Importing Xara html index and pages into Dreamweaver

[markJ]

I don`t have netfusion or Dreamweaver,
but after learning Xara4 (excited about HTML OUTPUT)
I want to purchase dreamweaver can the
xara html pages be imported into dreamweaver with all links in place?

Mark.

[steve.ledger]

Why would you need to do this?

[stlewis]

Yes... you can edit the page with whatever tool you want - any text editor or wysiwyg tool.

Why would you want to do it? Unless you have a webpage which is very 'designed' and low on text, the way Xara exports the text is not really good - in these situations add placeholder text in Xtreme and then edit the text in a site builder tool. Another reason is that you may want to build a page template for use in Dreamweaver - rather than the pages indivudally in Xtreme.

[Tallis]

what is it that xara designed into 4.0 that makes the text of exported html not "good"?

[BobInce]

what is it that xara designed into 4.0 that makes the text of exported html not "good"?

Xtreme is a 2D static graphics editor. The web is not a 2D static graphics medium.

Xtreme does its best, and for pages that are high on graphics and low on text that can be good enough. But by necessity there are many features of the web that it simply cannot provide.

Talking specifically about the case of further editing in another application, probably the primary issue is that Xtreme positions every line (or sub-line) of text individually. This is understandable for a vector graphics application, but it makes edits affecting text length problematic.

[Daniel]

what is it that xara designed into 4.0 that makes the text of exported html not "good"?

It's not "good" for people like MarkyJ who hope to be able to edit the output that Xtreme creates in Dreamweaver. It *is* possible, but Xtreme can simply do things that HTML cannot, so there are fudges.

As a basic example, the attached .xar has just a column of right aligned text with a green ellipse repelling the text. HTML can't wrap text around a curved object (but you could easily have a right-aligned rectangular image with text flowing around it).

The 'fudge' to make the layout work sees Xtreme creating lots of what most people would know as 'text boxes' in Word. Each line of text is specifically placed in a place and at a size that Xtreme defines in order to make it look like it wraps around the ellipse. Since each line is like a text box though, you can't easily add a paragraph of text or delete half a dozen words without spoiling the layout. Also, if you try to copy the text from your browser, it doesn't behave in the same way as a straight forward paragraph would.

That's not to say Xtreme's export isn't good - it's just not designed to be used for things like this.

[gwpriester]

I think the reason for the questions is that Dreamweaver is the industry standard for web page authoring and editing. Being able to do some of the designing in Xara, where Xara is the best, and then bring the design into Dreamweaver to add features not found in Xara, makes a lot of sense. Especially if you are creating more than a small web site.

I tried to import a small Xtreme website into NetObjects Fusion 9, my web page editor, with no luck whatsoever. This has nothing to do with Xtreme, I have never been able to do this with any website, even though the documentation says you can. I asked Daniel Will Harris who is a NOF guru and he said he has never been able to make this work either. And my e-mail to NOF tech support on the subject has gone unanswered.

As we have often discussed in this conference, if you are a professional, you use the best tools for the job. And while I am personally thrilled at the HTML possibilities of Xtreme 4, I am going to continue to create my tutorials and large websites in NetObjects Fusion. It just has more power and more features and is designed specifically for creating large data-based websites. (The drawing tools are non-existent)

But if I find a way to design my pages in Xtreme and edit and build the site in NOF, I will do it for sure.

Gary

[remi]

what is it that xara designed into 4.0 that makes the text of exported html not "good"?

The problem is, there are tons of <span> tags in the generated HTML code, in order to let text flow around images. It's more a problem of the used export concept from Xara than the HTML limitations. (There is another approach available in order to let text flow around images and let the text be editable: Sliced and Diced Sandbags)

I've tried to discuss these problems in an earlier thread (unfortunately without success).

Remi

[amoore]

I tried to import a small Xtreme website into NetObjects Fusion 9, my web page editor, with no luck whatsoever. This has nothing to do with Xtreme, I have never been able to do this with any website,

It's because NOF doesn't edit code directly. It's actually a proprietary database from which the code is generated. In essence, importing a site would be like reverse engineering.

I have seen reports of people getting an individual page in, but the idea of importing a site into NOF has always struck me as the old square peg in a round hole idea. Like the HTML code view tab, I think they should remove the function and change the documentation.

[dogbertbh]

I think the reason for the questions is that Dreamweaver is the industry standard for web page authoring and editing. Being able to do some of the designing in Xara, where Xara is the best, and then bring the design into Dreamweaver to add features not found in Xara, makes a lot of sense. Especially if you are creating more than a small web site.

I tried to import a small Xtreme website into NetObjects Fusion 9, my web page editor, with no luck whatsoever. This has nothing to do with Xtreme, I have never been able to do this with any website, even though the documentation says you can. I asked Daniel Will Harris who is a NOF guru and he said he has never been able to make this work either. And my e-mail to NOF tech support on the subject has gone unanswered.

As we have often discussed in this conference, if you are a professional, you use the best tools for the job. And while I am personally thrilled at the HTML possibilities of Xtreme 4, I am going to continue to create my tutorials and large websites in NetObjects Fusion. It just has more power and more features and is designed specifically for creating large data-based websites. (The drawing tools are non-existent)

But if I find a way to design my pages in Xtreme and edit and build the site in NOF, I will do it for sure.

Gary

It's actually funny that the problem exists both ways. You can't import the site created by Xara into NOF and you couldn't design a site in NOF and then import it into Xara.

I have imported a Xara created site into Dreamweaver and it seemed to work ok. Dreamweaver puts little boxes around the images where the CSS tag is.