There are the usual responses, but none to the Illustrator 8 question. If anyone can lend a hand, please do:
http://searchengineforums.com/Forum17/HTML/000548.html

In response to the AI8 (or 9)
I use Fireworks 3. It alows me to edit .ai files withint it (text and so on) and then I can export it. Depending on complexity, you can also export to Dreamweaver. (I always tweak these files, but it isn't necessary.)

I know most graphic artist will agree with me that Fireworks is the best (aspecially if used with DW).

Alex Gilman

Are you talking about Adobe ImageReady vs. Fireworks ?

In addition to using Adobe Illustrator I use Firewrks 3 for optimizing the vectored image into web friendly formats - I love the way it sounds... say it with me "web friendly" ...it kinda flows, and seems so "friendly"

Thanks for clarifying.

I never found too many uses for AI before and then one day decided to play with it. I discovered AI is really nice I like the way that you can coppy and paste stuff out of it into Flash, because I found the drawing tools you have in Flash to be very limiting (I mean the basic ones like the paint brush and so on).

So Diane let me ask you what you think...

What do you prefer, GoLive or DW ?

As to the DW/GL question, let me digress: I have to admit that I have gone about things rather backwards -- I started with wysiwyg back when this was looked down upon and used it for years (yes, I tweaked code), but moved to hand-coding out of necessity when a client came to us with three weeks left on a Yahoo appeal schedule (and I of course designed a complex layout that couldn't be handled in the wysiwyg).

I've also tried both GoLive (for only a few hours) and later got Dreamweaver3 because I would prefer to see how ad copy looks in the window I was writing in. Unfortunately, once I got used to the control that hand-coding gives, it's hard to switch to a program that alters code according to how it's been programmed. (Not to mention that you eventually get used to writing in html.) And, yes, DW3 allows you to hand-code, but then I missed the ability to utilize the my "snippets" of code from HomeSite (you can assign sections of code -- an empty table, for example -- as a "snippet," and then assign it to a key combination ... Control or Alt whatever). However, I do occasionally use some of the tools in the wysiwygs (site management, file renaming, checking table structure), and find wysiwyg a good environment for doing initial layouts to show clients -- changes can be made quickly. But that's about it. And, while HomeSite has a wysiwyg design view, it isn't so great.

So ... I guess, unless I find something else or discover some function in one of these programs that I don't know about today, what I am really looking for is Allaire HomeWeaver (or HomeGoWeaver) that won't alter my code at all while adding code to it. Hmmm.

My bottom line answer to your question is that I haven't played enough with GoLive to have an opinion; I could say that about Dreamweaver as well. But I do not believe there is one "right" way to do all this. Using wysiwygs no longer means that one is (gasp!) not a "real" web designer. One needs to be able to get the job done, and that includes html, graphics, actual design, ad copy, marketing, programming ... and many professional web design companies have moved to wysiwygs in order to get a good job done faster.

These may still be radical statements even now, but success speaks for itself, does it not?

Thanks for the reply. Like I stated before, I wouldnt call it a switch. But I'm begining to use MS VisualStudio more and more. Simply because when dealing with tons of includes java and vb all on one page WYSINOTWYG.

DW UltraDev I thought was a waste of time to try. Because when writing custum scripts you dont wont the editor to cutum the script for you.

However the coolest thing about DW3 I found was that you can have the HTML window open on one monitor and your visual editor in another. If you are a graphic artist, I think this is the way to go. I'm very visually oriented and this way I can edit in both windows at once. Selecting tables and objects in the visual editor and editing them in the HTML. Or just keeping an eye out on the HTML to make sure its not being srewed up.

I've noticed that when I look through someones source code who just uses WYSIWYG editors and doesnt know much HTML (i.e.Graphic artist doing a site layout) I have removed over 300 font tags from 2 paragraphs and <b> and <i> tags wrapped around an <img src="">. For some reason when you choose clean up HTML it doesnt clean it. Oh well

Later

I'm curious ... exactly how do you select one program in one window (so you can edit in it) and then the other program in the other window? Exactly how is this done?

I'm also wondering ... since DW and HomeSite are somewhat internally linked to each other, would this work using these two programs (rather than DW and its internal html editor).

This is getting exciting.

Well the way I do it, works like this. I open up the inner HTML editor in DW, and then I scoot it off the screen onto my other monitor. This leaves the visual editor in one window and the HTML editor in the other. (Maybe I should ask for a second monitor at work now that I think about it).

Another thing I figured out you can do was open multuple DW (for lack of better word) "work places" and instead of editing one huge file break it down into its components. For example work on a table in one "work place" and then copy and paste into the other. (This way I avoid headaches after going home from work), because youre just looking at simple tables not the whole frakin thing.

Another thing I do which takes advantage of this feature kinda goes like this: (I work for a internet company that published articles daily).

To keep productive while I'm waiting to hear from the graphics dept. that all the graphics are done. I work in several DW "work areas" producing 3-6 articles at a time.
All our articles are formated identically. This technique allows me to interchange finished components between articles and just change <a href> tags on imgs and other little things.

OH, Lastly, I dont think you could substitute HomeSite for the DW HTML editor (Don't you wish) - But we should email them a link to this thread and maybe they'll make their HTML editor more "robust".

I know I've tried to edit the same page with 2 diff editors at the same time and they just keep asking you "this file has changed do you wish to reload" - Shutup u dumb editor.

Later Diane

[This message has been edited by xelA (edited 10-01-2000).]