Melissa:
Is there a type of tab where the melody is in bold or something to make it easier to hear what it's supposed to sound like as you go along?

I'm assuming you're talking about guitar tab which has multiple chords/notes in it as well as the melody line?

I'm not aware of any "emphasised" tablature in this sense, though there may be some somewhere. One of the beauties of standard notation is that you can put the melody lead line with the stems pointing up (for example) and the accompanying chords or notes with the stems pointing down. This gives a very visual pointer to the melody.

When I've written my arrangements out in the past - and you can see a whole pageful of stuff at my tabs & music page - I've fluctuated between creating music sheets with music, tablature & chords. I got the occasional comment, from those who read SN, saying that the tab cluttered up the page and they preferred just music. Others said that the SN cluttered up the page - and they preferred tabs! You can't win. It's much easier to just include both, IMO - and including both lets you see a melody line much more clearly.

As an aid to all this, I can really recommend buying some simple software which allows you to (a) write music and create tab from it and (b) write tab and create music from it. It helps you to read and understand both tab and SN - with the bonus of getting the computer to play the tune for you - and the simple process of writing the notes does improve your musical knowledge. I personally use Harmony Assistant, a French package, which is fairly sophisticated but much cheaper than, say, Sibelius. You can also print the score, and I'm finding it a huge help at the moment in preparing arrangements for panto tunes for my local theatre company.