Using Dreamweaver to develop Drupal themes

I think the standard structure for most Drupal shops is to have developers, designers and themers (Design may or may not be done in house). The designers will create designs, either as SVG / PSD or as HTML, and then the themers will work to convert those designs into Drupal themes. Because Drupal is much more powerful than what you can do with something like a blogging platform, many sites will require very complex presentation. And so concepts like how to override the default output often need to be understood by someone who creates Drupal themes. Themers are usually either designers who understand PHP, or junior PHP developers.

But back to your original question. As you know WYSIWYG editors create substandard markup. But sometimes it's necessary due to personnel limitations to bring people in on a project that don't have full understanding of HTML and CSS. Themers have traditionally been the hardest positions to fill.

I remember hearing about a Drupal extension to Dreamweaver several years back. Not sure how useful it is, or if it's even still around. One technique that might ease the pain will be to start with a theme that is:
- made as a base theme
- is easy to manipulate for beginners
- keeps the PHP inside template.php and only sends variables to the tpl.phps
- and that Dreamweaver can understand.
Zen fulfills the first 3 requirements, I'm not sure if it fulfills the fourth. With source ordered content, and heavy use of negative margins, I'm not sure how well DW will deal with that.

You might also take a look at the many new theming books that have recently been released. I think some titles are something like "Drupal 6 themes" and "Frontend Drupal" or something like that.

--
Dave Hansen-Lange
Web Developer
Advomatic LLC
East Asia Office
Hong Kong

I find it easier to work on themes (and web design in general) when using css frameworks. I am currently using the Blueprint framework. I know some people use 960. Sure, there's some concern about separation of semantic and formatting markup, but I find that the time it saves me in development is considerable. Just something to consider to make your drupal/design workflow a bit more efficient.

Russell JVM Gutierrez
Manager, Hong Kong Projects
flippingNORMALS
Web | Social Media | Mobile

Thanks Dave and Russell for the great comments. Mmm....CSS frameworks, interesting. Never thought of that. In fact, have never used that beforem, hahaha. Will definitely take a look.

My designers are used to Dreamweavers, and most of our sites are developed using a home-grown CMS. Thinking about the pros and cons of moving to Drupal. And if so, how to make the transition easier for everybody. The hardest part, so far, is how to harness the strengths of drupal, while still able to satisfy the harsh demand of the clients to be flexible with the web design. And of course, the ability and willingness of the team to pick up these new skills.

Thanks,
Richard

Zen is one of the best place to start learning Drupal theming. My life in Drupal actually started with Zen theming when D6 was first released, and I could create something that looks pretty good... but then I realize I had no content to put in it!! So I turned around and started to learn to "use" Drupal.

Found a Zen reference cheat sheet that was given away at DrupalDC, made by creators of the Austin Zen Sub Theme.

Starting next week, I will work with my designer friend to learn Drupal theming together, if anyone is interested in joining us, please let me know, may be we can organize another hands-on meetup outside of our monthly HKDUG meetings.

Hey Nick, the group learning idea is cool. Please let me know when you guys have decided on a time to meet. I will try my best to attend (not that I have anything to contribute, lol).

Richard

I'm interest by this special theming meetup.

Julien Didelet

Will try to join if i have time.

For Mac users I know that Coda has a nice plug in for Drupal. I have also created a HKDUG dropbox, drop me a line if you would like to share. I have added Egg Tart so far.

Cheers,

Andy

I would join a theming group... let me know when you think of getting it going...

mark

Great idea with the group let me know

Been learning how to use drupal about 1 month now, and starting to look into the theming, so would be nice to learn / share together.

count me in for the next meeting ;-)
Jay