Working with Templates...in Dreamweaver? ? ?

How difficult is it to work with Templates Using Dreamweaver cs4?

Rather than creating websites from scratch...wouldn't it be easier to just use templates?

Does anyone know of a Visual Tutorial Site that will show you how to manipulate and work with existing Templates in Dreamweaver?

 

Unless how dreamweaver has changed then how they do templates is very crude. You are better off using MasterPages (.net) or includes (php) for a standard site or switch to using a CMS

 

What CMS do you recommend?

Are you saying that a program like Drupal is Better than Dreamweaver?

~AC

 

i find styling joomla templates very straight forward - you dont need dreamweaver just position everything with css

 

thanks Scuba...but from everything i've read on joomla...its basically overpriced for the commercial modules....and other programs seem to be higher rated.

I realize that everyone has their preferences...and the below link may not apply...but's interesting to get a review from a third party.

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/01/how-to-choose-the-right-cms/

~AC

 

I would more say that they are for different things. If you are wanting a fairly straight forward site or one with "off the shelf" functionality then a CMS is potentially a good solution especially if it is for someone who is not overly web savvy or doesn't have an interest in playing with CSS etc.

Obviously if you want to build custom functionality you cannot do it directly in a CMS and then you need an external application to write the code in (not that I would recommend dreamweaver for this either to be honest).

We would generally use Umbraco as the basis of a CMS but then we develop in .Net rather than PHP

 

Thanks Astra...i'm a beginner with PHP and learning more everyday.

In what situations would you NOT RECOMMEND Drupal?

 

We would never recommend Drupal as we don't use PHP

There is always a risk of using any off the shelf system, particularly an open source one, on security. Likewise a CMS creates an additional load on a server. The benefits are that none techs can use it to maintain a site and that there are many off the shelf elements you can use.

For the average site neither the security nor load are going to make a very big difference in real terms. Obviously when your starting to look at much larger sites (as in visitor volumes) or ones holding more sensitive data then these things start playing more of an important consideration.

 

Any particular Reason you guys don't use PHP?

 

Drupal is not easy for beginners because their template system is hard to learn.But using templates in Dreamsweaver is easy and just you need to know some basics of using Dreamweaver.

 

I wont get into the PHP -v- ASP/.Net discussion as there are enough threads on that already.

As back in the 90s I learned what is now Classic ASP I naturally moved on to .Net. As a project manager it is generally easier to manage those doing something you understand than something that you don't know as much about (not that I am anyway a true programmer unlike our guys)

 

Gotcha....thanks Big Dawg!

 

So you say that Dreamweaver Templates are easy...?

Can you point me in the Right Direction to learn how to use Templates with Dreamweaver?

thaks very much!