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By Rich Talbot

There was once a simpler time, when a shop or an office would suffice as the public face of a business. Customers or clients would come through the door and the goods or services offered would be available therein. No longer and nostalgia won"t pay the bills.

Every organisation, whatever it might offer, whatever it may sell, whomever it might sell it to, needs an online presence. Individuals and businesses know to look for what they need on the internet, so your organisation needs to be in a position where it can be found; to do otherwise is to risk missing out on a lucrative market. Again, there was a simpler time (more recently, in this case) when the online presence was the most significant thing. Websites were simple, designed to work with computers with limited power and slow modem connections. Functionality was key, the ability to access products and information without having to wait half an hour for each page to load. And again, this age of online austerity has been and gone.

Companies all over the world are today caught in a content race, a race that is being escalated all the time. As belligerent nations might build ever larger arsenals, just to maintain parity with that of the state next door, so businesses will always have to ensure that the content of their websites does not disappoint when compared to those of the competition; and if one company''s website offers something new, then rivals must follow suit, or risk losing market share. What content is being improved will depend upon the market and audience – an online store targeting novelty ringtones at children will require quite different content to an estate agent, or a tour operator from an educational institution. But within each sector, it is critical that the website (and thus the company) does not appear obsolete, ineffective or lazy.

What kind of content, then, can keep your organisation ahead of the opposition? Your audience will certainly expect to find dynamic elements to your pages – content that adjusts to the user''s actions. This may come in many forms; for example, drop-down menus that open by hovering near them (rather than having to click on them), or product information that appears automatically by pointing at the picture, again without having to click or load a new page. These may seem like small details, but they make the browsing experience much smoother and quicker, and that experience can play a major role in developing customer loyalty.

On a similar note, interactivity and personalisation are also important elements of the online business experience. It is no longer enough to have a generic site that is the same for everyone – returning customers can see a page that is tailored to them and so may feel let down if they"re not getting a service specific to them. So, for a company that sells clothes, a logged-in customer could see a front page with deals specific to the kind of items they"ve purchased before. At the very least, returning customers will expect that the site will be familiar with them and that they won"t have to keep re-entering their details.

Your site might also benefit from multimedia content – such as video descriptions of products or services that you offer, examples of previous work, or advertising campaigns. Videos and animations can also be used to provide distinctive web-only content, encouraging potential and current customers to return to the site on a regular basis. Of course, the demands for multimedia content will vary depending on the kind of business that you run and the audience you"re targeting – if you"re aiming your website at children, you may want to include a lot of fun interactive content, animations and games, which might not be so well suited to a professional audience. But that''s not to say multimedia content is out of place for the latter – it''s every bit as important that your site is engaging and slick, but the style that you"re looking for is going to be quite different.

All rather complicated and technical, though. To see what is available, to see what methods rival organisations are using, is not the same as making it happen. If you aren"t an expert yourself, then you"re surely going to have to contract out at considerable expense. Even with the clear benefits of having an engaging, modern website, how could you commit enough capital and time to bring it about? Well, quite simply, you don"t have to.

Adobe Dreamweaver enables users with any level of expertise in web design, or none at all, to produce pages of professional quality. Tools for introducing dynamic, interactive and multimedia content to your website can help you to transform your business''s online presence into a stylish and effective site. A short training course can help you get the most out of the software – and once you"re up and running, you"ll find you can make the kind of websites that your business needs, without having to learn any programming languages or contract in outside help. The primary purpose of Dreamweaver, indeed, is to give you the power to turn your ideas for how you would like your site to appear into reality.

Dreamweaver has all the tools to create an engaging site for your organisation. You just need to bring your imagination.

About The Author

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on macromedia dreamweaver training, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

By Rich Talbot

Many people don"t automatically consider disability as a hindrance in surfing the web (and nor should they – it isn"t!), but strangely webmasters often overlook some of the most obvious practical ways of making a site accessible to everyone. There''s obvious benefit to you, the site owner – you"ll have more visitors. A great many people are surfing the web who are disabled – and it''s not just the visually impaired, who are the first group to spring to mind (even most non-disabled people have heard of Jaws, the screen reading software). With just a few small tweaks, you can make your website much more accessible – and therefore accessed more.

