Greatness Unveiled

Easily my all-time-favourite Microsoft Windows-based Web Designer / Web Developer Integrated Development Environment, Tanggaard Software’s TSW Webcoder 2005 never ceases to surprise me. From the “Save to FTP” feature, to the CSS “Insert as Span” feature of the CSS Tree, I have learned as much about WebCoder 2005 in the past several weeks of my “revisiting” it– occasionally coming back over to XP from my now more native environment, Linux Fedora Core 5.

So I don’t forget again until the next time i’m really digging deep into the brain-work of the IDE, i’ve decided– since i’ve written so many other entries here at Novice Notes, on topics the nature of which i’m only half-as-enthusiastic, I might as well maintain some documentation about something i’ve grown to love.

Inspiring Discoveries & Essential Reminders

Below are the variety of items in regard to TSW Webcoder which i consider to be Tips and Tricks sort of stuff. Some of it i’ve written with the thought that perhaps another WebCoder user might come upon this entry and find some of the info useful, and some of it for myself– for precisely the same reason, lest i forget!

Save as FTP

WebCoder can communicate with an FTP server as part of the Project Management features. However, there is a special little twist on the typical FTP method available in Webcoder which might ring familiar with Macromedia Dreamweaver users who prefer to work in the “RDS” server connection, or as i’ve referenced it in the past, “Destructive Editing” because there is no “undo”. When using Save as FTP in WebCoder 2005, the previous server file is written over, so the developer must be confident in his editing. With Save as FTP, the more typical, “FTP upload” process is eliminated because it thus becomes part of the editing / file-save process itself.

How-to:

My preferred method of using FTP with Webcoder involves having the project panel visible to the left of the main text-editor window, and to have the FTP panel removed from its native Resource Panel grouping along with the Projects, placed to reside on the right of the editor area, grouped with the PHP / MySQL info panels. Ensuring i have a live FTP connection, I find that i like to right-click a remote file, select edit, and then save the file. What i didn’t realize was that simply opening a remote file, and then saving it– DOESN’T save the file back to the FTP location, but instead saves the file to the relative local path, based on the project info. This is where “Save as FTP” becomes useful. Instead of selecting “Save” when i’ve finished editing a file that i’ve opened remotely, I select “Save as FTP” and i am able to thereafter continue to edit the file, saving directly to the remote location, each time i chose to edit it. It’s VERY convenient!
NOTE: A “backup” copy of the file to be “Save as FTP” should be saved before initiating this sort of editing process.

Afterthought: Probably best to stick with regular FTP as “Save as FTP” seems too unpredictable. It could be my own actions, but it seems as though since writing this note, I have ultimately had more success with the more traditional method.