[thelist] Dreamweaver bitchfest

[Bob Haroche]

Hi Nicole,

> 1. everything's been done with absolute positioning, using div tags. That
> means the order in which things appear in the page no longer matters,
giving
> me a hard time in identifying what is what.

Click on the layer in the layer palette, or the <div> tag in the status bar,
and that will highlight the corresponding code in the source code view.

> 4. Why does the Dreamweaver/Fireworks combination sometimes use absolute
> positioning and sometimes tables for positioning ?

DW defaults to AP when working with layers. That's the nature of the
program. As for layers v. tables, that's a choice the designer makes not the
software -- unless the designer is working in the layout view (new to v. 4,
and not a nice feature IMO).

> I've got a layer that is
> absolutely positioned, but inside the layer is a table to position the
> content.

Yeah, a common hack done by the designer to work with the software's
preference for absolute over relative positioning.

> 2. Code bloat, there's a lot of code that is not necessary in there.

Other than JS, I don't find DW bloats my code too much -- but I see it as
the original designer's obligation to remove any bloat before deployment in
any event.

> 3. I have to edit the files to put the images in another directory, and
I'm
> stuck having to manually edit all those paths,

Unless you're talking about src paths specified in custom, non-DW
javascript, the program should keep track of and re-write paths when you
move images around in the site manager window. Check your preferences on
this so that you don't have to manually edit paths.

--------

I don't mean to sound like a DW apologist, but *for a wyswig* it's a pretty
good program. Sometimes it's just a matter of taking a few minutes to learn
the methodology of the software -- any software -- to effectively use it, or
as in your case, clean up after it.



Regards,
Bob Haroche
O n P o i n t  S o l u t i o n s
http://www.OnPointSolutions.com