Thinking about screen readers

As a Dreamweaver user, you should already be familiar with CSS rather than table layouts. If you design your sites with CSS, it''s more beneficial – the navigation is made easier and someone who is visually impaired can jump straight to the "interesting parts" of the site that take their fancy, before their reading software has had to tediously go through the entire page to see what they want. Remember, pictures are useless in this setting – the alt tag is the simplest way to form a description in place of images. Flash presentations are lost on a visually-impaired audience, so make sure that if you use them, you describe what they are in a way that doesn"t hinder their enjoyment and experience of the site.

Thinking about navigation

Some conditions, such as dyslexia, aren"t often thought about in the realms of being a disability – but they are. If your site is clean and the navigation obvious, it will be a whole lot less stressful to any user, not just those with learning difficulties, dyslexia, or any other condition that means your site impairs the ability to get around it. A "help" section is also important in this way – it''s fine to have an online chat assistant, but some people cannot type at the same words-per-minute as everyone else (they may be using voice recognition software, or any number of physical motor aids). Make sure there is always an alternative (sending an email, for example), before you turn over entire sections of your site that is something difficult to use.

Thinking about outside help

There is an excellent system in place for webmasters on how to make a site accessible, called the Bobby Worldwide Web Accessibility tools. They have produced a report on accessibility guidelines that all webmasters should aim to meet. It''s automated, so isn"t perfect, but should give you an idea to any glaring problems in your site design. You can even get an Accessibility rating at the end of it, and if you meet the highest (AAA) standard, it should feel good to add that to your site''s front page.

All in all, accessibility is something that isn"t thought about enough when designing websites. Not out of ignorance or lack of effort, but just because webmasters aren"t sure what they have to do, or how to do it. Some ways of making a site accessible are so simple and quick, it''s well worth putting in the effort. More visits, happier surfers and a larger site audience should be motivation enough!

About The Author

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on dreamweaver-mx-training, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

By Rich Talbot

Adobe Dreamweaver has been the web-designing tool of choice for many professionals for many years now. Its comprehensiveness, efficiency and accessibility have made it a market leader and ensured that the smallest business can compete with the biggest corporation, at least in the online sphere.

The latest version of Dreamweaver is CS4 and, as with all software updates, many consumers are loath to shell out on an upgrade when they feel that there is nothing wrong with their existing version. However, there are definite advantages to be had in investing in the most current form of Dreamweaver and this article will tell you exactly what those enhanced features are.

One of the most crucial aspects of any program is the user interface. This is the key to the software''s accessibility and many an unsuccessful program has failed precisely because its UI was convoluted, confusing and unwieldy. Dreamweaver''s UIs have always been of a high standard but the interface in CS4 is undoubtedly the most user-friendly yet.

It achieves this mainly by condensing two features into one, namely the main menu and the title bar, which have now become one single bar for ease of navigation. In addition the insert bar has changed from running horizontally to running vertically, allowing for more space onscreen and consequently more room to examine code and make those all important decisions.

A great example of the little extras present in Dreamweaver that mark it out from the competition is the new related files application. When a document is opened Dreamweaver will scan it for any related files and display them to you onscreen. This cross-referencing is a massive bonus, particularly if you are setting up a complex website and one of the major advantages of CS4 over its predecessor.

Picking through coding onscreen can be a real headache, especially when you have a lot of it. Most users prefer to navigate through it visually and Adobe have catered to this requirement by adding the code navigator into CS4. This handy little tool enables you to click on an item in Design View and then edit the coding particular to that item within a separate window. This greatly decreases the amount of time and effort it takes to edit and amend coding within Dreamweaver.

One of the key issues that displeased users in CS3 was the presence of ugly inline Javascript onscreen that clogged up the page and reduced its aesthetic appeal. Adobe''s answer is to automatically clean up this unsightly inline script, replacing with clearer, more concise scripting.

Whilst some users may remain sceptical about upgrading to Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 the truth is that its new features have huge practical benefits for serious website designers. The constantly changing world of web design demands the most up to date versions of vital software and you can"t get much more vital than Dreamweaver. For this reason it is important to fully acquaint yourself with CS4 Dreamweaver by enrolling on a training course. With the benefit of increased knowledge there is no limit to the wonders you can create online.

About The Author

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on a dreamweaver course, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net