I did some more messing around with the site this morning and I think I finally got a handle on using MT and updating my files. I did some more tweaking to the sidebar and to my files and everything is working out quite nicely. I have to update three more archive files though.
I've done most of my editing using a combination of programs. I mostly use Dreamweaver but you can't get a real sense of the layout using design view in Dreamweaver so messing around with the css file doesn't help me much there. The MT tags confuse Dreamweaver but I certainly don't want to touch those unless I have to at this point. Dreamweaver does some things really well though, especially synchronizing my files to the server. The one thing I recently discovered about Dreamweaver though is that creating library items to help keep things consistent is really a time saver. This is about the only Dreamweaver specific code I don't mind having in my files. Since I want to make sure my sidebars stay the same throughout the site I think I'm going to spend some time setting that up using Dreamweaver today.
I did most of my css testing using Firefox. I used the live html page and opened up the "edit css" box from the web developer toolbar. From there I was able to mess around with my css file while not having to worry about Dreamweaver's design view mess. I can also save the file through Firefox and Dreamweaver will update it automatically when I come back to the program.
Then when I wanted to ftp files directly to the server I used Core FTP Lite. I might also have the FireFTP Firefox extension downloaded but either one works for a quick ftp. Dreamweaver works fine if you're messing with files that are already there, but it's not too intuitive if you're trying to add files that don't exist yet. I find it easier to add them and then start messing around with them in Dreamweaver.
I think I'm going to take a break and go workout now though. I do have the day off which is quite nice, I think I may be able to finish most of the legwork on my new site today.
I've done most of my editing using a combination of programs. I mostly use Dreamweaver but you can't get a real sense of the layout using design view in Dreamweaver so messing around with the css file doesn't help me much there. The MT tags confuse Dreamweaver but I certainly don't want to touch those unless I have to at this point. Dreamweaver does some things really well though, especially synchronizing my files to the server. The one thing I recently discovered about Dreamweaver though is that creating library items to help keep things consistent is really a time saver. This is about the only Dreamweaver specific code I don't mind having in my files. Since I want to make sure my sidebars stay the same throughout the site I think I'm going to spend some time setting that up using Dreamweaver today.
I did most of my css testing using Firefox. I used the live html page and opened up the "edit css" box from the web developer toolbar. From there I was able to mess around with my css file while not having to worry about Dreamweaver's design view mess. I can also save the file through Firefox and Dreamweaver will update it automatically when I come back to the program.
Then when I wanted to ftp files directly to the server I used Core FTP Lite. I might also have the FireFTP Firefox extension downloaded but either one works for a quick ftp. Dreamweaver works fine if you're messing with files that are already there, but it's not too intuitive if you're trying to add files that don't exist yet. I find it easier to add them and then start messing around with them in Dreamweaver.
I think I'm going to take a break and go workout now though. I do have the day off which is quite nice, I think I may be able to finish most of the legwork on my new site today.
