I am SO frustrated right now. I saw a video tutorial about web design and how
to touch up an old site where they jumped back and forth between Dreamweaver
and Firewoks, having created the basic layout in FW and then simply clicking
the Edit-button in DW to go back, make some quick changes and clicking Done and
everything was just heaven. Trying to do it myself, I just always end up
wanting to throw the computer through the window, constantly recieving useless
error messages that never tell me WHAT is wrong, just that something IS wrong,
forcing me to retrace my steps and often starting from scratch...

PLEASE tell me this is just me being stupid, because the workflow seems SO
amazing. But I just can't get the work to flow at all. I am starting a small
graphics design company and had high hopes for this mix of DW and FW, but I am
gun shy now, seeing how the tiniest mistake can cause a total disaster. Has
anyone else experienced my frustration? Are there some new miracles in CS4 that
will make my day? Is it really common practice to work like this?

Sorry if I come off a bit negative, but I am really frustrated about this...

I don't work like that no. But I have used the "edit in Fireworks" dialog that you speak of and it works pretty seamlessly for me. Did you install both Dreamweaver and Fireworks from the same suite?

It would be ful if you gave us the link to the tutorial giving you
the problem. Also knowing what error messages you are receiving and
specifically what problems you are having would be ful.

Aside from that, however, I only use round trip editing to fix images. I
do not use or rely on the html generated by Fireworks for actual web
pages, because the resulting pages are a very rigid table based design,
made completely of images.

I create my graphics in FW, do my web work in DW, much like Joey has
indicated.

CS4 has a new export feature called CSS and Images, but even with
that,it takes careful planning and you need to have a good understanding
of CSS in order to make adjustments within Drreamweaver.



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Thank you for your replies, Joey and Jim!

The tutorial is Lynda.com's "Extreme web site makeover", and it is really very
good and informative. I work the same way, but with varying results to say the
least:

1 - Creating the basic layout in PS, saving as .psd
2 - Opening the .psd in FW, slicing it up with the slice tool, and exporting
as either html or images. Saving layout as .png.
3 - Opening html in DW, saving as template file, from which I create multiple
page with CSS and main text, etc.

When I need to edit the original layout .png-file (perhaps adding a dropdown
menu), I click "edit" in DW, and then return to FW. Error messages range from
"the table structure is different" to "Internal error. Can't open file". I
guess I have somehow altered something (maybe by removing an image or
accidentally changing something in the table). I only whish FW could inform me
WHERE the problem is.

Would it be better to create only the dropdown menu in FW and inserting it
into the DW file? Should I avoid using tables altogether? Is this workflow
totally wrong? The process of creating graphics in PS, the creating slices in
FW and finally exporting to DW for the final touches sounds like heaven for
someone like me, who is is a graphics designer at heart.

I use the CS3 suite.

arcticmike wrote:
> Thank you for your replies, Joey and Jim!
>
> The tutorial is Lynda.com's "Extreme web site makeover", and it is really very
> good and informative. I work the same way, but with varying results to say the
> least:
>
> 1 - Creating the basic layout in PS, saving as .psd
> 2 - Opening the .psd in FW, slicing it up with the slice tool, and exporting
> as either html or images. Saving layout as .png.
> 3 - Opening html in DW, saving as template file, from which I create multiple
> page with CSS and main text, etc.
>
> When I need to edit the original layout .png-file (perhaps adding a dropdown
> menu), I click "edit" in DW, and then return to FW. Error messages range from
> "the table structure is different" to "Internal error. Can't open file". I
> guess I have somehow altered something (maybe by removing an image or
> accidentally changing something in the table). I only whish FW could inform me
> WHERE the problem is.
>
> Would it be better to create only the dropdown menu in FW and inserting it
> into the DW file? Should I avoid using tables altogether? Is this workflow
> totally wrong? The process of creating graphics in PS, the creating slices in
> FW and finally exporting to DW for the final touches sounds like heaven for
> someone like me, who is is a graphics designer at heart.
>
> I use the CS3 suite.
>
I'd stay clear of the drop down menus, period. There are many posts on
that feature in this forum, none of them positive. There are other
commercial menu packages you can purchase which are much better and more
flexible. Check out Project Seven's web site for some very good ones.

Tables are not "wrong" but how Fireworks uses them makes for a very
inflexible and inaccessible html page layout. The html created by FW is
really more suitable for a click-through prototype, not a final site.

The preference these days is to move to CSS-based positioning for
layout, but it sounds like that may be a bit beyond your current skill
level. So sticking with tables may be a better option for you at the
moment, but build your page structure in Dreamweaver, a program designed
to do this. As soon as you change anything in an FW generated page while
in Dreamweaver, and try to edit the design by going back to FW, you will
run into the error you mention. Better just to open FW independently,
edit the design, and re-export the slices. Assuming your slice
dimensions haven't changed, DW should update with your changes accurately.

HTH

--
Jim Babbage - .:Community MX:. & .:Adobe Community Expert:.
http://www.communityMX.com/
CommunityMX - Free Resources:
http://www.communitymx.com/free.cfm
---
.:Adobe Community Expert for Fireworks:.
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http://tinyurl.com/2a7dyp
---
.:Author:.
Lynda.com - http://movielibrary.lynda.com/authors/author/?aid=188
Peachpit Press -
http://www.peachpit.com/authors/bio....d-4b35fa14c9a4
Layers Magazine - http://www.layersmagazine.com/author/jim-babbage