Does anyone here use Dreamweaver 8?

[John Salerno]

I have a couple of questions, but I'd rather not be presumptuous and ask
them without the go-ahead from you guys. I tried the m.dreamweaver
newsgroup, but despite decent activity they seemed to have skipped over
my questions.

Thanks.

 

[Toby Inkster]

I tried the m.dreamweaver newsgroup, but despite decent activity they
seemed to have skipped over my questions.

Generally when a question is ignored, it is because it's frequently asked,
and people are bored of answering it again. If the group has an FAQ
document, read it. Check the group archives.

 

[Steve Pugh]

I have a couple of questions, but I'd rather not be presumptuous and ask
them without the go-ahead from you guys. I tried the m.dreamweaver
newsgroup, but despite decent activity they seemed to have skipped over
my questions.

I use DW8 (and love/hate it) so there's at least one person here who
might be able to answer your questions.

the macromedia.* groups are only really meant to be accessed via
Macromedia's own forums. If you access them via Usenet (or Google
Groups) then you can read all the posts but any posts you make will
only show up to other Usenet users - the great bulk of users in those
groups are using the marcomedia forums and only see posts from other
forum users.

Steve

 

[Travis Newbury]

I use DW8 (and love/hate it) so there's at least one person here who
might be able to answer your questions.
the macromedia.* groups are only really meant to be accessed via
Macromedia's own forums. If you access them via Usenet (or Google
Groups) then you can read all the posts but any posts you make will
only show up to other Usenet users - the great bulk of users in those
groups are using the marcomedia forums and only see posts from other
forum users.

Interesting, I have never had a problems reading or posting (getting a
reply to my posts) from usenet. Maybe I just never bothered to really
pay attention where the replys were coming from.

Good info steve.

 

[John Salerno]

I use DW8 (and love/hate it) so there's at least one person here who
might be able to answer your questions.

the macromedia.* groups are only really meant to be accessed via
Macromedia's own forums. If you access them via Usenet (or Google
Groups) then you can read all the posts but any posts you make will
only show up to other Usenet users - the great bulk of users in those
groups are using the marcomedia forums and only see posts from other
forum users.

Steve

Thanks, I didn't realize that.

 

[John Salerno]

I use DW8 (and love/hate it) so there's at least one person here who
might be able to answer your questions.

Ok, I will post my two questions then:

1. I'm a little confused with how Dreamweaver handles
templates. What I'd like to do is create a simple template that contains
*only* the markup I put in it, and have this template be available when
I choose to create a new HTML file. How do I do this?

The only templates I've been able to create so far have some strange
Dreamweaver code added to it, and in some cases it has commented out
most of my own template.

2. I'd like for my markup to be automatically indented and outdented as
follows:

1. After pressing enter on a line with an opening tag but no closing
tag, the next line is indented.
2. After pressing enter on a line with an opening and closing tag, the
next line is flush with the previous line.
3. After typing the beginning of a closing tag ("</"> as the first
characters of a line, the line is outdented to the previous tab stop.

This seems like simple functionality, but I can't find any options for
it. The only kind of auto-indenting that I see at work is that once you
manually indent a line, then Dreamweaver keeps that indentation until
you manually outdent again.

Is there a way to fine-tune this to the above rules?

Thanks.

 

[Steve Pugh]

1. I'm a little confused with how Dreamweaver handles
templates. What I'd like to do is create a simple template that contains
*only* the markup I put in it, and have this template be available when
I choose to create a new HTML file. How do I do this?

Use the options from the Insert > Template Object menu to create a
template with editable regions, optional regions, repeating regions and
so on. Save the resulting .dwt file. When you want to create a page
based on that template select the Template tab from the File > New
dialogue box and pick the template you want to use.

You'll then be able to add copy, etc. the editable regions (note that
to use some template features such as repeating regions you'll need to
be in Design View). Code outside of editable regions can not be edited.
By editing the template you will be offered the option to update all
pages based on that template.

The only templates I've been able to create so far have some strange
Dreamweaver code added to it,

The only code DW adds to templates are comments that it uses internally
to marke the start and end of editable regions, etc. If you absolutely
don't want any additional code in your templates then you'll have to
save them as normal HTML files and use cut and paste / search and
replace.

and in some cases it has commented out most of my own template.

When a page uses a template the code outside of editable regions is
locked and can not be edited - it is displayed in the same grey colour
as comments but is not in fact commented out.

