Webstyle 4 & HTML Editors (Web Page Duplication)

[hockeysmart]

Good morning!

I'm new to this forum and I would like to get your input (advice) about Webstyle 4 and HTML editors. I recently purchased Webstyle 4 as my web design software and I really like it. I think it is a great addition to every web designer's toolset. However, I've tried creating multiple pages (using same layout theme) and I can't do it without repeatedly creating a new project for each page. I use both Dreamweaver and Frontpage (and I have tried in simple Notepad) but Webstyle4 wants me to create a new project for each web page. Now...this isn't a problem if your building a basic, small web site for a client, but it is a BIG problem when your designing and building a larger website. Even 50 pages creates 50 _html project sub-directories on the server.

While I understand why XARA built the software in this fashion (to keep track of components, graphics, etc.), I think it will restrict them from selling this product to designers building larger sites. I can't think of any designer that wants to have 50 plus sub-directories (_html project=50 web pages) loaded on their server with duplicate headings, borders, graphics, components, etc.

Does anyone know if XARA is working on (or completed) a process or algorithym to allow designers to replicate (duplicate) web pages without creating a NEW project for EACH page? An example of this would be....In Frontpage, you just open a current page, make your content edits (graphics, text, etc.) and use the SAVE AS command and your done. Duplicative pages, different names.

How do we push a request to XARA to change the current process, produce a patch, a fix, etc.....something!

Xara!!!! Please help! Creating a seperate sub-directory (_html project) for each page, seems like a waste of resource.

Is there anybody that knows of a work-around to this issue? I can't seem to find the answer.

Can you imagine a web server with over 200 sub-directories with the same duplicate theme files in each folder, just because you can't edit or duplicate a page without creating unecessary sub-folders? What a waste!

Help!

Thanks,
hockeysmart

P.S. I like the product, I just think the file handling could have been thought out a bit better. Please don't tell me to use a different product.

[hockeysmart]

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

[hockeysmart]

I have sent this issue to Xara to get their perspective and to see if they are planning implementation of an algorithym to allow for this in future builds.

In the meantime, if you have an idea how to accomplish this task, please post here.

I will post the results from the Xara team.

Thanks!

[hockeysmart]

I received this email from Xara Customer Support...No fix or incorporation into Webstyle product yet, but being considered. This is GREAT news!

"Multi page support for exported templates is something which is likely to be considered within future versions of Webstyle 4"

Many thanks
Customer Support

[hockeysmart]

FYI....

EMAIL REPLY RECEIVED FROM.....Xara Customer Support.

"I can confirm that this requirement has previously been noted and will be discussed in line with future releases of Webstyle. The web page layout feature is a new feature introduced since version 4. Having conducted a recent survey of over 1000 webstyle users, it is apparant that the web page layouts are an important part of webstyle and this information will also be taken into consideration in line
with future versions".

Thank you for your continuous support!
Customer Support

Hockeysmart
(Ross)

[ogary]

Hello there... I also have Webstyle4 and use various components of it to enhance already existing sites I manage. Of all those sites only two of them have I done exclusively using Webstyle4. One I did about a year ago and the other one I did just last night. While working to design last night's site I was frustrated when I encountered the same problem you're describing and couldn't believe the answer was to do a separate project for each page/menu or submenu off of the navbar. I went back to look at the site I did a year ago and, aaaccckkk!!!, that's exactly how I had to do it! I have zillions of project folders inside that site, one per menu and submenu item.

That was NOT good news to me. So I spent the next several hours tinkering around and, somehow, was able to design a site using only one project folder. http://www.uscenvironmental.com

What I did was design the index.html page, the home page, and it of course created an index_files project. After that I just opened up the index page on Dreamweaver, saved it as the next item on the navbar and edited the text that needed editing on that page and uploaded that particular page. Did the same for all the other menu items in the navbar. It's working well and in my site there's only one project folder and then there are just one html page per item on the menu bar.

I hope this is what you were asking...

By the way, the only thing I don't like about the site now is the fact that I can't seem to "anchor" the navbar so the entire screen stops flashing as I navigate from one menu item to another... if you have thoughts on that I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

[SmackDaddy]

Any progress or work-arounds on this? This is one big issue keeping me from using Webstyle to create an entire site/template....images should be in the "images" folder, etc....not having seperate folders per page...ugh....

Please....anyone?!? (sorry for the noobie pleading first post...) http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[dcicia]

I may be missing something here because I just started using the demo, but it seemed easy enough to save a website project, then open that page in an html editor, edit the page content, and then save under a new file name. You can do this as many times as you want for as many pages as you need in your website, and they all reference just once project folder.

I did this and it worked fine.

[SmackDaddy]

Each theme has three or four page layouts and what you say is true if you always use one page layout for your entire site....otherwise the other page layouts create their own folders like the main page does....

Make sense?