Editing templates with frontpage or adobe

[newshopbloke]

Hi its me again

There are many threads on these forums about using a wysiwyg for editing templates, this is something that would really help me out but when I try to open act_primary or act_brochure_primary in either golive or fp 2003 I get a very scrambled and messed up wysiwyg preview.

I even downloaded a demo of dw 8.0 and its still all scrambled ? Am I doing something wrong or do we have to look at it in 'scramble vision' ?


Answers on a postcard to:

Bald bloke with bruised head,
actithick avenue,
eyestrain village,
in somnia

[wjcampbe]

Help on this in the section "Using Dreamweaver with Actinic" in the additional guides available in the download section of the Actinic Support page. Get the Design Guide and the Advanced User Guide for your version of Actinic.

[jont]

By scrambled are you talking about the proliferation of NETQUOTEVAR tags you can see in WYSIWYG mode?

Alas these are needed for the template to work but do make a mess of the layout in WYSIWYG mode as they can sometimes force table cells and layouts to be much wider than the finished page once compiled by Actinic.

You can't do much about this other than work in code mode but that defeats the object. The other option is to create the layout as you want it then copy in the NQV's once sorted.

[newshopbloke]

Im now having some results from editing act_primary and brochure_primary in frontpage (my personal default editor) but the actinic software seems to bend the rules of html and wysiwyg. Yes it is the NETQUOTEVARS that are messing things up.

Im getting there but expect to be 30 years older by the time I do.

Thanks for all the help, unfortunately I still need more. Im making my changes in act primary and brochure primary but the home page and brochure pages still dont view the same ?

[RuralWeb]

Just note that Front Page produces very dirty code.

[newshopbloke]

So ive heard, but it also produces websites viewable in all major browsers if used correctly and has the friendliest interface of all the major editors. I would also prefer to use an editor that was designed by the same people who also happened to design the worlds most popular browser. Firefox is catching up but ms wont let it take over.

[jont]

Just note that Front Page produces very dirty code.

Older versions of FP was indeed a pig - FP2003 actually produces some very good code (if you stay away from the Microsoft propriatary stuff) which can cope with Actinic (and other websites) without much trouble. I use both FP and DW8 and for ease of use FP is streets ahead for casual HTML use - both producing pretty much the same code. The main issue in using FP with Actinic is double checking if you highlight something in WYSIWYG mode that you are actually picking up all the code - hence better to work in HTML mode for moving chunks of code around the page.

It is not really Actinic that is bending the rules. Actinic compiles the info into the templates wherever it sees a NETQUOTEVAR ... unfortunately if you have something like NETQUOTEVAR:TOPLEVELSECTION or whatever this amount of text can force tables out of alignment in WYSIWYG mode

[newshopbloke]

Yep, I use fp 2003 and turn off all 'special features' and wizz along with the split code view. I think youve pointed out 1 mistake im making and that is the fact that I change the center cell size in fp but after uploading with actinic the center cell stretches back again, causing me to pull more hair out and feel actistupid once more.

I went through all of this pain last year and then ditched the smart template, vowing never to go near it again but my website needs a facelift and the smart theme is my only other choice available.

800 x 600 friendly, no horizontal scroll and center aligned is my goal. I just wish actinic would pop in and say "hi, as we cant bare the thought of you making holes in walls with your newly bald head, we have put up an adjusted smart template for you to download"

[jont]

The centre cell is usually controlled in the setup under ACTSTDWIDTH which you can edit out of the template (setting the size manually) or set accordingly in Actinic

[newshopbloke]

Using ACTSTDWIDTH only lets me shrink the cell a little bit then it stops. I could enter 1px for width but it would make no difference. Also the advanced/custom/actswidth box has now changed and will not allow any selection between 'text' or 'integer', there is no option for either.