Dreamweaver Aaargh!!

[Grrilla]

I've been "getting into" Dreamweaver but I'm finding it to be one stubborn SOB of an app. I'm about to the point where I want to toss DW, all together, and go back to just using Taco Edit and my FTP client- I end up using them half the time, anyways, and they are a heck of alot freindler and easier to get along with.

But, I'm in assembly line mode and putting up a load of pages and sites and still think that DW would be helpful in streamlining the process, if I could figure out what I am doing that's causing it to act in a couple of annoying ways that has me about ready to pull my hair out.

So, any DW affecionados out there that could give me some advise on this?

The short version:
I want to stop DW from reverting to a local folder ("place holder" I guess you'd call it), after I've saved the htm locally and am putting it up on the remote server. Somewhere in there,it is changing the code- usually its an image file that gets linked locally instead of to the /images/pic.jpg at the remote. If this sounds familiar and there is an easy answer to the mistake I am making, don't read on.

The extended version:
1) I finish my page, I save the htm locally to: sites-local > examplesite folder. 2) I test it w/ Browsers and all is AOK 3) I save it to remote server, (all set-up thru c-panel account for the domain).
Everything is good to that point, but when I test the site, damn DW has changed the code thaat I thought I had saved. Most often, when I go back and look, it has changed the image file from the remote back to a local folder, even after I've typed in the code for the remote folder, FCS! Anyone know what part of the procedure I'm missing and that DW wants me to obey?

Another problem has to do w/ styles. After I set page properties, when I edit txt in design view it seems to revert back to default font even after I've set the the page font to a non-default font- like there is some big master preference default font. Basically, the problem is that it automatically sets styles as I make text changes and I don't want it to set styles. I'll lay some text down, backspace to another row and bingo my style changes. When the style changes it will revert to paragraph format so and than when I go back up to the code to put in <br>'s for the spacing I want, the styld reverts again.

Am I nuts? Anyways, I know there's a few procedures that I am missing or doing out of order for this to happen. If any one of these little probs I am having sounds familiar to you and you could give me a tip on where I'm screwing up- particularly stopping it from reverting to a local folder ("place holders" I guess you'd callit), I'd appreciate it. I just put another index.htm page an my images are missing again.

 

[deu12000]

Can't help you with Dreamweaver, but I have found FrontPage is a lot easier to use. I experimented with Dreamweaver a while back and it frustrated me also. Taco Edit....are you on a Mac? If you are then disregard the FrontPage comment and maybe buy DreamWeaver for Dummies, those dummies books are great, I own like 10 for all different programs.

 

[Grrilla]

How' bout dummieweaver for dreamers?

Ok. My fault, as I tend to expect to learn apps, intuitively, once I get the basics covered. I am not patient enough for the long tutorials that build dummy sites, particularly, in cases like this when you are familiar w/ the material but not the app-specific procedures.

Yep, I switched over to Mac a little over a year ago. The only OS that I knew was Windows, (starting w/ Win95) and although it took some getting used to at first, it was the best decison I've ever made computer-wise. I was setting up a Powerpoint pres on a PC last night and this feeling of dread came over me as I was flipping through the win hierarchy- the result of too many crashes, too many incomplete restorations and too much thumbtapping waiting for searches to complete. The MacOS rocks. The mictosoft propaganda has made the world think that the MacOs is for kids and artists but not for serious computing. The Mac OS is years ahead of Windows, now, and is everything they want Vista to be. Plus the new Macs are coming out w/ Intel dual chip processors that really rip. Oh, and the OS is Unix based- not an OS that is an add-on to add-on to add-on system- everything is direct and there is no circuitous registry and fragmented hd to deal with.

Anyways, back to DW. I am resigned to copying my code over to Taco Edit, saving the htm file inside of Taco and uploading it and dependent files w/ Captain FTP, my skull-X-bone FTP client- DW is just to cumbersome and unforgiving, ATM- come to think of it, it reminds me of Windows.

 

[Rowan W]

I also noticed DW was replacing my code with what it thought I wanted, I wasn't going to let it do that, so I haven't opened it ever since.

FACT: WYSIWYG editors are more trouble than they're worth.

 

[Grrilla]

I also noticed DW was replacing my code with what it thought I wanted, I wasn't going to let it do that, so I haven't opened it ever since.

FACT: WYSIWYG editors are more trouble than they're worth.

Thanks Roland. Nice to know I'm not alone. I've heard the complaints of the old timers who write their code on a text pad, but figured this was due to habit, (or stubborness- hehe), more than anything else. My dilemna are the mistakes that result from my, (not wonderful), typing skills.

I think DW/WYSIWYG code writing apps can still be useful to me, but are not the turnkey solution to streamlining the process of putting up a large group of sites that I had hoped for. I'll use DW to give me a quick skeleton for css, php, javascript etc- codes that I need some help with. At least, it can give me a starting point that I can modify as I go and improve weak skills in the languages, as the trial and error, "back and forth" approaches seem to work best for me. Also, I need to be motivated, (coerced), by an actual project if I am to move ahead w/ the business of learning the stuff. :hehe:

Assuming my typing skills don't improve in a major way, I think the best approach for me will be to create my own shortcut system w/ a library of customized snippets and macros that I can keep at my fingertips. Starting today I will, hereby...

 

[Jim_]

I find Dreamweaver helpful because it remembers CSS properties for me. Its also good for those w3-compliant headers.

