Dreamweaver

[Helle]

How on earth do I make a HTML webpage editble into Dreamweaver. It's all caos when I open it in Dreamweaver? Is it not possible to export into default HTML and not DIV - please

regards Helle

[handrawn]

if you mean an HTML page created by Xara program - its not intended that you do

[Helle]

hmm - it's VERY annoying that all these DIV can't be changed. Furthermore each and every text line is set as a SPAN - instead of a hole paragraph being treated as one?

please XARA programmers - could you please change that for the next update. More control of what and how to export...

Helle :-(

[handrawn]

I am no expert in HTML

but I know that the xara programs are not HTML editors - the code is not designed to be edited, but to be regenerated each time by the xara program

thats how it is

possibly a more precise explanation may follow

[steve.ledger]

Hi Helle,

As Steve mentioned, Xara isn't a HTML editor - it simply exports your page layout to HTML - a 'html generator' if you like. There is no internal HTML to edit.

However, you can use special names to affect how certain page elements are exported;

Please see this thread. Take note of item: 5
► http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=45105

[pauland]

hmm - it's VERY annoying that all these DIV can't be changed. Furthermore each and every text line is set as a SPAN - instead of a hole paragraph being treated as one?

please XARA programmers - could you please change that for the next update. More control of what and how to export...

Helle :-(

Highly unlikely that it will change. There's a reason why you are building the website using Xara software - it's easy to do. Xara generates standard HTML - divs are part of that standard and both div and span are commonly used even by people making sites using dreamweaver.

The WYSIWYG nature of Xara means it generates HTML that is quite differrent to that that would be produced through hand-coding HTML. It is not designed to be re-edited and it's as it is to enable WYSIWYG design that makes website generation easy for designers without needing to how HTML works.

Don't expect a change anytime soon.

[Albacore]

I don't wan't to sound rude here but why would you want to use Dreamweaver after using Xara. I thought the first few times after using WD to add more info for SOE's but I soon gave up that idea and just did it in Xara.

[gwpriester]

I have always felt that Dreamweaver is overkill unless you are a professional website designer and need a lot of heavy duty website creation power. There is no question Dreamweaver is the industry powerhouse. But that power comes at a price. It is a very difficult program to learn and use.

Xara in their implementation of Web Designer and Designer Pro 6, have made simplicity their main goal. Editing the HTML file does not make sense because every time you republish your document, any changes are lost. Unless you add them via a placeholder. And Xara used DIV and SPAN tags to precisely position your content.

But simplicity does not mean dull. I think there are things I can do in XWD and XDP that would be difficult or almost impossible to do in Dreamweaver without a lot of steps. And Xara can do these things very easily.

XWD and XDP are more about a simpler yet powerful way to create a sophisticated and attractive small to mid-size, websites.

Work with Xara for a while and forget about editing the HTML. Just design your site the way you want it to be and let Xara do the scripting.

[Cloud]

I agree there Gary!

You don't need to know all the code that goes into something like photoshop or illustrator, you just get on and design. The same should apply to web design. I for one am enjoying XWD and think the guys behind xara are geniuses. like the man said. "don't worry about (insert problem), let me worry about (insert problem)" just use it and enjoy it and let it evolve.

Kash