Can I turn Frontpage webs into Dreamweaver ones? - Macromedia Dreamweaver

Before doing anything else, take a couple of weeks to gothrough the DW
tutorials, and also to study HTML and CSS. The more you know about those,
the easier your transition will be. DW expects alot more from you than FP
did, and as a result, you may find it much more frustrating to have the raw
reality of web development staring you in the face rather than the wizards
of FP.

> Is there a way to convert a Frontpage site into a
> Dreamweaver site

1. I'd define a Dreamweaver site that points to a location on your hard
drive for the local site's root, and to the current FP site on the web as
the remote site
2. I'd use Dreamweaver (if your host supports FTP connections) to download
the remote site to the root of the site you just defined on the hard drive.
This will pick up all the pages *after* webbot action so that shared borders
and all are already present in the page HTML. This will also pick up all of
the server scripting. Note - in the event that you are not able to connect
using FTP since some FP hosts block that protocol, you will have to use a
third party 'site copier' like Black Widow, QuadSucker, or WebCopier, (or
even the DW extension called SiteAssist from WebAssist) to connect and
download using http protocols. Doing it this way will *not* retrieve any of
your server-script code, if any (unless you have used the WebAssist
extension).

3. I'd create a DW template for the pages, that captures the "shared
border"
effect you had in FP.
4. I'd copy and paste content from each FP pages to a new template child
page and then save the new child page with an easily identifiable
nomenclature that is distinct from what was used on the FP site (since you
are saving the new child pages into the same local site as the FP pages).
5. When the basic site is completed, I'd upload the new DW pages to some
staging area/webspace, and by using the browser, I'd verify that the site
(as it now exists remotely) is complete.
6. Then I'd create a *new* DW site in a new location on the hard drive, and
connect to and download all the files from the staging site.
7. You can now delete the original FP site from your local system if you
want.

You now have a complete site (minus any of the FP extension server-side
code) that has no FP footprint.

If you have used any FP server extension functions on the original FP site
(form processing, guestbooks, tables of contents, includes, etc.), you will
have to recreate those functions in DW using 3rd party scripts, or scripts
that you write yourself.


--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.projectseven.com/go - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
==================


"60251977" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:gbgjf9$hvc$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Hi all
>
> I've been designing a web on Frontpage 2002, but that program, although
> OKAY,
> is pretty lame. Is it at all possible to use the html from my Frontpage
> site,
> paste it into Dreamweaver (at which I am also a novice) and do fancy stuff
> with
> it using CSS? Are there any tutorials for this sort of thing?
> Thanks
>
>

Thanks, Murray, you're s star!
I'll have to print this off, though, it's a lot to take in.

My Frontpages docs are structured, as if the nature of the beast, using
tables. Is it fairly easy to get rid of the tables and use div tags instead?
Will this require going into design (or code) view and taking all the
text/images within these tables and manually copying them into the div tags I
create? Which sounds arduous, but not a problem as I'm quite a patient type!

Cheers

Don't fool yourself. The degree to which you will be successful with this
enterprise will depend directly on your skill level with HTML and CSS. If
that is minimal, then you will struggle with this conversion. And replacing
tables with divs would depend entirely on that skill level. There is no
easy button there, and you could well irreversibly wreck your layout trying.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.projectseven.com/go - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
==================


"60251977" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:gbgmdv$lk3$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Thanks, Murray, you're s star!
> I'll have to print this off, though, it's a lot to take in.
>
> My Frontpages docs are structured, as if the nature of the beast, using
> tables. Is it fairly easy to get rid of the tables and use div tags
> instead?
> Will this require going into design (or code) view and taking all the
> text/images within these tables and manually copying them into the div
> tags I
> create? Which sounds arduous, but not a problem as I'm quite a patient
> type!
>
> Cheers
>
>

Thanks, Murray, sounds like good advice.

Is it possible I could simply keep and use the existing tables/layouts I've
been using in Frontpage, and paste them into whatever div tag I've defined for,
say, main content. I could then apply styles & classes to the text and images
I've pasted into Dreamweaver, which would enable me to make any changes I want
in the future by simple changing the styles.classes I've created? Does this
make sense?

> Does this make sense?

Sorry, no.

You would experience no benefit from doing it this way, and only add
unnecessary code to the page.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.projectseven.com/go - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
==================


"60251977" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:gbgntj$nhd$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Thanks, Murray, sounds like good advice.
>
> Is it possible I could simply keep and use the existing tables/layouts
> I've
> been using in Frontpage, and paste them into whatever div tag I've defined
> for,
> say, main content. I could then apply styles & classes to the text and
> images
> I've pasted into Dreamweaver, which would enable me to make any changes I
> want
> in the future by simple changing the styles.classes I've created? Does
> this
> make sense?
>

OK. I'll have to learn html then!
Thanks for the advice. (I kinda figured you'd say my table scheme was
pointless, and I'm a bit glad you did.)

I've got the general idea of div tags and internal/external style sheets and
have mucked around with a fair amount of tutorials, so I'm pretty sure I can
get to grips with them.

It would seem my best bet, once I've gotten fully used to the concept of
html/css/div tags/style sheets etc, is to just build my DW pages from scratch
in Dreamweaver, and paste my text into the pages I create, and build the new
site that way. That way I don't have to worry about the way DW interprets the
stuff I did in FP, and I can avoid the excessive html codes FP comes up with. I
have the text itself in word documents, so that's just a cut and past job. It's
not a huge site, and I've got time on my hands.

Is this a bad idea?

Rebuild the site. Learning how to build with html and CSS-P instead of
tables will take some time of course, but you will learn so much about html,
CSS and DW that's it's well worth the effort. If you do it right, your end
product will be a much improved site without all the FP baggage. Hint: Get
yourself a good CSS template or template pack. I highly recommend Project
VII's products. http://www.projectseven.com/


my 2 cents

--Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
www.alt-web.com


"60251977" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:gbgntj$nhd$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Thanks, Murray, sounds like good advice.
>
> Is it possible I could simply keep and use the existing tables/layouts
I've
> been using in Frontpage, and paste them into whatever div tag I've defined
for,
> say, main content. I could then apply styles & classes to the text and
images
> I've pasted into Dreamweaver, which would enable me to make any changes I
want
> in the future by simple changing the styles.classes I've created? Does
this
> make sense?
>

> Is this a bad idea?

Not only is it not a bad idea, it's exactly the right thing to do.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.projectseven.com/go - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
==================


"60251977" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:gbgpq6$pq3$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> OK. I'll have to learn html then!
> Thanks for the advice. (I kinda figured you'd say my table scheme was
> pointless, and I'm a bit glad you did.)
>
> I've got the general idea of div tags and internal/external style sheets
> and
> have mucked around with a fair amount of tutorials, so I'm pretty sure I
> can
> get to grips with them.
>
> It would seem my best bet, once I've gotten fully used to the concept of
> html/css/div tags/style sheets etc, is to just build my DW pages from
> scratch
> in Dreamweaver, and paste my text into the pages I create, and build the
> new
> site that way. That way I don't have to worry about the way DW interprets
> the
> stuff I did in FP, and I can avoid the excessive html codes FP comes up
> with. I
> have the text itself in word documents, so that's just a cut and past job.
> It's
> not a huge site, and I've got time on my hands.
>
> Is this a bad idea?
>

Thanks

Will do!
:grin;