To start, I've used Dreamweaver for almost ten years and have reached the point where I know enough about it to be dangerous (and get things done). Now I am supporting a website that was created with VSD and, at first glance, my opinion was "what a limited product." Then I started playing with it and began to see its many benefits. It started growing on me. I was also impressed by how quickly CC Support responded. And, obviously, the price cannot be beat. That being said, and after doing some searches on the "xxx" listed in this thread's title, I need some guidance/advice/handholding:

• One nice feature of DW is the ability to create a template file (.DWT) that contains all the elements common to your website. You make a change to that .DWT file and you can ripple those changes through all the .HTML files that use your template. It would appear that "Standard Settings for New Pages" does some of what I want, but only for new pages. (It appears that "Apply to All Pages" will do this True? Could this be what I seek? It does not appear that it will do content as well as style. Hm'mm....) As an example, let's say I want to use text for links instead of the buttons(graphics) used by my predecessor. With a DW template file, I go to one place to make that change and it updates all the pages that use that template. With VSD, it appears I must go into each page and make that change. Granted, "Add Page" "New Page Settings" has the duplicate option, which I suppose can be used to access a common (i.e., template) page/file. Yes? No? Suggested VSD techniques?
• "Cloning:" I saw this mentioned several times during my searches but cannot find it mentioned in the user guide PDF.
• "Renaming pages:" Can this be done inside VSD?

Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions! Having started this process 100% opposed to learning VSD, a few days of fiddling with the product have swung that percentage much closer to favoring VSD over DW.
John
PS: if anyone is interested in my new assignment "as-is," the link is www.wsasmb.org

CC is VERY close to releasing an updated version of VSD, so keep that in mind. but for NOW...



Yes. And you are correct, the "Settings -> Standard Settings for New Pages" only allows you to choose some basic items to clone, such as colors, background images, and page sizes. But you can duplicate EVERYTHING on the page (text/images etc) by referring to my next answer below.



The answer is yes. So perhaps the easiest thing would be to create ONE page EXACTLY as you want it, and then just duplicate that page as many times as you need and make changes to text/images where needed. That is what i do.



I thought I had just addressed that above, is this a separate question? Are you talking about, perhaps, master borders?



Yes it can. Just click on the "Page" properties button. And the software does not officially allow you to add dashes between words in the page titles (for SEO purposes, Google needs dashes to differentiate between words) but I havva way around it if you are interested ;-)

I can give you plenty of tips and tricks about VSD, as can many others on here. For example, if you add an effect to text (shadow/bevel) it becomes an image. This is bad for SEO purposes obviously (spiders can't crawl an image), but it's good if you are using a non-standard web font because then you know it will show up every computer exactly as you see it.

We have a great community here, so welcome! We're glad to have you!

Maybe this is a stupid question, but HOW do you replicate a page?

I brought the shopping cart designer last week i have read the manual at least three times i done everythinhgi am suppose to do but wheb i send it to shopping cart creator nothing I cannot even delete and redesign the old one keeps coming up
your preview is more confusing then anything over a hundred hours wasted
I would like some to contact me regarding a refund this product is not a good product to have on the market if you ask me

steve

Steven, if you have a problem with the software, please contact us through support. This way someone can help you out. You also posted this question in the Visual Site Designer thread where it should have been posted in Shopping Cart Creator (or Designer).

Over 100 hours! Geeze, you should have contacted us at hour 2!!

When you add a page it gives you the option to duplicate a page that you have already created. I think "add page" option is under either the "settings" menu or the "tools" menu. I would check for you but I do not have VSD on this computer.

Ok, duh on my part ... thanks.

Don't feel dumb, Jimmy, I needed that answer too. It reminded me that I had seen that "duplicate" option, so all I need now is to create a pseudo-template page that has my common-to-all-pages headers, link buttons, etc. Not the most elegant approach, but something tells me CoffeeCup has a few nice surprises ahead in its updates.

Many thanks! Looks like I was almost there myself, because I developed a pseudo-template page with my common page graphics, links, etc.
I have not even gotten to the actual maintenance of the website on the server yet, but is it logical to assume that CC only transfers to the server those html files that are actually used in the website?
THANKS!

Thanks Chad! I feel really dumb now after seeing how the "Page Properties" panel gives me a rename option. Doh!