TIP 140: Changing Documents Site-wide

There may be times when you need to make site-wide changes, such as updating the DOCTYPE of every page. GoLive CS2 offers an easy method for making this kind of change quickly and accurately.

There are several site-wide document content changes that you can make, including: Convert Styles, Convert Encoding, Convert to HTML, Convert to XHTML, Change Doctype, Convert to XHTML Mobile, and Rewrite Source Code. Choose Edit > Document Content and then select one of the five options from the submenu (Figure 140a).

Figure 140a. You can select a conversion option from the Special > Convert submenu. Find the Rewrite Source Code command under Special > Source Code.

Here's a brief description of what each option does:

• Convert Styles inventories text styles and converts them to structural markup and CSS.

• Change Encoding changes the charset (character set) meta tag and re-encodes all the text in the page (see Tip 45).

• Convert to HTML converts XHTML syntax to HTML.

• Convert to XHTML converts HTML syntax to XHTML.

• Change DOCTYPE allows you to assign a different DOCTYPE (see Tip 65) to the pages.

• Convert to XHTML Mobile converts Web pages for wireless publishing by converting the markup to XHTML, downsizing the images, and stripping unnecessary code and graphics.

• Rewrite Source Code is found under Special > Source Code and cleans up the way the source code is formatted.

Regardless of which conversion command you choose, you'll be greeted with a dialog box that acts as both a safety net (what if you really didn't want to convert your whole site from XHMTL to HTML?) and as an opportunity to fine-tune the changes that will be made. Adjust the settings as you like and then use the Work On menu near the bottom of the dialog to decide which pages will be affected (Figure 140b).

Figure 140b. Adjust the conversion settings and decide which files to process before you click OK.