Dreamweaver - Won't let me make changes

[Sage]

I was working on my website today, and made a few modifications to my template file. After doing so, I saved of course, then went to change my other files (that are based off of that template file). However, now I can't make any changes to any file in Code view, nor when using the code pane in Code/Design view. It will allow me to do it via the WYSIWYG interface, but I have to do everything through that, including assigning a class to something. If I edit through code view, then save, I get a notice saying something like, "Making this change would require changing code that is locked by a template or translator. The change will be discarded".

This is really frustrating, because I don't like the way DW handles some things, and I'm in a situation where I need to place on image on a page without paragraph tags around it, but DW won't let me do that.

BTW, this has never happened to me before (and I've been using the same template for almost a year now), and I did not change the EditableContent tags in my template page.

Any ideas, other than re-building a new template page from scratch?

 

[Super-Supra]

I would suggest e-mailing the Macromedia Support Team.

 

[Sage]

Weird.

I've pinpointed the problem, which is a line in the CSS that I use for the template:

position: relative;
top: -50px;

For some reason, that is the entire cause of the problem... when I removed it, DW would let me have free reign over everything once again. I really needed that particular property applied to one of my divisions, but oh well... I'll have to just workaround it somehow.

BTW, does anybody happen to know why that would screw DW up so badly?

 

[Super-Supra]

Do you have Dreamweaver MX, or Dreamweaver MX 2004?

My suggestion is you download the trial, and work with that. See if there's a difference.

That's what I just did with my Flash MX to the Flash MX 2004 Trial.

2004's are alot and I mean ALOT better.

 

[ALPHA]

I find Dreamweaver quite frustrating sometimes. AsIi am a code newbie I like the WYSIWYG interface because you can do everything with ease but usually tables get screwed up and dreamweaver thinks my code is wrong and changes it to how it likes it and turns everything upside down but anyway I have come to love the code view and I finally conclude that the best program for making websites is notpad because you have so much more flexibility because it is so simple, although you need lots of coding knowledge so you don't have to go and turn to books for reference.

Oh well good on you Sage for getting it to work!

 

[KosmikFool]

Exactly the reason I work in Code. And in Frontpage...don't laugh! It works and is a bit "newbie" friendly. I have Dreamweaver but it can be a ***** at times.

 

[toyomatt84]

I know that this might be the wrong place to ask this, but I am needing to learn how to make a webpage, or atleast update one, with Dreamweaver. If anyone has a tutorial on how to work it, please make a tutorial thread and PM me. I would greatly appreciate it.

Toyo

 

[Sage]

You bought it, right? If so, the ugly orange handbook has many great tutorials on how to use DW. Also, it helps to actually know HTML and CSS, because DW likes to make things all bloaty and fatty with unnecessary code.

 

[Acid X]

Originally posted by ALPHA
I find Dreamweaver quite frustrating sometimes. AsIi am a code newbie I like the WYSIWYG interface because you can do everything with ease but usually tables get screwed up and dreamweaver thinks my code is wrong and changes it to how it likes it and turns everything upside down but anyway I have come to love the code view and I finally conclude that the best program for making websites is notpad because you have so much more flexibility because it is so simple, although you need lots of coding knowledge so you don't have to go and turn to books for reference.

Oh well good on you Sage for getting it to work!

I agree. Plain text editors are the best for making websites. I have been working with notepad/wordpad to make websites ever since i started making websites (about 3-4 years or so.)

Let's just say i know my stuff when it comes to HTML. I haven't really tried to learn much about DIV's or CSS because i've found tables to be quite effective at times, even if it is alot of code to edit. It gives me something to do when i'm bored. Spend countless hours on a website.. Fun. Anyway, i've ventured into and out of many different scripting languages also. I've tried learning Perl, but decided to stop. I then tried my hand at javascript, which i know a TINY (note: very tiny) amount of, and i have also ventured far into the depths of PHP, which i am (or atleast was) good at (i took a break from website designing for a while.. it'll take a bit for me to remember all the var's, commands, etc... x.x)..

Anyway, notepad and wordpad rock.

EDIT: And on a side note, i don't believe in formatting. It just makes things easier for little noobs to steal my code and all my hard work. The only formatting i need is the way i build the page, because then only i know what's what.

 

[Sage]

Well, even with that little glitch I had with DW (how many months ago?), it's still awesome... and the coding view kicks butt, because of their customizable color-coding and code-complete thing (I don't know what it's actually called, but whenever you start typing up a tag, it'll pop up a list of what it thinks you want to type, and you hit return to complete it.

BTW, you really, really should learn CSS (don't mind DW's handling of divisions... it's crap). While using tables for design it technically standards-compliant in XHTML 1.0 transitional, table based design really is (finally) starting to die, and for good reason.

Check your PM inbox in a couple minutes.

 

[Super-Supra]

So your saying, tables are yesterday?

 

[Sage]

They're still useful and used by almost every single large site on the face of this Earth (with a few notable [wonderful!] exceptions, such as the Sprint PCS website, bless their hearts), but I can guarantee you – guarantee you – that tables will go down the gutter as a design tool within 5 years, and hopefully sooner. Using tables to actually hold tabular data is perfectly fine (like, if you have to list out some settings for a car, or maybe if you're doing a catalog), but using tables for structuring a web page is frowned upon now. They're inflexible, more difficult to work with than simple CSS divisions, require the integration of markup and styling (which, for reasons I don't feel like talking about right now, is weeely weeeely bad), CSS allows a complete website to be completely changed by just changing the one style sheet (including the structure), code is much more compact, etc. etc.

To see the best example of how CSS makes it possible to entirely change a website by itself, just take a look at the CSS Zen Garden... click on the links on the right side to switch through different style sheets. If you look through the HTML, it is always exactly the same... all they're doing is changing that one CSS, and the whole website changes. Brilliant. And notice how they can not only change the design, but also the structure. Double brilliant.

 

[Acid X]

Hey sage, are you going to check your pm's anytime soon?

 

[Sage]

Sorry, it took a long time to type up. (My fingers hurt now...)

 

[Acid X]

Haha, it's okay.