A designer's dream? ... Or a nightmare?

[pokemon]

Hey there,

I have a 101-level question. Apologies for my ignorance...

I have Dreamweaver 8 installed on my computer, and recently took a beginner's course in DW in preparation for building a site for my small business.

What I'd *like* to do is stick to what I'm sort-of good at - creating all the pages with text only and no design whatsoever, and conceiving the site navigation - and leave the graphic design to a web designer.

Is it possible - or desirable - for a designer to start designing a project after all the pages are in existence and linked to each other? What if frames are going to be involved eventually? I kind of picture a top and left frame for each page; should I create those when I insert the text, or is it fairly easy for someone else to come along and do that later?

Thank you, thank you, thank you for any and all advice or commentary you have to offer.

:)
Poke

[lolly]

You shouldn't touch a thing and hide those frames from all exsistance, there's nothing worse than trying to clean up code created by a 'I have a course in dreamweaver so that makes me a web designer' people, leave it all to the designer.

Type the copy in word by all means so all he has to do is copy the text into his tags.

[pokemon]

Originally Posted by lolly

You shouldn't touch a thing and hide those frames from all exsistance, there's nothing worse than trying to clean up code created by a 'I have a course in dreamweaver so that makes me a web designer' people, leave it all to the designer.

Type the copy in word by all means so all he has to do is copy the text into his tags.

That's good to hear - I'd rather not monkey around with trying to create frames anyway.

I spoke to another designer who said he hates Word files, and would appreciate getting them in DW. Diff'rent strokes, I guess.

I want my prep to be helpful and time-saving, rather than a nuisance, to a designer. With site navigation, it seems like it would be easier for me to link the pages the way I want them than to try to explain the navigation in words. Any thoughts on that?

Anyone?

[Miss Leona]

Draw out a site map on paper that's always a help

[pokemon]

Originally Posted by Miss Leona

Draw out a site map on paper that's always a help

OK. Do you know if there's software that can help me with that?

[Miss Leona]

Nope just a pen and some paper the bigger the better

[pokemon]

Gotcha.

Thank you very much for your input. It's clear that the less I do on my own, the better!

:)
Pokie

[tommylogic]

you can do your content in Notepad... All a designeer really needs is your basic layout idea which you can do on a sketchpad and the content will kind of determine the flow of the site. A good designer will help you with the layout / flow and make recomendations. Most of this process can be achieved in the initial discovery phase.

[Davidoff]

Did you try Freeway? a very good english software. It is very simple to use and very similar to Xpress

[dannynosleeves]

you should always start a site by creating and laying out the text and images first. then you can go back and create the CSS styles.

If you are new to CSS as well, I suggest reading this book. Great way to learn the best CSS practices.