Dreamweaver to Drupal

Sorry, there is no automated way to convert Dreamweaver sites into Drupal sites. In fact, Drupal and Dreamweaver cannot be compared. If you want a Dreamweaver site to become a Drupal site, you'll have to completely build it again (but don't get disappointed now, it can be a lot of fun).

There are some essential differences between Drupal and Dreamweaver:
- Dreamweaver is a tool on you own computer, which is only used before the publishing. (You can remove Dreamweaver without removing your site.) A Dreamweaver site is a static html site, created locally and then published to the web.
- Drupal is software (a Content Management System, or CMS) on your webserver and an integral part of the site. (You cannot remove Drupal without removing your site.) A Drupal site is a dynamic system that is first put online and then configured, filled with content and styled. It only creates the actual html page when a visitor asks for it.

One of the advantages of (a CMS like) Drupal is that you can put a site online and maintain it without any locally installed tools (such as dreamweaver). This means that anyone (with the right permissions) can maintain the site with nothing more than a web browser and an internet connection. A CMS also allows more user interaction like comments, user generated content, forums, online shops etc etc. I advice you to read The Drupal Cookbook as an introduction to Drupal.

If you are making the move from Dreamweaver to Drupal, you will have to make sure that you understand the principles of CMS websites. The most important is probably the separation of logic (what a site does), content (the actual information) and presentation (what the site looks like). If you're used to Dreamweaver, it can help you with the presentation part, when you start editing or creating themes.

Hi, you should read some documentation, that's not so "automatic"

http://drupal.org/node/509
http://2007.oscms-summit.org/node/227
http://drupal.org/node/45471

then start making a "page.tpl.php"

good luck ;)

--
Italian drupaler

Also worth checking the modules page http://drupal.org/project/Modules/name for a module that might help you import lots of existing static pages into a Drupal site (i.e. by recognising which part of a given page is the actual content and putting that into a new node (page) in the database). I'm sure I've seen something somewhere to help with this.

gpk
----
www.alexoria.co.uk

I created a free extension that helps Dreamweaver users work with Drupal files. http://xtnd.us/drupal - and you may want to check out the other stuff available at my site there, like the Drupal Theme Starter app.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Chris Charlton

Download Drupal extensions for Dreamweaver - http://xtnd.us

I am just contemplating downloading Drupal and I have been using Dreamweaver for the past 11 yrs and I still love Dreamweaver, why are we letting stupid people change our web dev software because they can't understand Dreamweaver??? We should just say no, that is what I have been telling everyone for the past 11 yrs. Only Macromedia!!!!! This is the best!!! I still think so.

Themegenie – the Advanced Dreamweaver extension for Drupal theming - Now Available For Dowload Drupal Dreamweaver extension. Also check Drupal Dreamweaver extension watch this video on How to port any HTML site to Drupal with Dreamweaver

Themegenie – the Advanced Dreamweaver extension for Drupal theming

Theming Drupal is no more a Herculean Task or tiresome job. Thmegenie makes Drupal themeing a breeze.

Features at a glance

• Create base theme files in a single click, fast.
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• With Themeenie you can create themes for your personal sites, blogs,
• e-commerces, wikis, forums and many more. It's your choice!.
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• Create page modules and regions in a click.
• Browser specific css.
• override template files.
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• Nine styles of menus with unlimited CSS possibilities including Suck/Super fishes.
• Theme Search, Forum, Poll.
• The maintenance page.
• And much more
Coming features
- opt fixed, elastic, fluid regions
- Integrate color module
- Create theme settings
- Tabbed Region
- Collapsible Regions
- Css Switch
- Import Wordpress Themes
- Import Joomla templates
- theme Subthemes