Webdesign and adobe products?

[Sensi420]

Hello AllI have some questions to web designers using adobe products.I know i can cheat a lot with the adobe products,but is it really as good as they say?And i am confused about all the different products,what to use when?What order to use them to create a website from scratch.There are to many programs to focus on i cant Learn them all,so what do you recommend me to study first?I'm beyond the basic on photoshop and dreamweaver,but still loads to learn!!And i got these other adobe products laying around like illustrator cs5,fireworks cs5 and flash cs5.Is it the meaning i learn the basic and beyond on all these softwares or just pic some like photoshop,illustrator and dreamweaver and focus on them.If i learn the basic on all of them first i think i will forget abut along the road since its too Mitch info to remember.What (adobe)tools do you use and recommend?Reason that I'm asking for adobe is i can work with them now,and i dint want to learn even more programs to work with so it gets even more complicated.

[Synook]

Adobe products don't allow you to "cheat", they provide you with tools that allow you to more efficiently complete tasks, many of which are related to web design and development. However, it doesn't always help you in a very good way.Anyway, I don't see why you would need anything more than Photoshop, for the graphic design component.

[Sensi420]

Yes thats what i mean,the advertising on adobe says you can create a complete website without ever writing a code.I have trued out the new Cs series and i was blown away,i relay call it cheating The live code and inspector in dream weaver is saving me loads of work already.I was thinking about the other products for other parts like the vectors from fireworks and 3d text from illustrator.I have read alto of posts of people just using photoshop to do everything,but allows people using other products to finish off the work.So you think i should be just fine with photoshop only for now?Or should i do the basic on the other softwares in the pack?I thought since it is the premium web suite i had to learn every program to make the site i want.

[boen_robot]

As long as you use each product for what it's meant, this isn't "cheating", nor does it result in unprofessional sites.Photoshop should be used for raster graphics. Illustrator should be used for vector graphics (from which you may later produce raster ones if needed). Flash should be used for non-essential animations, effects and utilities such as media players. Dreamwaver should be used as a code editor and/or a prototype template creator (i.e. plain HTML and CSS pages with styles and everything, that are later chopped into reusable chunks, etc.).If you abuse any product in the suite, you can then call it "cheating", and you can expect some (if not many) accessibility and usability issues with the resulting sites, even if they're pretty and created fast.

[Sensi420]

Thanks for the replys................Maybe i should change the word cheating to the "easy way".I have followed the easy way my whole life,and i have learned that its not always the best choice.So now I'm a jack of all trades,master of none.I thought i would just start fresh and focus on 1 ting at the time,it did not take long before i started to look for a short cut again.Read HTML,CSS,Javascrip,php,sql tutorials and after a while my head almost exploded from all the info,it was just too much to remember(and my short term memory sucks).This time i found the adobe premium web cs5,watched movies about the different products and thought by myself this is the solution.Since I'm jack of all trades,this should be perfect for me or not?I want to educate myself enough to start working with design/develop,so this is the main reason for asking.First i thought develop was the path to choose but all the codes was a nightmare for my memory :)Then i looked more in to design since I'm a creative person this had to be the way,but after a while i looked at the job market and thats when the problem started.Almost every job i found they did not ask for a designer or a developer,they asked for all arounders.Here is a example: need to know PHP,AJAX,MYSQL,(x)HTML,CSS,XML,Javascrips,Jquery,,Photoshop,illustrator.I know the basic of some and some i know beyond the basic but I'm for sure far from master of any,and i think i will be dead before i become master of all that(or even master of some).But i do know how to use them....So now I'm back to the start since most of the jobs expect you to be a jack of all trades.So i thought the only way om going to do this is to go basic on the things above and use the right tools to help me on the rest.And later go advanced on some things.What would you do?I dint expect this to be done over night but i just need a simple step by step planAny help welcome and if you have a better plan than me please share and say why?

[boen_robot]

If you can create great looking things on paper, making just as good (if not better) things with Photoshop and/or Illustrator on the computer screen (and if you have a printer - back on paper) is the way you should head at.Even though the job market looks out mostly for "all arounders", great designers still have their place, as developers are usually lousy designers (myself included), and they therefore hire designers to work with or for them.As for developing, I suggest you just focus on PHP if you head that road. Learn the basics, as described in W3Schools, and play with them. Do NOT, under any circumstances, try to remember all functions and stuff. That's what the PHP manual is for. Just remember the kind of "groups" of functions you have (e.g. MySQL functions, array functions, etc.), and the way PHP works in general (variables, loops, etc.). At all other times, consult the manual. Wonder if there's a way to get the contents of a file? Just remember there are file functions, and look if there's a function in the manual for that. If not (though in this case there is), see if you can make one from the existing functions.Only after you grasp PHP should you move to JavaScript. That's mainly because PHP is easier to debug. If you have an error, PHP will emit an error message on screen telling you some details for it. And let us not forget the priceless var_dump() function.And for MySQL and XML... they are pretty much useless if you don't know a programming language like PHP.

[Sensi420]

Thank you for taking the time to explain this to me!Your post is clearing up on loads of things i thought about,like the remembering of all the PHP.I really thought that you guys remembered all this,well i guess there is hope for me after all :)Saving javascript for last allows sounds like a fantastic idea,i started reading the javascript tuts and got lost really fast.Here is the order i thought was the way to do it :HTML/CSS,javascript,PHP/SQLSo the actual way of doing it is HTML/CSS,PHP/SQL and last javascript?So with doing the above exams at W3Schools,i should be going in the right direction?I'm not sure on what direction to go yet, both design / develop are fun things to do.Thought about raising my skills in both and when I'm at a higher level choose 1 thing and focus more on just that.My idea was to start making some site from scratch and after making some sites i will see better what I'm good at.And ofc use my websites as a portfolio for later use.Shall i stick to the adobe web premium suite,and do you think its worth it?Dreamweaver is sure helping me a lot on remembering the codes and things like that.

[boen_robot]

As long as you use Dreamwaver as a code editor and not as a WYSIWYG editor, then yes, stick with it.