DreamWeaver 8 - saving a site to local drive???

[mac-convert]

I have recently switched to a mac after years (eons) on Windows, and I'm lovin' it! I'm running FrontPage on the PC and have a web site published. I just downloaded DW 8 to test, and have almost decided to make the big move. I have one problem, and the answer isn't obvious to me. I can connect to my server (a hosted service) with ftp in DW8 and retrieve everything. Short of saving every single file I have out there, is there a way to mass save the entire site to a local folder? Oh, I was smart in hind-sight not to use FP extensions, so I don't need to worry about those.

Thanks in advanced - back to the DW8 manuals, etc., to see if I can find the answer, but no luck yet.

 

[nightelf]

You can use Transmit to download all the content of your site to a folder. You just have to select and drag.

Transmit is the best FTP app for Mac.

 

[mac-convert]

nightelf, thanks for the reply on this.

I was hoping that I could find a way in DW8 to d/l the files to my local drive (synchronize from the site to locally), but that seems to be an elusive option. I will probably explore an FTP client to do this initially and then work with DW8. At the same time, it seems reasonable for a package this popular and costly to have this capability, especially if one has a lot of sites, and wants to switch, say from FP to DW.

Thanks again and cheers - I'll post over at Adobe and see it someone there has a method using the DW interface.

 

[stevep]

Dreamweaver's ftp capability is a bit flakey in my experience - whenever I try it all I get is a long wait followed by failure. I use Cyberduck instead - fast and always does the job.

 

[mac-convert]

Steve, thanks

That kind of verifies what I've been reading in the forum for DW. People are screaming for better functionality. But my problem is that for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to transfer my files from my hosting service to my Mac - I have a site folder pre-built. When I first started DW, I managed to set up an FTP connect to my site and get my files/folders displayed over on the right side under Files. I just can't figure out how to xfer them to my Mac folder. I've been reading about the get/put (which I understand as an IT professional) and about the synchronize (I understand the concept) but I just can't find the right menu/option/what to make it happen.

Thanks again...

 

[mac-convert]

Yee-Haw - figured it out. Had to change my perspective, but it works as anticipated. Will post the correct way to do this if anyone wants it.

 

[Westside guy]

Dreamweaver wants to keep a local copy of everything - so can't you just sync the entire site? (I use sftp rather than ftp. Dreamweaver can speak secure protocols, unlike Frontpage)

 

[mac-convert]

Dreamweaver wants to keep a local copy of everything - so can't you just sync the entire site? (I use sftp rather than ftp. Dreamweaver can speak secure protocols, unlike Frontpage)

As it turned out, it wasn't an FTP problem that I had. Using another FTP program would not have solved the problem. I had a basic non-understanding (my terminology - not a mis-understanding) of how DW operates.

What I did first (wrongly) was to make sure that I could connect to my site via FTP and see my folders and files. That being successful, I then attempted to create the site locally. That's the part that I didn't quite grasp correctly.

The fix was to delete the connection to the site, and then tell DW to create a new site. That gave me the choices I need to first declare a local site (local file storage), then tell DW where the real site existed and how to connect. Given that setup, there is a synchronization option to move all the files from the site to the local storage, using the builtin FTP in DW. And that worked flawlessly.

 

[bousozoku]

Yee-Haw - figured it out. Had to change my perspective, but it works as anticipated. Will post the correct way to do this if anyone wants it.

I was going to say that you should be able to import the site after giving Dreamweaver the location. I'd done that with GoLive but I never had much luck with Dreamweaver.

 

[ChicoWeb]

Once you "Manage" a website in Dreamweaver, you can FTP, sync and move files very easily. I prefer it for the basic stuff that we do at my firm. Although changing perms isn't really an option in DW. Managing your site also sets up a virtual site so you can preview it before you upload.