Dreamweaver

[joant]

I have designed a website in Dreamweaver and it is hosted by GoDaddy. GoDaddy has a built-in facility for uploading Zen Cart which I've done and I now have a Zen Cart page. I can access the admin back-end directly. So far so good. My problem - which is making me feel decidedly dense - is that any changes I make to the settings in the admin control centre doesn't affect much in the way of changes on the viewing page. There is a lot that I'm going to have to change in order to get it right.
How does one change that page to another template? I don't see any facility for uploading/importing new templates.
I also don't see where/how to customise the page code (html?) and css style sheets. Presumably one edits the files in a text editor on ones computer and then uploads into GoDaddy (?) But to do that I would first need to get the template pages downloaded onto my computer and into my text editor. How, how and how??
I have also managed to import a Zen Coding Menu into Dreamweaver CS3 and would love to be able to bring my zen cart pages into dreamweaver for editing. But again, how??
Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but I'm not finding easy to understand directions for the above.
Any help or guidance would be most appreciated!

[afo]

Always edit Zen Cart files in a good text editor. From what I understand, Dreamweaver and php (the language Zen Cart is written in) don't play well together. WYSIWYG editors tend to insert extra characters into files which disrupts php.

Anyway, to answer some of your questions.

You can download Zen Cart to your computer and unzip it. You don't need to be able to run it, although that's possible. Once you unzip Zen Cart, you'll be able to see the folder/file structure. You can edit whatever you need to and upload to your site. I suggest you spend some time reading in the Tutorial/FAQ section.

There are tons of free templates available for Zen Cart. You can see them in action at http://(sorry, site offline)/. All come with installation instructions. The templates can help you create your own custom template by serving as a starting point or as a learning tool.

[torvista]

html is not php, understand the difference.

DW CS3 is no help to you here apart from maybe an aid to producing correct css.
DW CS5 on the other hand is a help as it does syntax checking of php files to avoid basic mistakes.

I would recommend anyone to get ZC working locally (Xampp/Wampp) as I find its so much easier and quicker to search, find and edit files locally.

[uswebworx]

I am no expert but I use cuteFTP with built in Editor for my coding of the core files

[dbltoe]

Also, I know of NO auto-loading facility that is approved or even recommended by Zen Cart. Shortcuts at the start seem to always result in hours of frustration later.
GoneDaddy?!?! Seriously?!?! You might want to search this forum for all the horror stories.

[chowardart]

I'm trying to find better ways to integrate DW and ZC too, but I do want to add to this discussion something important about GoDaddy and ZC installations, is the security about changing the name of the admin folder, and that is that GoDaddy will automatically add characters to the admin folder name and it's not recommended to change it unless you know what you're doing. I found a thread on GoDaddy's site where people kept trying to login using the admin name and from the get-go it would not work...

[picandnix]

I'm trying to find better ways to integrate DW and ZC too, but I do want to add to this discussion something important about GoDaddy and ZC installations, is the security about changing the name of the admin folder, and that is that GoDaddy will automatically add characters to the admin folder name and it's not recommended to change it unless you know what you're doing. I found a thread on GoDaddy's site where people kept trying to login using the admin name and from the get-go it would not work...

Very clear and simple, do not auto install, do it manually and you'll get the results you want. Better still avoid GD too.
Use WAMP or XAMPP to create and editable version of Zen Cart and use a plain text editor not Dreamweaver.

[dbltoe]

You are "hijacking' a year-old thread and, if you read my post, the problem you mention is irrelevant if the user NEVER uses ANY auto-installer. Period.

And, Notepad+ (free) or UltraEdit (paid) will not add the funky background code like DreamWeaver.