dreamweaver sucks!
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- 17 Responses
- lovaboy
I've had it with this #*& program! Anyone know a good alternative that allows for template-based coding, minus the headaches? How come no one's invented a good program for writing webpages yet?
- YourClient0
Yes! It's called Dreamweaver! I hope it helps.
:)
- lovaboy0
thanks, very helpful! seriously, has anyone had problems with the template-based features of the 2004 edition? It keeps giving me all these weird errors, which is ironic, cos the ability to do templates is really the only reason I would use this program anyway (I'm doing a 400+ page site), otherwise I'd just code by hand.
- YourClient0
A 400+ page site? Come again cause I don't understand this one.
- lovaboy0
erm...are you being sarcastic again? a site with 400 or more pages.
- jpolk0
what exactly are you having problems with?
- lovaboy0
when i try to modify an editable region of a nested template ( a template based on another template), i sometimes get the message "you have modified a region of the template that is not editable," and it removes my changes. also, i'm having a lot of trouble creating multiple repeating regions (i.e., a repeating cell inside a repeating row). The funny thing is, I don't recall having these problems with the regular MX version, as opposed to the 2004 edition, so if all else fails I may try to reinstall that one.
- jpolk0
i've never used the actual 'template' feature, but if i have a large site to build i usually crate a site in dreamweaver and duplicate pages and change links, images and text appropriately. usually have no problems and it makes large static sites a breeze.
- YourClient0
I'm not being sarcastic, are your 400+ pages static? It's not sarcasm, it's common sense.
- sparker0
have you considered using a template engine like php's smarty?
it seems for such a large site, generating pages dynamically on the fly with smarty would make life much easier.
store all content in a database, build the layout with valid xhtml/css and then write the templates for rendering.
probably much easier than using dreamweavers convoluded template system.
other than that...honestly, dreamweaver is the best ide for web development. there are plenty of good editors, but none that really employ all the features that dreamweaver does.
screem for linux is a dreamweaver like app. but it still lacks some of the features.
i prefer vim. :)
- Abandoned0
yeah I had to do some template crap before, and it is annoying, but there is a way to get around it. When creating the template dfine the editable secions, like txt fields, and images, and links, or you can just go into the code and take out like two lines of code that make it un-editable, and then it should work fine. But this was 2 years ago so I'm a little fuzzy.
- lovaboy0
i agree it makes loads more sense to generate pages dynamically. however, the client wants it all static. for me, the attraction of using dreamweaver's template-based system is that you can make changes at any point in the development process to a large number of pages....something you can't do by merely saving multiple copies of a page. i suppose it's true that most large sites are dynamic, making this kind of a moot point...but I'm still amazed at how buggy the 2004 edition was. i've already gone back to MX and am having better luck.
- tfs__mag0
you can do that with include files in php and asp too.... thats what i use, then you don't have to depend on any proprietary macromedia stuff. I usually make things i want to repeat across several pages in to include files. That way, you change and upload one file and it is the same spanned across the whole site.
- lovaboy0
I agree tfs_mag...like I said the client is insisting on an entirely static site for some reason. Well what I've discovered is that templates in DW are a pain to work with (not just in the 2004 edition). It's a great idea in principle, but very poorly executed. However, if any of you ever have to tackle this for whatever reason, I've discovered you can remedy the weird quirks in DW by going outside the software, making changes in notepad, then bringing the file back into DW and utilising the template-based features.
- YourClient0
A client won't ask specifically for 400+ static website, for a client to make that decision he or she would have a very good reason, and to have this reason they probably need to know about the design process, and to tell you the truth anybody that knows about any design process will choose a dynamic site over an static site, so get your story togheter and come again boy!
- graphito0
mac or pc progi?
- paulsmith0
I personally would use PHP/ASP includes but if you must have completly static html pages with no serverside code at all then I would either take the time to learn how to use Dreamweaver's Template system.
Or you could use a program such as MacroMagic to record the chucks of code that are consistant throughout the site or thoughout each section and then use Notepad or Homesite to build each page, hitting the macro commands to dump in the non variable code.
- spartahkus0
You simply suck