Re: Another Dreamweaver/Homesite Question

Dreamweaver is the most kind of any application to other code.  It's well 
behaved and doesnt interfere with things it doesnt understand (unlike more 
than a few clients I could mention!!)  If it can't figure out what kind of 
code it's working with it'll leave it totally alone and assume you know what 
you're doing.

One of the important differences about Dreamweaver from other apps is that 
it's written entirely in Javascript and HTML, so you can customise it to do 
almost anything you want.

I've changed mine to ensure that every page created in my shop has a set of 
standard meta tags, including the code for the individual who wrote the 
page, and our address etc so I can locate and identify anyone who needs some 
help getting things right.

I have set up the parameters for HTML formatting, so when the code is laid 
out it looks consistent - every table with a standard format, standard 
indents, each new <TR> on a new line, each <TD> indented 3 spaces from its 
<TR> etc.   I've set it so every <p> will have a </p> too, and dozens of 
other little things like that, to make the code look professional and be 
easy to work with.

I've made some buttons of my own too.  We often have to make forms with an 
Australian state drop down menu, with provision for people in other 
countries to write in their province/state.  So I have put that on a button 
on the objects palette, and I know that every form produced out of my shop 
will have a consistent and working state menu, with an alternative for 
people from other countries, and it'll always be exactly the same code.  
(That's unless there's a reason we want something different of course). One 
click gives an Australian postcode field, with the ColdFusion code to 
validate it against the AustraliaPost data file, the error message for 
invalid or missing post codes, and the input field beside it for people in 
other countries to put their zip codes instead.

This ability to make our own buttons means that we dont have to keep 
reinventing the wheel. Once we work out how to do something, and we decide 
the best way to do it, we make a button, put it in the pallette, and bingo, 
everyone has exactly the same.

You can make your own palettes too.  So if you have a client with lots of 
special needs, you can go making buttons for the things they want.   One 
click puts in the client's logo or the link to their home page or their 
copyright statement or whatever.  Broadly, if you reuse any code often, its 
worth taking an additional 5-10 minutes to make a button and put it on the 
standard palettes everyone uses.


So I know that as long as someone is using **MY** set of profiles and 
configuration files, their code (if validated) will meet my standards and 
look like everyone else's coming from my shop.

DISCLAIMER: Apart from being a fan of the product from usage in my 
development shop, I have no connection with Macromedia. In fact, their 
Australian PR people will tell you when I first came in contact with  DW2 a 
year ago, I was irate and angry, absolutely antagonistic towards them 
because of something that happened unrelated to Dreamweaver.  They persuaded 
me to try DW2 for a month and I was very pleasantly surprised, and as you 
can no doubt gather, I'm a real fan of Dreamweaver and it's partner in 
crime, Fireworks.

Hope this helps you.

Cheers,
Mike Kear
AFP Web Development
Windsor, NSW, Australia
http://www.afp.zip.com.au



>From: "Rossi Designs" <webmaster(at)rossidesigns.net>
>Reply-To: "Rossi Designs" <webmaster(at)rossidesigns.net>
>To: "Michael Channing Wilson" <mwilson(at)sigmapath.com>
>CC: "Brian V Bonini" <brian(at)livenet.net>,        "HWG Techniques" 
><hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org>
>Subject: Re: Another Dreamweaver/Homesite Question
>Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 01:10:21 -0500
>
>Haven't used it before and was wondering if would butcher the code like 
>some
>other wysiwyg editors
>
>Rossi Designs
>(904) 226-8979
>P.O. Box 1084, Holly Hill, Florida 32125-1084
>http://rossidesigns.net
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Michael Channing Wilson <mwilson(at)sigmapath.com>
>To: Rossi Designs <webmaster(at)rossidesigns.net>
>Cc: Brian V Bonini <brian(at)livenet.net>; HWG Techniques
><hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2000 12:29 AM
>Subject: Re: Another Dreamweaver/Homesite Question
>
>
>| hi,
>|
>| In what context? I mean it doesn't do anything with it as far as changes
>| are concerned. It leaves it exactly as entered and even displays a nice
>| little PHP tag icon in visual mode to indicate the presence of the PHP
>| code. It treats it as server markup.
>|
>| later,
>|
>| X
>|
>
>

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