13 Replies Latest reply: Apr 1, 2011 12:47 PM by Nancy O. RSS

    Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?

    Arbor Vitie Community Member

      I apologize if this has been answered. The forum search isn't working for me.

       

      I just moved a large, well organized site (3000 pages) from Golive to Dreamweaver. I went through some quick start tutorials at VTC.

       

      A very helpful feature of Golive was "Collections" that would allow you to identify shortcuts to often used folders or files, and to group them in useful ways.

       

      Is there anything similar in Dreamweaver CS5?

       

      I notice there is no way to add folders or files to "favorites."

       

      Help would be appreciated.

        • 1. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
          Nancy O. CommunityMVP

          No.

           

          I keep shortcuts to frequently used folders on my computer's desktop.  "Favorites" are stored in my Browser.

           

          The Local Files Panel in DW is an exact copy of your Remote site folder.  If you add folders and move pages around in DW, it will ask you if it should update links.  To maintain your site's integrity, hit yes.

           

           

          Nancy O.
          Alt-Web Design & Publishing
          Web | Graphics | Print | Media  Specialists 
          http://alt-web.com/
          http://twitter.com/altweb

          • 2. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
            John Waller CommunityMVP

            A very helpful feature of Golive was "Collections" that would allow you to identify shortcuts to often used folders or files, and to group them in useful ways.

             

            Is there anything similar in Dreamweaver CS5?


            The closest is the Assets panel but that's more for managing page components (e.g. images, scripts) rather than files.

             

            How have you been using the Collections feature?

             

            There may be different ways of achieving a similar or better workflow in DW.

            • 3. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
              Arbor Vitie Community Member

              John Waller wrote:

               

              How have you been using the Collections feature?

               

              There may be different ways of achieving a similar or better workflow in DW.

               

              Thanks, all.

               

              - new sections being worked on would be in a collection

              - pages that needed frequent updating, represented in daily, weekly, and monthly collections

              - Style folder (for css documents) and Scripts folder in collections.

              - documents that often went together in the workflow, but not necessarily in the site structure

               

              I'm at a loss how to use the Files window in any effective way with more than a few files and folders.

               

              Scrolling and scrolling in the Files window every time you need a file doesn't seem efficient, so how do you all do it?

               

              Does Bridge work in Dreamweaver?

              • 4. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
                John Waller CommunityMVP

                Can't say I've ever worked in such a structured way.

                 

                I often use the Recent Files feature in DW.

                 

                - pages that needed frequent updating, represented in daily, weekly, and monthly collections

                 

                What kinds of frequent updating do you do? Are they all static pages?

                 

                Are you making use of dyamic pages and Server Side Includes?

                 

                I also use the Related Files feature in CS5.

                • 5. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
                  Arbor Vitie Community Member

                  Nancy O. wrote:

                   

                  I keep shortcuts to frequently used folders on my computer's desktop.  "Favorites" are stored in my Browser.

                   

                   

                  Thanks.

                   

                  Nancy, what do you mean "Favorites" stored in your browser?

                  • 6. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
                    Arbor Vitie Community Member

                    John Waller wrote:

                     

                    Can't say I've ever worked in such a structured way.

                     

                    I often use the Recent Files feature in DW.

                     

                    - pages that needed frequent updating, represented in daily, weekly, and monthly collections

                     

                    What kinds of frequent updating do you do? Are they all static pages?

                     

                    Are you making use of dyamic pages and Server Side Includes?

                     

                    I also use the Related Files feature in CS5.

                    It's an old site with a structure put in place in the '90s. No kidding.

                     

                    I think most people work on several sites with a handful of static pages and a lot of dynamic pages.

                     

                    I work on one site with lots of static pages.

                    • 7. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
                      Nancy O. CommunityMVP

                      3,000 static pages?????  OMG!

                      Time to rebuild your site dynamically.... have you considered using WordPress as a site framework?

                       

                       

                      Nancy O.
                      Alt-Web Design & Publishing
                      Web | Graphics | Print | Media  Specialists 
                      http://alt-web.com/
                      http://twitter.com/altweb

                      • 8. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
                        Arbor Vitie Community Member

                        It took decades and several webmasters to build those pages. The urls need to stay as is for the benefit of people who have linked to them.

