Expression Web Pages, DWT Master Page

Beginners
1

Hi all,
Just purchased Pinegrow have a couple of questions.
I have been using Microsoft Expression Web for many years. Due to FTP functions being out of date and non useable with my new host it has become somewhat useless.

I have most of my Expression Web Projects setup with .DWT template. (Dynamic Web Pages) basically design a web template and all other pages have the same template.

How do I work or change expression web dwt template(master page) and convert to Pinegrow? It looks as though Pinegrow has a similar Master page function?

Does Pinegrow have an ability to download an entire website to use and edit?

Does Pinegrow has its own ftp or a way to upload an entire project to a hosting platform?

Thanks

2

Hi there @Ratfink and welcome aboard. :slight_smile:

I am just a fellow user but here are a few ideas.

  1. I’m not sure/have no idea about .dwt extensions and how to convert, but you can open the Web address of your site up directly in Pinegrow!

either from File/Open URL

or from the blank workspace that Pinegrow launches with if you have no files open or have closed them all.

So I should think that, you could open your original site in Pinegrow to play with the layout and - scream at the code the previous program may have generated.

But, then, you can save JUST the page in Pinegrow -but not the assets (pictures/css files, etc etc)
so it is best to save the page in your browser (not safari, that creates a webarchive format)
or use a program like SiteSucker (for Mac) to download. your entire site.

I have no idea how large/or couples it is, but if you do that, you have the entire site to play with at your leisure.

You will have the original css etc etc and you can then open your LOCAL copy instead edit and save as the more modern version.

And, as for Pinegrow having a native FTP facility er, Nope!

There is quite a lot to a whole ftp setup and many variations of requirements so its best to let …>FTP people get on with that and we can use their programs

So, there are a host of good free ftp clients (which, in hindsight, you could still use with expression web)

such as FileZilla (which I use, multi platform easy to set up)
Cyberduck etc , depending on your OS platform.

so thats some ideas.
Also, if you use Atom editor, alongside Pinegrow, for its much more advanced coding capabilities, that has an FTP plugin you can find and add, while in the editor.

Atom will then watch your pine grow files and save and sync with each other -and then you can FTP your files straight up to the server from inside ATOM. (again, multi platform text editor)

I hope these are some useful ideas. someone else may hopefully give you more detailed info on how to do precise conversions from DWT template to Pinegrow maser pages/ templates.

hopefully you can edit/update the code(horror) from Expression web and its “Interesting CSS Rules” inside Pinegrow itself.

or now , if that is too much, the latest Pinegrow also comes with a new super Overlay facility , where you can take an image of your page and then overlay it on pinegrow blank page, in order to replicate its transparent overlay.

ok ciao for now, let us all know how you get on

1 Like
3

Hi, I’m kinda new (but learning fast) to Pinegrow. BUT I have LOTS of experience with .dwt files. Dreamweaver uses .dwt too and they saved soooooo much time.
And Hey I used Expression web sometimes, it wasn’t as bad as everyone made it out to be. Did you know that Expression and Dreamweavers .dwt files weren’t compatible? figures right? You could edit a .dwt in either just fine but the changes wouldn’t propagate to the child pages.

Anyway I was curious as to Pinegrow handled your DWT files? If they don’t work at all you could always take out the code (it’s just html comments) that make it a .dwt and rename it .html and then let Pinegrow make it a pinegrow master page…

4

If the .dwt file is a proprietary format, Pinegrow isn’t going to be able to do much with it. Pinegrow doesn’t handle or covert files made by website “builders” like Expression Web, or Muse, or Coffee Cup, etc. It works directly with the HTML and CSS files that get published to the web server by these programs.

If you’re switching from a website “builder” to Pinegrow, you might find Pinegrow to be a little disappointing, because although it allows you to do some visual editing, it’s ultimately just a tool to work with the HTML and CSS directly (and more easily.) To use Pinegrow effectively, you sort of need to learn HTML and CSS itself, which is precisely what website building software tries to avoid.

But Pinegrow is really a good way to go about building a website because it forces you to do it the right way. A lot of website builders create code that is really just awful. Super redundant and filled with bloat. With Pinegrow, you can easily learn how to do things correctly just by using all its built-in components, and it’s “blocks” feature. In fact, it’s totally changed the way I approach building websites.

If I could recommend something to try, go to this site, and try going through their tutorial using Pinegrow as a means to build. I learned a lot by doing this.

https://mdbootstrap.com/corporate-website-lesson-1/

5

The IDE’s in question use the .dwt to generate plain html files, with some extra comments in them. The .dwt files themselves probably won’t open but I would guess that the .html files open and work just fine. Haven’t tried yet though . . .

6

I had a couple of .dwt files on my computer, I guess since I have Dreamweaver installed, there must be a few that are part of the program’s default files. Anyway, I took a look at them in Notepad, and they look like ordinary HTML files with some javascripts as well. I tried dropping into Firefox, and it opened and rendered the file fine. Then I tried opening it with Pinegrow, and Pinegrow DID open it, but I don’t think it treats it like any sort of template. I’m pretty sure you’re not going to be able to convert them to Pinegrow’s Master Page format, which I believe is based on a separate javascript file that the program creates when you create and define the editable areas on the Master Page.

7

The difference between a .dwt file and an .html file is the files extension (easy to change it to .html with any text editor) and some extra comments html comments in the code. Pinegrow would probably just ignore them, but if not you can just delete them. Then, if you really want it to be a master pages in PG just check make it a master page like you would any other HTML file.

8

Hi there I just found this post by @Terry44 again, with regards .dwt files and turning on Server side stuff.
I post to the whole topic, not just his useful post, in case it is helpful in context.
Ok bed for me,
G’night

9

It’s been a while and I was wondering what @Ratfink ended up doing about dwt pages.

Dimitri