2. I'd like for my markup to be automatically indented and outdented as
follows:

1. After pressing enter on a line with an opening tag but no closing
tag, the next line is indented.
2. After pressing enter on a line with an opening and closing tag, the
next line is flush with the previous line.
3. After typing the beginning of a closing tag ("</"> as the first
characters of a line, the line is outdented to the previous tab stop.

Edit > Preferences > Code Format contains some basic options.You can
use the Tag Library Editor (linked at the bottom of that dialogue) to
specify rules for new lines and indenting of individual elements. Not
sure how close to what you want you can get. Personally, I either don't
bother or just use Commands > Apply Source Formatting to give some
basic structure to the code.

Steve

 

[John Salerno]

Use the options from the Insert > Template Object menu to create a
template with editable regions, optional regions, repeating regions and
so on. Save the resulting .dwt file. When you want to create a page
based on that template select the Template tab from the File > New
dialogue box and pick the template you want to use.

You'll then be able to add copy, etc. the editable regions (note that
to use some template features such as repeating regions you'll need to
be in Design View). Code outside of editable regions can not be edited.
By editing the template you will be offered the option to update all
pages based on that template.

Thanks for the help. I think it was the "regions" that I was trying to
keep out of my template, but maybe I should read up on their value
before I disregard them. But I'd also like to make sure that I can still
edit anything in the template...I don't know if I like the idea of my
markup being locked.

 

[Steve Pugh]

Thanks for the help. I think it was the "regions" that I was trying to
keep out of my template, but maybe I should read up on their value
before I disregard them.

Without editable regions all pages created from a template will be
identical because there will be nothing that can differe from the
template. Not much use really.

But I'd also like to make sure that I can still
edit anything in the template...I don't know if I like the idea of my
markup being locked.

You can edit the template to update the common markup, and that will
update all pages based on that template. I think there's an option to
allow entire pages to be edited, but in that case I don't know what
happens when the template is updated. Maybe if you told us how you
would like to use templates we can tell you whether DW's templating
system is right for you.

Steve

 

[John Salerno]

Maybe if you told us how you
would like to use templates we can tell you whether DW's templating
system is right for you.

Yeah, that might help. Basically I just want to be able to start with
some pre-defined markup, like the DTD, the <head> and <body> tags, etc.
But I'd like all this to simply be text in my document that I can change
if I want. Here's what I use right now when I make a new file:

-------------------

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title></title>
</head>

<body>

</body>
</html>

--------------------

In some cases I also have extra <meta> tags that are commented out, in
case I'd like to uncomment them and use them. Also, I always need to put
in a title, so I can't have that part "locked".

Maybe this is too simple for DW templates.

 

[Steve Pugh]

Yeah, that might help. Basically I just want to be able to start with
some pre-defined markup, like the DTD, the <head> and <body> tags, etc.
But I'd like all this to simply be text in my document that I can change
if I want. Here's what I use right now when I make a new file:

-------------------

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title></title>
</head>

<body>

</body>
</html>

That sounds like a DW optional region. The meta tags would be in the
template but would only appear in generated pages when the user chooses
to make them appear (via the Modify > Template Properties menu),
otherwise they don't appear at all. This is perhaps better than having
them always present but commented out. So long as the page is
associated with a particular template, any optional region in that
template can be included in the page at any future date. By putting an
editable region inside an optional region, you can have sections that
optionally appear and which can be edited once they have been included.

Also, I always need to put
in a title, so I can't have that part "locked".

Whenever you make a template in DW the title element is by default
turned into an editable region. You would need to choose to make the
title locked at the template design stage, which obviously you wouldn't
do.

Maybe this is too simple for DW templates.

Looks more like what you want to do is change the default document
created when File > New is invoked. That can be done but IIRC not via
the DW interface but by editing files somewhere within the DW
configuration. I haven't done this for a couple of versions so I can't
give specific instructions.

Steve

 

[John Salerno]

Edit > Preferences > Code Format contains some basic options.You can
use the Tag Library Editor (linked at the bottom of that dialogue) to
specify rules for new lines and indenting of individual elements. Not
sure how close to what you want you can get. Personally, I either don't
bother or just use Commands > Apply Source Formatting to give some
basic structure to the code.

Hmm, perhaps the Tag Library is the way to go to do what I want to do,
but there doesn't seem to be a way to make changes that affect all tags
at once. I would have to choose each tag individually and keep making
the same changes to them all.