Can't use DW WYSIWYG with php?

Report · Feb 20, 2010

Hi,

I'm a graphic designer who has used Dreamweaver for years to design HTML and CSS. I am comfortable jumping back and forth between code and design views to manipulate the code as needed.

I have a new co-collaborator on a project who is extremely knowledgeable about backend/programming stuff (I'm not) and he cut up my original HTML files and turned them into .php files. For efficiency, he is using include files all over the place, which I can totally understand.

However, as I'm way more comfortable designing visually, with the awesome help of DW CS4's interface and code navigator, I feel like I'm floundering trying to manipulate the design now that I'm working with the includes.

I successfully installed XAMPP and am able to view the "complete" web page design using //localhost, or if I'm using "Live View," however, that's the only way to see it all come together. Also, I am now unable to use the code navigator to jump right to the CSS for any given item. Basically, I feel like everything has to be hand coded and previewed in the browser for every single change.

Am I missing something here? Now that all the files are set up as .php, can I no longer use the WYSIWYG features of DW???

Someone pleeeeeease tell me I just need to set some sort of preference. I really need to be able to work these pages as if they are just HTML, with full DW interface "hand-holding" so to speak.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

-Karen

Report · Feb 21, 2010

kar13 wrote:
Now that all the files are set up as .php, can I no longer use the WYSIWYG features of DW???

It depends what you mean by the files being PHP. If the include files consist of HTML, you can certainly edit them, but not in the main file. You need to edit the include file. You cannot edit anything that is dynamically generated by PHP code in a WYSIWYG way.

One way to deal with CSS in include files is to use Design Time Style Sheets (press F1 to look them up in the Help files).