VSD & HTML Tool - Post ID 139607

User 2113767 Photo


Registered User
11 posts

Hello everybody,

as there are some things that I would edit into the raw HTML of my internet site...I would like to know if anyone of you ever tried to do that.
I mean: I have created an internet site with the VSD, but now I need to change something in the HTML code, the question is...if I change the HTML will the VSD work anyway for me? Or it will be confused by this situation? So, I would like to buy the HTML tool but I don't want to mess up my site...
Any suggestion? :D
User 38401 Photo


Senior Advisor
10,951 posts

hiya Jackall,

Any changes that you make with a VSD website, need to be done within the program itself. If you edit anything outside of the program it will be lost if you update with VSD again as VSD does not have any import capabilities to import your changes so it will not know you did any and will just overwrite them.

What lots of people do is use VSD to get their site to a specific point, usually where the layout is what they want it to be, colors styles etc. and many times all the main content of the site etc. Then they take the HTML Editor and do the editing in there from that point. That is of course, if you have decent knowledge of HTML and CSS to do that with. Since VSD writes in a very different style of code from normal HTML it can be tricky sometimes, but once you get the hang of it, it's not too bad.

Just keep in mind you cannot go back to VSD without having to incorporate your changes manually within VSD again to have it be the same as what you edited in the HTML Editor. VSD uses the .vnu file which isn't editable manually, so all files and folders and anything in your site is inside that .vnu file. Nothing outside of that file is recognized.

Hope that all made sense and good luck whichever way you decide to venture your editing :)
User 2113767 Photo


Registered User
11 posts

Hi Jo Ann,

thank you for your explanation...ok, I think I understood. You mean that for creating sites I can use the VSD but when I begin to edit the HTML in order to customize my site in a better way, you suggest the HTML editor. Correct? Also 'cause I can't go back to VSD as I modify the raw code...mmmmm

I have to think about that...I think I will buy the html editor but...what I would like is also the possibility to have a WYSIWYG editor...is this included into the HTML editor?
User 38401 Photo


Senior Advisor
10,951 posts

Once again it's a double edged sword there unfortunately. The HTML Editor is a great tool by far, it's definitely my editor of choice, but... (ya there's always a but lol)

Although there "is" a visual editor setup within the HTML Editor, it does not play well with the code editor so you still need to make a choice of visual or code and not flip between the two on the same site page or it will alter the code and mess up on you. The code that the 2 different styles outputs are very different from eachother, and basically when you swap from one to the other the current one tries to alter the code to fit it's own type of format. Doing this too many times can result in some pretty messed up code.

By the way, there is nothing forcing you to have to edit outside of VSD if you don't want to. There are many creative ways of editing within that editor so if there's some specific things you need to do, just ask away and I'm sure someone that uses that program will definitely be able to point you at the right tools in the program to do it. There's been some really awesome and slick looking and working sites created with VSD so don't sell the program or yourself short thinking that it's not powerful enough, it most definitely is :)

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