Using Dreamweaver To Edit

[Jayco]

Ultra n00b speaking! :)

All right, so I downloaded Zen Cart a couple weeks ago. I finally completed the main site so now I'm trying to customize the Zen Cart to look like the main site. Easy enough, I thought. =D My question is how can I use Dreamweaver to edit the Zen Cart? I'm editing just the default template to make it easier for me. I've been editing all the stylesheet.css' but what else do I need to edit to make it change on the .com/shop/ ? Perhaps there is an essential HTML file I need to put into Dreamweaver? Ehh, I'm so lost.

[kobra]

Being a php application, the actual pages rendered do not exist as a single page file as they do in html. So a WYSIWYG interface is not possible without I am told the expensive DW php extentions.

[budfox]

Dreamweaver isn't an ideal way to edit your store because the whole thing relies on a database and php running on a webserver. You won't see the pages in a wysiwyg environment like Dreamweaver therefore.

You *could* run a local webserver and view files locally, using something like XAMMP but as you've said you are very new, this probably isn't the way to go.

What you can use Dreamweaver for is as a good text editor and file manager, to modify your local files and upload them.

I do it like this:

Install store
Setup a new site in Dreamweaver including FTP parameters
Connect to the remote site
Download the entire site to your local machine
Edit files
Upload and test in a web browser.

You need to learn to use template overrides too, or else you'll be editing core files and wishing you hadn't.

I'd recommend buying the book, getting the idea of CSS, installing the Internet Explorer developers toolkit (which is much better than the firefox one in my opinion) and getting a good grasp of how admin works.

It's a good old learning curve is Zencart, but all the help you need is here. Just make sure that you don't post questions that have been asked time and time again.

Read the FAQS, and all of the tutorials, don't rush, don't get frustrated.

One day it will click into place.