building a website with illustrator

[michael_affeld@adobeforums.com]

My first website... A neighbor builds them, so I asked him to build it, however I am doing all of the graphics, and laying everything out in ai to show him what I want. It then occurred to me... jeez, I've got most of everything built, and layed out right in front of me, and I've think I have seen an html function somewhere. I am glancing through the manual and it looks like I can do the whole thing myself on ai, although I am not sure how I am going to add paypal, and assign secure viewing area's for specific customers. I guess my initial questions consist of... has anyone built a website with ai? Are there rollover functions? Could I add some things like paypal, and secure assigned viewing area's? And lastly (for now) does ai really write out the html code, and can I mess with it?
I know- many questions, but I have never been in this area with ai. All I hear is dreamweaver, go live, write the code, etc.
thanks again, for all of the assistance I get from the forums.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

Illustrator is a great front end tool. Meaning youc an design a site and create images for a site very easily in Illustrator. In addition you can create SVG and flash content with illustrator. However, for back-end stuff like secure transactions and form processing you are going to need to know HTML and do some coding in either a WYSIWYG editor or by hand with a text editor. Illustrator isn't an all-in-one package for web design.

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Right. Illustrator's ability to slice a design into a complex table and optimize the parts for the Web make it a great tool for this purpose. But, as Scott mentions, you can only take it so far.

[michael_affeld@adobeforums.com]

But if I take it that far (basic design), and know someone who knows html... can it be done? Can I jump into the coding that ai produced and than add the extra punch needed?
thanks

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Sure! Your final step in Illustrator would be Save for Web. It writes all the HTML you'll need to hand off to someone who can finish it up with the forms and interactivity you need.

[michael_affeld@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the info so far. I guess my question BEFORE I get ahead of myself... How do I create rollovers, or where in the manual does it tell me/or a good resource I can find on the web regarding creating a site on ai?. Like I said, jeez I will go ahead and create most of the site and then hand it over to someone who can mess with the code to get the rest of it.
thanks

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

A simple rollover requires two elements of artwork: one, and another which replaces it when the cursor rolls over it (as I'm sure you know). You can do this within Illustrator using slices. Go to the Illustrator Help menu and do a search for the workd "rollover." In the list that comes up, click on "Adding SVG interactivity to artwork."

[michael_affeld@adobeforums.com]

Thanks, I've got the home page finished already, except for my rollovers into my other pages (not started yet) but some things to work on tomorrow. Glancing through the manual- it looks like I am going to have to learn about slices- like I mentioned... web design is a new area of ai to me. If anyone has any helpful hints or is familiar with this area, any input- I am sure would be useful.
thanks again

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Slicing simply divides an image into a grid of rows and columns, and the image then becomes a bunch of individual, smaller images that wind up in an HTML table. There are several advantages to this. Each image (slice) can be individually optimized for file size. Each slice can have a rollover action applied to it. And when it’s done in illustrator, the slices (images) are kept separate from the Illustrator vector art, so the design as a whole can still be edited.