certainly uses forms as an interface to a back end database. Any web site that registers users, or asks for contact information probably uses a form.

Frankly, this scares people. But never fear! The DOM level 0 is here to save the day! Find out how to easily script forms and make your scripts more readable, too.

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Move your database to SQL Server

This first article from renowned database guru Robin Dewson discusses how to move from Access (or other consumer database) to the enterprise-level database, SQL Server 2000 when you need concurrent accesses, proper security and speed. It's not only the structure of the data that you need to consider, but also the code used to access the data if you're going to take advantage of the scalability and power of SQL Server.

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Classes and Objects in PHP

In the first article from the series, we introduce classes, and show how they can easily be used to create libraries of code that can be used in a range of different projects. The article also introduces a simple class to make it easier to work with times and dates, and can easily be adapted to be used in your own projects.

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JavaScript for Beginners

Do you know just enough JavaScript to get yourself in serious trouble?

Do you know even less?
This first article has your name written all over it!

This first article in the JavaScript series covers some key principles in forming a solid foundation for writing JavaScript. The article presents key practical information on how to organize and build scripts effectively, and clears up some historically confusing concepts that seem to trip up every scripter at least once. Even if you have been scripting for some time, this article is a good checkpoint against your scripting techniques.

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Idea to Implementation

Idea to Implementation - the Artist's portfolio consist of a series of articles which contain:

      • Research: requirement gathering, competitor research and know your audience with personas.
      • Wireframing and prototypes
      • Making the dreamweaver template and designing the layout (using XHTML and CSS)
      • Backend database creation (PHP and MySQL)
      • Admin functions and making the front end, including scanning images resizing and image processing.
      • A funky PHP RSS feed, including a custom server behavior to pull an external RSS feed
        into the site
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Intro to writing extensions

DMXzone founder, George Petrov, introduces a series of articles on writing your own extensions for Dreamweaver. Previously, this has always been though of as the task for advanced users with lots of programming knowledge, and has been the territory for expensive books.

However, George's series demands no heavy programming or great experience. He takes you through writing an extension for dreamweaver to creating a property inspector for it so that it integrates perfectly, then gives tips on how to package your extension for distribution or sale. We will start with some basic extensions like objects, property inspectors and tag editors. Then we move on the Behaviors and Server Behaviors - from basic to very advanced.

This first article looks at the extensions that you've already been using (though you probably didn't know it!) and examines the type of extension, their purpose and the circumstances that you'd write one yourself.

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Zen and the Art of DOCTYPE switching.

Today's browser technology includes a means by which designers can gain more control over the consistency of their designs. Especially true if you're using CSS, knowing about DOCTYPE Switching in browsers will help you breathe easier, lose less hair, and get a decent night's sleep knowing your designs are as consistent across contemporary browsers as possible.
Molly Hozschlag walks you through the Zen of DOCTYPE switching, the Whys, the Hows and the Oms.

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