Dreamweaver extensions or root direct

[los_design]

Hi Guys

Quick question for the experienced users of actinic out there.

Just interested to know how you approach the design aspect of it and which method you prefer or indeed find more effective.

Do you prefer to use the DW extensions and work via the preview folders and regenerate etc or direct coding via the site 1 (etc) folders.

I would be keen to gleam some opinions on this.

I have tried both ways but thus far have not formed an opinion (yet )

Regards
Daren

[jont]

I personally work straight with the Act_Templates in the site folder using DreamWeaver in code mode - I will then save and preview back under Actinic to check the alterations.

The art it knowing which template is doing what to the page - by now I know the majority but some of the more tricky blighters such as the cart area I used to use uncompacted HTML and then view the source on the live site as the cart is not available in offline preview.

[los_design]

I found that working with the templates staright from the site 1 folder in DW makes life a lot easier (thus far) when trying to acheive a look. With the ext.manager view in DW it gets a bit messy and when I regenerate things seem to 'happen' that I did not plan for

I am still trying to confirm in my own mind which main files do what , looking through the AUG for a definitive template and phrase index.

I have ID'd primary, brochure and product line...bet I have missed one or two though.

[pinbrook]

i create a site in DW from site1 folder and code from there, then swap back to actinic to preview the site.

From time to time I have to resort to the template manager when my brain is full and I cant find a more obscure setting