I've built several very simple sites using Dreamweaver MX, and I understand only the first thing about CSS. So if you offer help please assume I need things explained very carefully. Thanks!

I've now got a designer working to build merchant services into one of my sites. He has reworked the site with an application called eZPublish, turning my html pages into xhtml/CSS with templates.

I'm trying to catch up with him to understand the changes, but he's overseas and doesn't know Dreamweaver, so I'm on my own a lot trying to figure out how to work with his new pages.

If I download the pages from the server they wouldn't open in DW until I added the extension "tpl" to the extensions config file. Then they open but look nothing like the pages themselves.

Next I grab all of the code off of one of his pages as it appears in my browser over the internet and make a new page in DW with that code.

Opening that page displays something somewhat like what it's supposed to be, but areas of the page are squished and overlapping and the like. Oddly, when I preview that page in my browser it displays properly.

So I'm trying to figure out a few things here:

1. his pages have a tpl extension that DW doesn't support, but I can force it to open only to have the page display nothing like the way it should.

2. if I want to edit the page by grabbing the code off of the site, it displays awkwardly in DW but previews in the browser ok. I cant edit the page, however, with it displaying awkwardly.

3. therefore, is there any way I can use the pages he's created in eZPublish and work them in DW? They are basic template pages which I'm only now beginning to understand, but they just dont seem to function like the template pages of DW.

Anyone have any insight here? Remember, I have no shame and freely admit I'm an idiot at this compared to all of you, so be gentle...

Thanks much. I can supply page references but the site is a little on the adult side so I dont want to overstep any boundaries here.

Jeff

1. his pages have a tpl extension that DW doesn't support, but I can force it to open only to have the page display nothing like the way it should.

That's probably because you're missing the CSS file if the CSS is not embedded into the page itself. How are you 'downloading' his pages ?? If you just do a 'save file as' in your browser, you SHOULD get an HTML file AND all the associated files that go with it.

2. if I want to edit the page by grabbing the code off of the site, it displays awkwardly in DW but previews in the browser ok. I cant edit the page, however, with it displaying awkwardly.

Dreamweaver MX's page rendering of CSS was awful when using the design view, which is why I resorted to using TopStyle along with DW long ago. Even though I now use DW 8, with better CSS and internal page view support, it's still not great and I still use TopStyle for my CSS.

3. therefore, is there any way I can use the pages he's created in eZPublish and work them in DW? They are basic template pages which I'm only now beginning to understand, but they just dont seem to function like the template pages of DW.

Save the html page to your hard drive as I noted above. If you're using in older version of DW, as in MX or MX 2004, it is simply NOT going to display properly inside DW and you will have to rely on browser preview to see what is ACTUALLY happening in the browser. That or get a copy of TopStyle