Tommy Logic

Cleanup extra code generated by MS FrontPage using Adobe Dreamweaver

Question:

I have just taken on a web project that was originally created in Microsoft FrontPage. Is there any way to cleanup all the extra code that has been generated by FrontPage. I am using Dreamweaver and I need to clean it up rather than redo the whole site all over again.

Answer:

Normally, I would recommend just redoing the entire site from scratch, but if you have to maintain that site I have this nifty method that will do the job in minutes.

Well the old FrontPage nightmare. What a mess, I feel for you already. Luckily, I cam across this extension supplied by Macromedia originally for Dreamweaver MX and version 8. I have tested it in the C3 environment and it seems to work just as well. This extension is for relatively static pages. I have not tested it on a dynamic environment (and I can only hope that i never see a dynamic site created by FrontPage).

This MXP Extension claims it will clean up the code sitewide... I would be very careful using that operation as could potentially lose or corrupt the entire project. I personally recommend doing it page by page. There are a couple of anomolies about it, but nothing major. The one thing I notice is that it can remove mouseover functions, so be sure to look over your documents carefully after the cleanup process.

**NOTE**
Always work with a backup copy of your files. Maintain the original in a separate folder.

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From Adobe:

This tool will remove any extraneous code - such as WebBots, navigation-related comments and META tags - which are all added by FrontPage. This extension can run on individual pages or an entire site. It removes extraneous code including: proprietary tags, data and comments inserted by Microsoft FrontPage and presents a report detailing what has been done. You can specify which areas of the code will be cleaned up.

How to install:

1. Download "CleanupFPHtml.mxp" from Adobe Exchange.
2. Double click downloaded file or open within "Adobe Extension Manager"

Access From within Dreamweaver:

To access this extension choose:

1. Commands > Clean Up FrontPage HTML Sitewide.
2. In the reports dialog, select the Clean Up FrontPage HTML report

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