Notepad is always useful. Its got everything I need. It edits text and even has gotoline and find/replace features. :P

 

[Grrilla]

Notepad is always useful. Its got everything I need. It edits text and even has gotoline and find/replace features. :P

I'm on the Mac platform and have Text Wrangler- a txt app that I'd describe as being somewhere between txtpad and Word, that has some code assist. capabilities- I think I was just expecting too much from DW, particulaly on the organizational, ie file keeping, and publishing side.

It probably does a great job in those areas- problem is it doesn't think the same way I do and we're both too stubborn to change our thinking, so the prospect of mutual cooperation doesn't look very hopeful. We'll still do a good bit of dating, but a marriage is not in the picture, at present.

 

[Woof]

You might try what I did just last month. Go to the Macromedia site and download the tutorial then follow the tutorial through one time.

I have always used FrontPage but I needed to change to Dreamweaver for coding reasons. I did the tutorial and it all really clicked. The tutorial is really basic but it helped me to understand what DW was doing and how to make everything work. It goes through all of the steps from planning your site to publishing it. I am now able to actually create a site from beginning to end with DW without going back to FrontPage when I get stuck.

 

[JYM]

I really like Dreamweaver... then again I never use the remote saving feature or anything lke that. I just simply save the html files on my harddrive, then use my FTP client to transfer them.

Question: What benefits are there when using the remote server feature?

 

[Ben]

I use Gvim, it works well for me.

 

[nasaboy007]

i use dreamweaver mainly for the instant preview thing, even though it gets really annoying when u insert ur own code cuz it sometimes dont render it properly...

so ur problem is in using dreamweaver to upload ur files? why not just archive them and use the unarchive upload option that some hosts have? if ur host dont have that, just upload them one by one like i do :P

 

[cx409]

Yes, Dreamweaver is sometimes annoying, but once you get the hang of it: you won't forget and two, it's very swift to do things with.

If you're on a Mac, I can't really help you, but this might: 1) Make sure the file where you saved it belongs to your DW local site. 2) Make sure you can connect to the remote server. 3) With the Sites panel open, right click the file you want to upload and click put. It should work after that.

If you need more info on Sites and such, gimme a PM.

 

[cvxdes]

I'd toss dreamweaver, get smartftp and notepad++. Then in your registry tweak smartftp to open notepad++ for editing files. SO all you would have to do i press f7, and it opens the file in notepad++, where when you save it automatically uploads. That's what i do, helps a lot.

 

[Grrilla]

Call me a masochist, but I went back to DW. I'm putting together GuruBlog.com for my son, who is spending a year in India.
Here's an actual example of what I've been talking about: I've defined a DW site. I have the local hd folder synced to the remote server. ie the remote mirrors the local. I added a jpg to the images file on my computer, (local). I FTPd the same jpg to the remote . I inserted the jpg onto the page in DW- 1st time by coding it in and second time by opening the remote and choosing the jpg file directly off of the remote so there would be no mistaking what path I wante the <img src to link to . In both instances, DW changed the code for the path back to this freaking DW temp file:

"file:///Macintosh%20HD/Users/MyMac/Library/Application%20Support/Macromedia/Dreamweaver%20MX%202004/Configuration/ServerConnections/guru/images/gurulogo.jpg" width="113" height="117" alt="gurublog" longdesc="http://www.gurublog.com/images/gurubloglogo.jpg">

Why, why, why? Now the html is wrong- I have to correct it, copy it over to another editor, FTP it up and get DW away from it to make it work. I've put up 3 sites over the last 3 days and have had to proceed w/ this double work for every single page. Sh~t!!!

 

[RogueWriter]

I use Netobjects Fusion 9.0 , I find it highly intuitive. Last I checked, they had a free 30 day trial, located at netobjects.com .

 

[gazzip]

I really like Dreamweaver... then again I never use the remote saving feature or anything lke that. I just simply save the html files on my harddrive, then use my FTP client to transfer them.

I like Dreamweaver too - I do as above but also sometimes use dreamweaver to upload the image folder + html pages from my hard drive.

I did'nt know there was another way but this way seems easy and works every time, I'm pretty much self taught so I like to keep it a simple process.

My basic process goes like this (sorry if you already know this )

Start by making one folder on my hard drive called - (the website name)
inside that folder - new folder named www - inside that folder a folder called images.

Open dreamweaver - define new site to be inside folder named www

Design you index.html page & any others while saving all images in the images folder.

when its finished - basically upload just all the contents of folder www -
This will be all html pages + the folder named images.

all images will have the correct path to the relevant html file.

Sorry if this is obvious to you - I don't know how good you know dreamweaver or webdesign but this way keeps it simple and quick

Good luck

 

[armstrong]

Once in a while, I revert to dreamweaver when setting up a basic table-based layout, and am too lazy to code the complex tables-within-tables structure. But that's it. Because it (wrongly) tries to anticipate my needs and inserts code without informing me, I find it to be too much trouble than its worth.

I now use htmledit, a free app that packs more power than notepad.

 

[cocaine]

i do not have problem with dreamweaver
the wonderfull thing is that it always shows all css codes also

 

[Amnezia]

and the moral of the story is ... dreamweaver sucks...

i gave up with dreamweaver along time ago, its always used to do anoying things like insert static urls and was never any good for a tableless layout. I wonder if i was to be taught how to use it then i might fair a little better but imo no piece of software should require tutition in order that you might use it.

 

[cx409]

It is sometimes very annoying, but at other times, extremely convenient. You just have to know how to use the sites feature. After that, no static urls, nothing wierd. And their CSS module is simply ***bliss*** [/end rant]