                         

                        But that's beside the point.

                         

                        How do you store favorites in your browner?

                         

                        Nancy O. wrote:

                         

                        "Favorites" are stored in my Browser."

                         

                        • 9. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
                          Nancy O. CommunityMVP

                          How do you store favorites in your browser?

                           

                          File > Open File > Browse to the file on your hard drive.

                          Add to Favorites/Bookmarks folders.

                           

                          It took decades and several webmasters to build those pages. The urls need to stay as is for the benefit of people who have linked to them. 

                           

                          I'm sorry but that's absurd.  You can use a 301 re-direct to bring people to new site pages.  Major web sites do this all the time.

                          http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

                           

                          IMO there is nothing to be gained from clinging to out-dated methods to support  what amounts to be a white elephant.  I won't even ask how your site performs on Smartphones and web accessibility tests.  It's a forgone conclusion that a site built in the 90's isn't living up to modern web standards.  And maintaining 3,000 static pages is a living nightmare for anyone.

                           

                          I don't think DW or any other tool will make this transition palatable for you.  You'll need to step away from your comfort zone and embrace server-side technologies (PHP/MySql) to take your site to its next level.

                           

                          I again suggest a look at WordPress.

                          http://wordpress.org/

                           

                          Or Drupal

                          http://drupal.org/

                           

                           

                          Best wishes,

                           

                          Nancy O.
                          Alt-Web Design & Publishing
                          Web | Graphics | Print | Media  Specialists 
                          http://alt-web.com/
                          http://twitter.com/altweb

                          • 10. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
                            Arbor Vitie Community Member

                            Nancy,

                             

                            Thanks for the clarification. I call Safari and Firefox browsers. It sounded like you might have some interesting way of using a browser that I wasn't familiar with.

                             

                            As to the rest, do you do this full time? I don't. It is a huge piece of "stepping out of my comfort zone" and time to switch from Golive to Dreamweaver.

                             

                            Working on this is only one part of a very busy, long day. Since this is a Dreamweaver forum, it seems appropriate to ask Dreamweaver questions, no?

                             

                            That said, if you know of some semi-automatic tool that can manage all the redirects and reformatting for each page, I'd be interested in looking into it.

                            • 11. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
                              Nini Tjäder Community Member

                              I don't think DW users know what Collections in GoLive were/are or how they could be used.

                              So I am citing the Helpfiles for GoLive 9:

                               

                              "Collections
                              A collection is a custom set of files that you select. For example, you can collect groups of files that you use frequently in a site. You can perform various file-management tasks on the files in a collection, such as deleting or duplicating one or more files. Because you can select all of the files in a collection by selecting the collection, you can perform these tasks quickly.
                              You can define a static collection by dragging files from the Assets area of the site window to the Collections area or by using one of GoLive’s predefined collections.
                              Files in collections are bound to their originals in the Assets list. If you delete a file in a collection, GoLive asks if you want to delete the collection file, or the collection file and the original."

                               

                              Has nothing to do with bookmarks or the like. It was much smarter than that.

                              • 12. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
                                Arbor Vitie Community Member

                                That's what I'm talking about. Thank you, Nini Tjäder.

                                 

                                Even something simpler would be helpful like saved sets in BBEdit's multifile Grep searches.

                                 

                                The thing is, it would seem Dreamweaver would allow something like that, but that I'm just not seeing it because I'm not used to working in Dreamweaver.

                                • 13. Re: Is there a Dreamweaver feature similar to Golive Collections?
                                  Nancy O. CommunityMVP

                                  I think GL used some sort of internal database for this which DW doesn't have.   Macromedia built DW and Adobe built GL.  When Adobe acquired DW, they didn't change its core and they abandoned GL.  As such there are some features in GL that have no counterpart in DW.

                                   

                                   

                                   

                                  Good luck,

                                   

                                  Nancy O.
                                  Alt-Web Design & Publishing
                                  Web | Graphics | Print | Media  Specialists 
                                  http://alt-web.com/
                                  http://twitter.com/altweb