CS3 site needs new Dreamweaver-Will it work?

[Janel N Jacobson]

Hi,
New computer, no old CS3 to use to update old CS3 designed web site.
If I add Dreamweaver in its current form to my Creative Cloud Apps, will I be able to use it to connect to and update the old web site? 
Does the new Dreamweaver use WYSIWYG divided interface with html, like the older version?

What other questions do I need to ask.  There is need to access and update the old site.
Thank you.  I remain hopeful.

[Ben M]

You cannot update CS3 anymore. That time is long gone. You can either subscribe to the creative cloud or consider alternatives like Wappler or Nova. There is no need to only have DW as templates are templates and if you are making simple edits even a plain text editor will do. More than likely if the site hasn't been touched since CS3 it is not mobile-friendly and is probably out of date so for anything more than simple edits you will probably want to look into a rebuild or using a CMS instead.

[Janel N Jacobson]

Thank you Ben M,

I realize that CS3 is dead and is not able to be updated. 

I am not broadly techy with all sorts of methods.  I do use Squarespace for two web sites, but the old site has a totally older kind of structure that I made decisions about one section at a time within the boundaries. 

(I am so far removed from active work on it I have even forgotten the vernacular to describe its form.)  I made dimension and column width decisions for it.  No preset template except that I used each new page from a preset page design of my making.  I agree, it is not mobile friendly.

Simple edits would be better than none for now.  It is an archive of my work since the mid 1990's.  Lots of pages.  It is a real drag to imagne re-creating it in a mobile friendly software form, but it is likely possible.  It has worked well for tablets and computers.  But if there is a day that even that version no longer works on the web ... I'll be stuck.

I use the Creative Cloud with Photoshop currently.  If the current Dreamweaver will work with the old framework structure of the site I would add it to my Creative Cloud grouping.  Then I could render the updates necessary at this time.  That would give me time to consider a total upgrade to a more modern format in the future.

[Jon Fritz]

The latest version has quite a few differences when compared to CS3. There are a bunch of features that have come and gone in the years between those two programs (like database connection scripts). The items that have been removed can still be edited in the latest version you just won't get the dialogue boxes for them like you had in the past.

Either way, the latest version won't "break" your existing HTML if you use it to make updates. If you have a full CC subscription, treat DW like a free download. You might as well add it to your system and see if it does the trick with a copy of your site.

If it does what you want, modify the original site.

[Janel N Jacobson]

Thank you Jon Fritz II for your reply.

I can imagine that there have been a huge number of changes.  I appreciate reading that the latest version will not 'break' the existing HTML when making updates.

It appears that I have a Photography Plan, with Photoshop and Lightroom.  I only use Photoshop for now.  What makes a "full CC" subscription?  Will pricing be modified if I already have this plan when adding Dreamweaver to the collection?

Thank you again for your information and encouragement.

Janel

[Jon Fritz]

The full plan includes 20+ CC apps (including PS, LR and DW) and services, runs about $55/month:

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html#cc-see-whats-included 

A single app subscription to DW is $21/month (bottom of this page: https://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.html)

[Nancy OShea]

CS3 is dead.  Even if you had installation disks, you can't use it.  The activation servers are long gone.

1. To connect to your remote server and transfer files, use any dedicated SFTP client. 

Free FileZilla is a good choice.

https://filezilla-project.org/download.php

2. Code is code.  Use any plain code editor to make changes to HTML, CSS and JS files.

CODE EDITORS:
-- Adobe Dreamweaver CC (visual code editor) - https://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.html
-- Codespaces (free, browser-based code editor) - https://github.com/features/codespaces
-- Nova (Mac only, plain code editor) - https://nova.app/
-- Pinegrow  (visual code editor) - https://pinegrow.com/
-- Sublime Text  (plain code editor)- http://www.sublimetext.com/
-- Visual Studio Code (free plain code editor) - https://code.visualstudio.com/
-- Wappler (visual web app builder)  - https://wappler.io/

CODE TUTORIALS:
- https://www.w3schools.com/html/
- https://www.w3schools.com/css/
- https://www.w3schools.com/js/

ONLINE SITE BUILDERS (no coding skills required):
-- Squarespace - https://www.squarespace.com/
-- Webflow - https://webflow.com
-- Wix - https://www.wix.com/
-- WordPress (open source) - https://wordpress.org/

Hope that helps.

[L e n a]

To complete all that has been said by folks so far, I would add that of course HTML remains HTML and no matter what version of DW is used. Be careful though because DW especially at the time of the CS proposed proprietary and/or obsolete compositions...

You mention that you don't use templates, so it's already a point, otherwise switching to a third party editor could cause you problems... but also the library elements... and as @Jon Fritz mentions the SB.. at least at the dialog box features, but also the PHP and the approach of using server side scripting.

Anyway, on the other hand not to omit, that in the same way, DW relied by the past (CS time) on the SPRY library which does not have court any more today, or Jquery mobile, or still a great number of widget used throught the widget adding features dialog manager

[Nancy OShea]

Given the advanced age and obsolescence of CS3, my fear is that the current site contains deprecated code & features that nobody should be using today.  For example, table-based layouts, Fireworks rollover-menus or worse, JAVA applets and Flash buttons. 😞

Anyway, the exent to which the current site can be salvaged will depend entirely on how it was built.  Without seeing it, we can only speculate  but my insticts tell me this will require a total rebuild.  The web has changed too much in 15 years.  Back in 2007 when CS3 came out, nobody knew what smartphones or tablets were, everyone had similar sized displays.  The one-size-fits-all web page is a thing of the past.

The good news is that Dreamweaver CC contains Bootstrap Starter Templates which can be used to quickly create a new site.

Step 1: Define your site. 

Go to Site > New Site.  Create a site folder for your project files.

Step 2: Create a new starter page. 

Go to File > New > Starter Templates > Bootstrap Templates.  Select a layout and hit CREATE button.

Step 3: Save.

Ctrl/Cmd + S as index.html

Viola!  A new site page and assets folders created by DW.  It doesn't get much easier than that.

[Janel N Jacobson]

Thank you Nancy OShea,

The old site:  https://janeljacobson.com/
Yes, I fear all of what you wrote about early sites, especially this one of mine having been created by a novice (me) who was learning by doing.

Your steps make starting a new template seem easy enough, though at this point I feel that I would need some hand-holding at first 😉 to be sure that I am on the correct path once the template is selected and saved.  I need to see what you have described so will start looking at tutorials. 

Deciding how to re-imagine a new presentation of all of the content will take some good thought.

A question, this old site is currently hosted adequately.  Would the new iteration need to be hosted elsewhere?  I am not hugely experienced with the greater world of internet relationships.  I just know what I have learned up to this point in time.  Besides, I am nearly 72.  (Roll eyes.)

Thank you for the encouragement.
Janel

[Ben M]

Unfortunately I think this may require a bit of work.  While at first it looked like your site was made using DW Templates, there was never actually a body area in your existing template. So if you try to update your template, the copy on all pages will revert to the original template and only the unique HTML Head and Doctitle will remain on all of your pages that have been created based on that template.  That is because editable regions allowed you to edit the content of each page, but in your case, this was only done for the HTML head and Doctitle areas.

Being that your site is comprised of a lot of image galleries and looking at the hosting you have, I would personally go towards a CMS in this instance like Wordpress with a gallery plugin, or even consider leaving your hosting for a solution like Wix with a gallery.  Either way it would be a decent amount of work to migrate content to the new site.