Paste HTML from web sites to DW MX

Question

I took this question from a forum but its the same im looking
for....
"Forgive me if this is an inappropriate forum for this
question, but consulting librarians seemed a good idea when queries
to more technical forums got me nowhere.... )
I suspect I'm overlooking something obvious (such as
"obviously, this can't be done," ) but I can't figure out how to
copy a url from an html document and paste it into the DW Design
View pane without losing the formating! Seems like a simple and
everyday task, but DW just renders everything as plain, unformatted
text when you paste it into the design view editor. (I've included
below the fruitless exchange I had with well-intentioned responders
at a webmaster forum, in case there's any confusion about what it
is I'm looking for....) Thanks, Petter
(earlier - unproductive - traffic on this...)
response 1:
I think you are looking for shift + ctrl + v
response 2:
It might seem a retrograde step to have a small Code View
pane open as well as the Design Pane, but there are quite a lot of
advantages.
Firstly you can paste straight into there instead, and then
click in the Design View to see the changes.
Secondly, there are some things that are easier to do in the
code window - moving Rows of a complicated Table layout (one with
Colspans) is one that I find easier.
My clarification:
Thank you both for your responses, but I think perhaps I
haven't explained myself clearly enough...
shift+ctrl+v is simply "paste as text" - it does that, and
also removes line feeds that plain old ctrl+v would retain, but it
does not preserve the format of the copied text.
Pasting directly into Code View won't help either..if you
want to paste into Code View, you must first find the source code
and paste all of it - href tags and all - into Code View.
Let me try to clarify with an example: I want to build a list
of U.S. embassy websites in South Asia. I find a list of all U.S.
embassy websites at
http://usembassy.state.gov,
and wish to paste just those in South Asia into my DW document,
retaining the labels (e.g. Afghanistan: Kabul) but also the
underlying urls. As far as I can tell, there's no way of doing this
simply with DW. You can of course view source, copy the relevant
source code into Code View and then edit out whatever you don't
need, or you can add the links one at a time in Design View. DW
will not even recognize labels that are identical with the
underlying url (e.g. "visit our webpage at www.exmaple.com") - the
tags always have to be entered manually in Code View, or via the
Property Inspector tool in Design View.
If you're trying to build a list of links harvested from many
different sources - from other html lists, from urls embedded in
text, and even from the address bar of your browser, this becomes
very cumbersome, but perhaps there is no easier way of doing it in
DW?
response 3:
Do a 'save page' to your computer. Open the saved file, cut
and paste into your new document. Also remember it is CSS styles
that define the look so grab the style sheets used in the original
page, you can see the location by looking at the code of the saved
page.
My response
Thanks, but as far as I can see, cutting and pasting from a
saved file is no different than c&p from a file on the web; DW
does not recognize the formatting in either case. And even if it
did, this would be a very cumbersome way of building a list of
links if you wanted to borrow selectively from a large assortment
of pages. I suspect what I wish to do is simply not possible in
Dreamweaver, but thanks everyone for all the suggestions!
response 4:
I'm starting to understand...
OK - well in Dreamweaver, in the Design Window, you can
select a sentence containing a phrase that is a URL link, and you
can paste it quite happily elsewhere in the Design window, and the
sentence will still contain a phrase that has the URL link behind
it.
That means that it's not a Dreamweaver problem...
You're right - if on my Mac I copy a sentence containing some
links off (say) the BBC website, and paste them into Dreamweaver, I
just get the text. The Mac clipboard states the content as "text".
Interestingly, when I copy off the Dreamweaver Design window,
the Mac clipboard states the content as text too - I must confess I
was expecting "styled text".
But I think that's the problem, or at least part of it...
In the same way, I can create links inside AppleWorks, and
cut and paste them to my heart's content within the document, but
as soon as I try to export them, or inport others, I get the same
problem.
The immediate workaround would seem to be to save the source
webpage to disc, and open it in Dreamweaver, where I feel sure you
could drag and drop from the source file to your target file. "

