Dreamweaver Problems

"Makes me want to go back to handcoding again"

Maybe you should...

Serious: I've had your problem too. Since the first version of dreamweaver there always were positioning problems. DW is a good example of a real What You See Is What You Don't Get editor...

So I returned to HomeSite after using Dreamweaver for about 1 month. I only use DW for Mousover/Preload Images.
Maybe typing all the code costs some time, but if you do you are sure that e v e r y t h i n g is positioned the way you want it. And if not, well then it's just your own fault, so then you can blame only yourself instead of getting frustrated by DW like I did.

Ciao,

I like to use dreamweaver for preliminary design work - just getting things roughly into the right position before going into homesite and hand-coding the rest.

Homesite, and many other code editors have wonderful keyboard shortcuts for common tags. So all I have to do is press control-D for example to get 's. Makes things go much faster.

I only use DW and I've never had any problems with it either crashing or with layout/positioning problems.

Do you save as you go? (I'm guilty of not doing this)

I only use Editpad as a text editor, mainly because i can have over 500 pages open in it at once and with the search and replace its so quick, DW and FP and others always need to be fixed after you've finished using the editor. anyways, another little program i use from time to time is called "typeitin", its a macro tool display thingy, it sits anywhere on your desktop and when you want a tag, a sentence, a name, a code .... you press the button on the list and it appears on your site, I've used it to create complete web sites, only having to change the center graphic name and width/height.
its freeware, but there is also a shareware pro version if you need more
http://www.wavget.com/typeitin.html

Thanks for the link busy. I will check that out.

Yes I am very guilty of not saving...HAHA!! But I have improved my habits a little since losing a ton of info. I am beginning to think that maybe my problem is my computer. It has been acting weird the past few days. I am also not up to par on all of Dreamweavers "how to's" either. I think I may have tried to get it to do something that it just absolutely refused to do and it just grunted a little and said, "NOT".

DM

I also use dreamweaver, never had layout problems, but it does occasionally crash on me, mostly it's my fault.

When using Tables in DW they can sometimes go very wrong, but this is normally because of the width's of the TD's.

Probably doesn't help, but maybe

Now that I think back, that is exactly what I was doing when I had problems. I was trying to change the width of the td's. It gave me an error message and then just froze up.

Thanks for the input. At least I know now that it isn't just me.

DM

Glad I could help.

to avoid table from overlapping each other, after you create the page (with many tables), you have to "fix" the page by doing these:
choose "MODIFY" from the main menu then choose
"CONVERT" , then "TABLES to LAYERS", then SAVE.

this is what i do even time i am done working on a page.

im also new in using DW, about 3 mons yet. but at least, my husband is patient in teaching me how to work with this.

Firstly welcome aboard McPhilly and leah.

I wouldn't use the convert tables to layers, as layers aren't very browser compatible and they are likely to show up some unusual positioning which can ruin a good design. I always design with tables and stick to tables, using pixel widths to create a static layout if needs be, or percentages if stretch to fit is ok.

Thankyou for the welcome aboard

And ditto to what you said, why would you want to turn tables to layers ?
Tables are the best part of a site

I also had this problem with dw since 1.0

I finally (After many frustrating layouts were lost, narrowed it down to a percentage call in Photoshop. The error is actually in Photoshop, not dw (From my research into this)

Those that are having the problem try this

Check to see if you have photoshop open at the same time you experience the crash.

If you do then more than likely you have a win9x kernel, and it doesnt happen consistently.

Because I build many computers, and am a beta tester for Microsoft, I am always trying new operating systems, dual booting machines, etc, in other words I have tried this with many software configurations and hardware. The condition lightened with the release of rc1 of win2k prof. Win2k server responded the same, better environment for the two apps (DW,PS)

With winxp this condition is all but gone in dw, but photoshop has a nasty little loop routine it can get stuck in. While editing layer properties, especially the color overlay, the help menu webpage will popup for ps, and continue to open and open and open. Sometims it is just a couple times it will open the browser, but other times it will be stuck in a loop.

I tried with this post to show the changing charachteristics of the bugs between dw and ps and how they interact with each other.

K

Tabling in DW

Tables are what I love about DW

Here are a few tips.

When you are slicing out of photoshop and want to use the power of tabling in dw but are getting stuck with those images keep these things in mind.

You can open a new window and copy the nested table you are working on into another document. Then you can edit the table(s) in a clear area. Fix what you want to fix, then paste the table back in. Now the new window will show the images as broke but when they are placed back into the original document they will show up again (Pathing working there)

When working in tables I try to keep my screen resolution at at least 1280by1024, this allows some tables to shrink down to image thicknesses if I have missed something when someone views it in a lower res, sometimes a very complex table sliced layout I will raise that but it isnt the norm.

If you have mutiple columns, and a small image in one column, the other columns will not shrink unless they have the same heighth of images in them, or another image at all.

If you are getting ready to start a slice out with a lot of images (Small ones) It can help to make your cell space 5, when you know you have all the images in the right place you can then drop that cell space to zero cinching everything up.

If you have a table that is being stubborn there are two buttons on the properties window that can help you get back into order. They are clear row heighths, and clear column widths. This will make the table shrink to its smallest possible size.

Just a few I could think of off the top.

K