For awhile I was just using VSD for a single page for particular applications, but now I'd like to see if it would be applicable for an entire website. I want to see if it's easier to train a person at a non-profit to use VSD as opposed to a standard editor. So I recreated the old menu they had using the CC Menu Builder, pasted that in the HTML box, got the exported code in the right places (and header) and the files in the right VSD folder, and now I want to add more pages. So... is this correct: I must use full absolute url links to access the separate VSD pages and they must stay in their respective folders for future editing to work? What I'm thinking is that I might need to use PHP include for the menu so that I only have to create it once because otherwise if there are any menu changes, I'll have to change every VSD page folder and header and html box content. I think I'm making some sense here............??

Ahhhhhh......
But then I'd have to change the name of the VSD pages -after each save- to PHP.... right...? I know just enuf to get me into serious trouble..... This looks like a possible alternative to PHP includes: http://www.attackofdesign.com/using-jqu … ude-files/ Though Google can't index it, if it's just the menu, maybe it wouldn't really matter.

OK... I got a relative path to work out of one VSD page folder to another page folder, but of course, I can't use the same menu in each because the links for the current page will always be within the same folder, and not sent outside the folder. Make sense? But I don't want to use absolute links as I'd like the site to work offline..... Time for sleeeeeeeep.

Html pages in VSD are all in the same location so you should be able to make your menu and place it in a html box and place it on a page. After confirming that the links are correct copy and paste the html box to each page. If your trying to do something else that I didn't catch from your post then we'll need a little more info. Are you publishing your site through VSD or are you just using it as a design tool and using an outside ftp app? If you need php in your VSD site then you can use iframes to hold the needed scripts or you can alter your .htaccess to sparse php in html pages.

Your idea about using a php include for the menu should work too. But the VSD pages should all be in the same folder on your server. Otherwise you are correct in that you will have to use absolute paths. Not sure why you would go that route. VSD will upload itself to the correct folders.

As Eric pointed out, you can copy/paste the menu to each page but if you have a lot of pages the php include is the way to go. One change and you're done. But keep the VSD pages where VSD puts them.

You do not have to use absolute paths in any navigation menu for pages on your own site unless for some reason your server requires it.

OK... thanks guys. Two things...1) - I guess I'm not doing something right in VSD because I'm unable to save VSD webpages so that the pages themselves all lie in the same folder. And I don't see how I can move them without the "files" folder and the index.html (which is not directly used by the menu) being written over. And 2) I figure I could build the shell of each page outside the VSD folder level with 3 PHP includes, one for a VSD designed header, one for the menu I designed in CC Menu builder, and then one for the VSD body content that a non-geek can update. This way I only have to make one menu and one header and it will be harder for someone to screw up the body code for each menu page. BUT... I'll have to rename, or rename a copy of each VSD body page to a .php, right? I thought PHP includes can't include a file with the htm(l) extension.

I'll go back through the VSD pdf and what I missed......

In VSD design your page and hit the publish button. VSD will place the html pages in the proper location. It's that easy.

Ah.. I figured publishing was only to upload, and I use another ftp for that. Ok... when I hit publish, the options to save offline and publish later are inactive, but it seems to do it anyway, as the files are built within the same folder I saved the individual pages. So it merges each pages media into the same "files" folder? But it does put each website page into the same folder, so that could be convenient. Though, you still need to save the individual pages first, right? - well of course, because that's how you edit them in the future. OK.. I still have my include dilemma as I really want to have one menu and one header that is shared across all the pages. I used to do this with frames all the time, but I'm trying to get out of that as they do effect SEO, I've been told.

In VSD when you hit 'Save' or 'Save As' to save your VSD project, that is the same as publishing offline. All the files are created in the folders to which they belong. If you hit 'Publish' then those files are uploaded to the server.

If you make any changes outside of VSD then every time you save your VSD project those changes will be overwritten.

If you use PHP includes and save the VSD project, or publish it then that's fine. You can then edit your php outside of VSD and just make sure to upload to the same folder where the VSD pages are and there should be no problem.