Using Microsoft Word to write website content

- Web Technologies Blog

Written by Marco Conti Wednesday, 19 November 2008 14:29

How to convert MS Word to HTML cheaply and effectively

Many people are comfortable writing their website content with a Word Processor. For most that means using Microsoft Word.

Unfortunately, Microsoft Word is not very compliant with most modern browsers and it adds a plethora of superfluous code to your HTML that is very hard to clean properly. The result is that if you copy and paste from MS Word to your HTML document, regardless of the system you use, the result will be less than satisfactory and it often will even break your page.

The reason is that MS Word uses a number of proprietary tags and even saving your document a HTML page won't cure the problem.

(Pressed for time? Don't want to read the entire post? Skip the article and use the Checklist)

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Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 - first impressions

- Web Technologies Blog

Written by Marco Conti Thursday, 13 November 2008 11:39

Adobe just released the stable version of their popular IDE, Dreamweaver. Now in version CS4 (or version 10 if you like to keep track of it that way), Dreamweaver continues to be the editor of choice for many web developers and whenever a new version is released it is an important milestone in the business.

In this "First Impressions" review I am going to look at Dreamweaver CS4 as applied to the editing of Joomla templates and websites and not so much as related to the more traditional uses of the program. For more information in regard to my Joomla (and dynamic website) workflow, please refer to my blog post here.

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Reflections of an old school designer

- Web Technologies Blog

Written by Marco Conti Tuesday, 11 November 2008 18:29

This is a very quick adaptation of a forum post I made on the Adobe  Dreamweaver forums. After writing it I thought it contained some valuable info that others may find useful or inspiring. Read it with a grain of salt and consider it's initial intended audience.

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Joomla! 1.5 and Dreamweaver CS3 - Part 1

- The Conticreative Joomla Blog

Written by Marco Conti Monday, 10 November 2008 12:32

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How to use Dreamweaver CS3/CS4 to edit your Joomla! 1.5.x website and templates.
Revisiting the issue 2 years later...

Over 2 years ago I wrote my first blog post on how to incorporate Dreamweaver into your Joomla development and template design. It is time now to revisit the issue and update the technique for the newer version of Joomla and Dreamweaver.

At the time of this writing, Dreamweaver CS4 is out in Beta and it promises to bring even more streamlining into the process. As soon as I upgrade DW to the newer version I will rewrite this post, but I suspect most of the steps will remain the same. UPDATE: I have just downloaded the new CS4 triial and it promises to bring some changes, but no radical departures from the workflow described below. I will point out any differences/shortcuts as necessary.

If you are a traditional web designer, you are probably wondering how it could be possible to edit a Joomla website, the template more specifically, with a tool like DreamWeaver.

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I was very lucky...

- Web Technologies Blog

Written by Marco Conti Sunday, 09 November 2008 20:52

I want to open my new Web Dev blog with a post about backups and why I was so damn lucky.

I finally got around to launch a new version of my website. I worked at it for over 6 months and I was either never happy with it or I had something more pressing to do. My old website was about 2 1/2 years old and it no longer reflected neither current technologies or my personal abilities.

Finally, over the past weekend I decided to take the plunge and launch the site. It wasn't finished, but it was good enough for me.

Usually, when I make a site launch for a client I move like an old spinster. I very cautiously backup every file, I keep a log with notes on the move and only after I check things twice I finally make the move.

On my own site, of course, I was more cavalier and I paid the price.

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Beginning Joomla!: From Novice to Professional

- Book Reviews

Written by Marco Conti Sunday, 09 November 2008 18:22

Beginning Joomla is an excellent choice if you are a website owner or a developer interested in Joomla.It covers primarily Joomla 1.5 but it also has some good references to Joomla 1.0 and the differences between the two.

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Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5

- Book Reviews

Written by Marco Conti Sunday, 09 November 2008 17:48

This is one of the best generic books on Joomla 1.5 you can buy. The author manages to bring the reader to a very good understanding of Joomla with a minimum of technical terms and the content is always accessible and easy to understand.

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Freemind - mind mapper

- Software Reviews

Written by Marco Conti Sunday, 09 November 2008 13:22

Have ideas? Map them with Freemind.

An incredibly useful Open Source program for "Mind Mapping". A boon for software developers, website designers and anyone trying to make sense of their ideas.

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Roboform - a great password manager

- Software Reviews

Written by Marco Conti Sunday, 09 November 2008 12:24

A must have for web developers and anyone that makes a living on the web. I have been using Roboform (RF) for over 5 years now. I can frankly say that without it I could not run my business at all.

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Joomla Master Installation

- The Conticreative Joomla Blog

Written by Marco Conti Monday, 27 October 2008 13:12

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I have been working with Mambo and then Joomla for several years now and things have only been getting better. The real strength of Joomla, compared to other Open Source projects, in my opinion does not reside so much in the CMS itself as it does into the sheer wealth of third party add-ons available for the platform and the way they integrate almost seamlessly with Joomla.

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