GoLive for Dreamweaver Users:
Making the Transition

Adobe GoLive CS is the newest version of Adobe's WYSIWYG web authoring program. With the release of Adobe's CS line of products many who upgraded from Photoshop to the suite have GoLive that never had it before. I know a lot of you, like me, are Dreamweaver users.

Whenever you upgrade software to a new version it always takes time to get used to the changes. Familiar tools may be moved in the menus, or perhaps even have been removed. But when you change software entirely to a whole new program, it's more than the period of transition you experience with a software upgrade, especially if you have used the old one for a while and know it well. Tools and palettes are in unfamiliar places, and sometimes with unfamiliar names. No matter that you know what this software will do, and what tools would do the job...the problem is locating the tools you need to get the job done!

This page is an effort to alleviate for others some of the frustration I had when starting to work with GoLive and figuring out how to do things the GoLive way.

Checking page size and download time
Site contents updates
Saving site changes
How do I see the image size?
Adding images directly from the clipboard to your webpage
How do I install extensions?
Making GoLive use Dreamweaver keyboard shortcuts
Previewing files using the Content Tab

Checking page size and download time

In Dreamweaver, we are used to these facts being at the bottom of the document window. In GoLive, go to Special > Document Statistics to see the byte count for html, images, total for the page, and estimated download times at various speeds. 

Site contents updates

In Dreamweaver, any images added to the site automatically show up in the site window, but in GoLive you will need to right click on an empty spot in the window and choose Refresh View to see the additional files.

Saving Site changes

When you save the page you are working on, make sure to save the site too. It is not automatically saved as we are used to with Dreamweaver, and if you do close without saving you will probably have to refresh the view to see all files in the site. if there is an asterisk in the site title bar, then the site has had additions and needs to be saved.

How do I see image size?

In Dreamweaver the image size in kb is right on the property bar. In GoLive it isn't as obvious.  I tried right clicking on the image in my document, I looked over the inspector, and the toolbar, and the document window. Finally I found it by accident: to see the kb size of an image you have to select the file in the site window, and then the inspector will display kb size of the image.

Adding images from the clipboard your web page

One slick trick I like is the ability in GoLive to add images to a web page directly from the clipboard. I write a lot of tutorials and classes, and that means lots of screenshots. In GoLive, place the cursor where you want the image to appear, simply use the normal ctrl+V paste keyboard shortcut, and the image is pasted into GoLive. But it gets better! When you paste the image into your GoLive web page, the Save for Web dialog opens allowing you to use the same great Save for Web feature you are familiar with from Photoshop, Image Ready, Elements, or Illustrator, and save the image directly into your site folder!  This is a real timesaver!

How do I install extensions?

GoLive uses extensions to give added functionality just like Dreamweaver, but without a command menu, how do you install them? Unzip or unstuff the extension and copy the entire folder to the GoLive Modules\Extend Scripts folder.

Miss your Dreamweaver keyboard shortcuts?

I find GoLive's keyboard shortcuts for paragraph formatting difficult to use (ALT +SHIFT + CTRL + 0 for paragraph, ALT +SHIFT + CTRL + 1 for Heading 1). If you miss Dreamweaver's easier keyboard shortcuts for applying paragraph formatting (ctrl+0 for paragraph, ctrl+1 for Heading 1, ctrl + 2 for Heading 2, and so on), go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Click New Set and name it Dreamweaver. Change the shortcuts to suit the way you work by selecting the shortcut you want to change, and then typing a new one. GoLive will tell you if that shortcut is already in use, and by what. If it is not in use, click the Assign button; if it is in use and you want to use your shortcut rather than GoLive's. click Replace. Click OK when done to return to the work area with your brand new set of custom shortcut keys!

Previewing files

In sites with lots of content---pages, images, even multimedia---it's hard to remember which is which, but using the Content tab you can preview them. Click on a file in the Site window and look at the Inspector. Click on the Content tab in the Inspector palette to see a thumbnail of the file. You can scroll through a folder of files by keeping the cursor in the Site window and using the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard.