Creative web design with Adobe Muse

You’ve found your Muse; now learn how to create with it __Creative Web Design with Adobe Muse__ is a step-by-step guide to creating fully-featured websites using Adobe Muse. Adobe Muse can be a complicated program, and web design itself is no easy task, although your clients might think so. This book takes you from the initial design and layout stage right up to helping you publish your beautifully designed and richly developed site. Each chapter covers a different section of the website and, in turn, introduces the tools and features of the program, accompanied by useful tips and tricks that help you speed up your workflow. Follow along as a website is created from concept to execution and rich content such as slideshows, galleries, and social media are incorporated. See how each aspect of a website is created with Muse; watch as it’s published; and visit the final version after learning how it was made. If seeing a website created start to finish wasn’t enough, this book also features: * Tips on how to incorporate Photoshop into Muse * A companion website that was created with Muse where you can get up-to-the-minute coverage on Muse and other tutorials to help you design the perfect website Through this perfect blend of instruction and inspiration, you’ll be up and running with Adobe Muse in no time. Cover 1 Title Page 2 Copyright Page 3 Table of Contents 4 Acknowledgements 6 Introduction 7 Why use Adobe Muse? 7 Who is the book for? 7 How to use this book 7 Keyboard shortcuts 8 Accompanying website 8 1 Introducing Adobe Muse 9 Features at a glance 11 The Welcome Screen 11 Creating a new site 11 Working in Plan mode 12 Design mode 13 Preview mode 14 Publish mode 14 Manage 14 2 Designing the master page 15 Planning the site 17 The initial site layout 17 Preparing the new site 19 The site properties 19 Designing the master page 20 Beginning the design 21 Setting the browser fill 21 Define the header 22 Add the header images 23 The alignment tools 24 Build the footer 25 The Rectangle tool 25 Create the footer content 27 Setting a typeface 28 Styling text 29 Create a paragraph style 31 Create an email link 33 Create a link style 34 Working with Photoshop buttons 36 Working with Web Fonts 37 Preview the page 38 Add new pages 38 Add a navigation bar 39 The Menu Widget settings 40 Style the menu 41 Working around limitations 43 Menu display options 43 Image-based page link 44 Add sub-menus 45 The completed master page 48 3 Creating the site content 49 The home page 51 Build a slide presentation 51 The Composition widget settings 52 Add the slide content 54 Set the Autoplay 61 Test the presentation 61 Add the information panels 62 Embedding HTML code 66 The gallery pages 67 Add the page description 67 Build the slideshow 68 The slideshow settings 69 Import the images 69 Position the thumbnails 70 Set the hero image size 71 Create a breadcrumb trail 73 Alter the page hierarchy 75 Replace slideshow content 77 Duplicate the widgets 78 Our services page 79 Create a frame template 79 Using the Crop tool 80 Rotating images 82 Create a page divider 83 Wrap text around an image 85 Create a library item 86 Reusing a library item 87 The Information page 88 Add an Accordion widget 88 Style the accordion panels 89 Populate the panels 90 Simulating tables 93 Our services page 96 Add a basic contact form 96 The Form widget settings 97 Styling the form 98 Create a ‘thank-you’ page 104 Set up auto-redirection 105 Add a live map 107 Customize the map 108 Final adjustments 109 Increase the header margin 109 Add a footer site map 109 The completed site content 110 4 Designing for mobile devices 111 Creating the phone layout 113 Set up the workspace 113 The master page 114 Add the navigation 114 Style the menu bar 116 Create the footer 119 Pop-up information panels 120 The About Us panel 123 The Contact Us panel 125 Set up an email link 127 Set up a phone link 127 Preview the phone layout 128 The home page 129 Deciding on content height 130 Fixing layout issues 132 Working with layers 133 Our cakes page 135 Create the slideshow 137 The Information page 141 The completed mobile site content 146 5 Search engine optimization 147 The concepts and practicalities 149 Setting the page titles 149 Add the page description 152 Amend the URL structure 153 Content and keywording 154 Create heading styles 154 Create styles to define key phrases 156 Internal linking 157 Using social media to generate traffic 158 Adding descriptions to image content 160 Renaming files 161 6 Launching the live site 163 Publishing to the web 165 Publish to Adobe hosting 165 Third-party hosting 166 Export as HTML 168 Going live 169 The Muse dashboard 169 Creating a ‘404’ page 171 Design the 404 page 171 Enable online editing 173 Import the page code 173 Test the error page 174 In-browser editing 175 Add a site user 175 Edit live content 176 Change the text 177 Replace an image 177 Publishing the changes 178 Edit alternate versions 179 Update changes in Muse 179 Adding a ‘favicon’ 180 7 The left-overs 181 An alternate navigation bar 183 Add a new master page 183 Create a dummy page 183 Working with scroll effects 185 The Scroll Effects panel 185 Scroll effect mechanics 186 Create a ‘sticky’ menu 187 Flying items onto the page 189 Change an item’s opacity 191 Setting up Google Analytics 193 Create a new property 193 Set the tracking type 193 Add the site details 193 Create a tracking ID 194 Set up the tracking code 194 Test the account 194 Creating a State Button 195 Use a scratch page 195 Create a composite button 195 Add the State widget 196 Create the combined item 196 Working with Muse Libraries 197 Preparing the library item 197 Add to the library 198 Adaptive library items 199 Exporting and importing 200 Library items: caveat 200 Index 201 Content: Chapter 1: Introducing Muse The main user interface Tools Panels Chapter 2: Design and layout. Creating a new site in Muse Master pages: an explanation of the concept of using templates for the site Site structure: how to add pages and sub-pages to the site Chapter 3: Designing the Master page template Styling the background Working with the page guides, headers and footers Adding fixed images and text (site consistency) Creating navigation with the built-in menu system Chapter 4: Working with individual pages Adding text content Creating a text box & pasting from the clipboard The character panel Creating character and paragraph styles Adding images Placing images from a file & pasting from the clipboard The fill panel Creating image styles Creating manual hyperlinks (text and graphic) Creating site-wide link styles Adding Photoshop buttons Using Muse's widget library Composition widgets Menu widgets Panel widgets Slideshow widgets Chapter 5: Advanced techniques Chapter 6: Publishing the site. This chapter will focus on uploading the completed site to the web Preparatory work: adding metadata (page descriptions, keywords, etc.) Exporting the site as HTML (for manual publishing to a pre-existing domain) Publishing to a Business Catalyst hosted site from within Muse "Creative Web Design with Adobe Muse is a step-by-step guide to creating fully-featured websites using Adobe Muse. Adobe Muse can be a complicated program, and web design itself is no easy task, although your clients might think so. This book takes you from the initial design and layout stage right up to helping you publish your beautifully designed and richly developed site. Each chapter covers a different section of the website and, in turn, introduces the tools and features of the program, accompanied by useful tips and tricks that help you speed up your workflow. Follow along as a website is created from concept to execution and rich content such as slideshows, galleries, and social media are incorporated. See how each aspect of a website is created with Muse; watch as it's published; and visit the final version after learning how it was made. If seeing a website created start to finish wasn't enough, this book also features: - Tips on how to incorporate Photoshop into Muse - A companion website that was created with Muse where you can get up-to-the-minute coverage on Muse and other tutorials to help you design the perfect website Through this perfect blend of instruction and inspiration, you'll be up and running with Adobe Muse in no time"-- Provided by publisher