When you think of all the work that goes into building Web sites, you realize that the Web is multimedia incarnate. Today’s Web is an amalgam of images, illustrations, animations, and video—all gathered neatly and delivered to the site visitor in a coherent package. Who creates all those component parts and then weaves them together in an attractive, organized design? You do, the modern Web designer. And how do you do it? With a wide array of tools such as those bundled together in the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web software bundle. There are a great many books out there that focus on each of the component parts of Adobe CS3 Web. I know; I’ve written a good number of the ones targeting Dreamweaver. However, there are precious few—if any—that tackle the bigger picture, the one that Web designers face every day: How do I use these tools together and how do I use a tool that I’m not really familiar with? That’s the two-pronged goal of Adobe CS3 Web Workflows: to describe the workflow from one product to another and to detail essential techniques in each program, so you can get your work done.

I’ve long been fascinated by workflow. I remember in the early days of the Web I was talking to some Photoshop users at a publishing conference and asking how they converted their print materials to Web sites. One fellow described how he measured the screen—literally, with a ruler pressed up against the screen—and then transferred those measurements to the table-based layout. Most of the others around him agreed that they used the same technique. Suffice it to say we’ve come a very long way from there. However, the pathways are not always well lit, and the specific destinations may be overwhelming for the first-time visitor. I wrote this book to shine a light on the workflow process and give folks a leg up when they’re just trying to complete a job but have to master multiple sophisticated rich tools along the way.