Answer 1

Browse to the site. View Source. Copy All. In DW, create a
new page.
Select Code view. Select all. Paste.
Now you have a page with the code, and you have to go after
the CSS and
images. If you are using DW8, you just have to copy the
domain from the
address field and adjust all the links from relative to
absolute.
That'll do it.
Alternatively, you (in IE/FF) browse to the site, and use
FILE | Save As...
> Web Page Complete. Then you open the resulting page in
DW.
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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==================
"RookuS" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:[email protected]...
>I took this question from a forum but its the same im
looking for....
>
> "Forgive me if this is an inappropriate forum for this
question, but
> consulting librarians seemed a good idea when queries to
more technical
> forums
> got me nowhere.... )
>
> I suspect I'm overlooking something obvious (such as
"obviously, this
> can't be
> done," ) but I can't figure out how to copy a url from
an html document
> and
> paste it into the DW Design View pane without losing the
formating! Seems
> like
> a simple and everyday task, but DW just renders
everything as plain,
> unformatted text when you paste it into the design view
editor. (I've
> included
> below the fruitless exchange I had with well-intentioned
responders at a
> webmaster forum, in case there's any confusion about
what it is I'm
> looking
> for....) Thanks, Petter
>
>
> (earlier - unproductive - traffic on this...)
> response 1:
>
> I think you are looking for shift + ctrl + v
>
> response 2:
>
> It might seem a retrograde step to have a small Code
View pane open as
> well as
> the Design Pane, but there are quite a lot of
advantages.
>
> Firstly you can paste straight into there instead, and
then click in the
> Design View to see the changes.
> Secondly, there are some things that are easier to do in
the code window -
> moving Rows of a complicated Table layout (one with
Colspans) is one that
> I
> find easier.
>
> My clarification:
>
> Thank you both for your responses, but I think perhaps I
haven't explained
> myself clearly enough...
>
> shift+ctrl+v is simply "paste as text" - it does that,
and also removes
> line
> feeds that plain old ctrl+v would retain, but it does
not preserve the
> format
> of the copied text.
>
> Pasting directly into Code View won't help either..if
you want to paste
> into
> Code View, you must first find the source code and paste
all of it - href
> tags
> and all - into Code View.
>
> Let me try to clarify with an example: I want to build a
list of U.S.
> embassy
> websites in South Asia. I find a list of all U.S.
embassy websites at <a
> target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge
> href="
http://usembassy.state.gov,">http://usembassy.state.gov,</a>
and
> wish to
> paste just those in South Asia into my DW document,
retaining the labels
> (e.g.
> Afghanistan: Kabul) but also the underlying urls. As far
as I can tell,
> there's
> no way of doing this simply with DW. You can of course
view source, copy
> the
> relevant source code into Code View and then edit out
whatever you don't
> need,
> or you can add the links one at a time in Design View.
DW will not even
> recognize labels that are identical with the underlying
url (e.g. "visit
> our
> webpage at www.exmaple.com") - the tags always have to
be entered manually
> in
> Code View, or via the Property Inspector tool in Design
View.
>
> If you're trying to build a list of links harvested from
many different
> sources - from other html lists, from urls embedded in
text, and even from
> the
> address bar of your browser, this becomes very
cumbersome, but perhaps
> there is
> no easier way of doing it in DW?
>
>
> response 3:
>
> Do a 'save page' to your computer. Open the saved file,
cut and paste into
> your new document. Also remember it is CSS styles that
define the look so
> grab
> the style sheets used in the original page, you can see
the location by
> looking
> at the code of the saved page.
>
> My response
>
> Thanks, but as far as I can see, cutting and pasting
from a saved file is
> no
> different than c&p from a file on the web; DW does
not recognize the
> formatting
> in either case. And even if it did, this would be a very
cumbersome way of
> building a list of links if you wanted to borrow
selectively from a large
> assortment of pages. I suspect what I wish to do is
simply not possible in
> Dreamweaver, but thanks everyone for all the
suggestions!
>
>
> response 4:
>
> I'm starting to understand...
> OK - well in Dreamweaver, in the Design Window, you can
select a sentence
> containing a phrase that is a URL link, and you can
paste it quite happily
> elsewhere in the Design window, and the sentence will
still contain a
> phrase
> that has the URL link behind it.
> That means that it's not a Dreamweaver problem...
>
> You're right - if on my Mac I copy a sentence containing
some links off
> (say)
> the BBC website, and paste them into Dreamweaver, I just
get the text. The
> Mac
> clipboard states the content as "text".
> Interestingly, when I copy off the Dreamweaver Design
window, the Mac
> clipboard states the content as text too - I must
confess I was expecting
> "styled text".
>
> But I think that's the problem, or at least part of
it...
> In the same way, I can create links inside AppleWorks,
and cut and paste
> them
> to my heart's content within the document, but as soon
as I try to export
> them,
> or inport others, I get the same problem.
>
> The immediate workaround would seem to be to save the
source webpage to
> disc,
> and open it in Dreamweaver, where I feel sure you could
drag and drop from
> the
> source file to your target file. "
>
>
>
>