DREAM(scenario)Weaver or Nightmare?

[TxTxTxTx]

Ok, Here's the question. I designed a site in Dreamweaver CS3. I have writers
"contributing" to the site in CONTRIBUTE. They "submit" there drafts. Now
rather than being ham-strung by Contribute, I would like to beable to open
their drafts in Dreamweaver, make design changes and then publish the files
from inside Dreamweaver.

Is this possible???

to simplify:

1. I design in dreamweaver. (done)
2. Writers use contribute to add to pages. (done)
3. Writers submit drafts back to me from inside contribute. (done)
4. I open those files in Dreamweaver, make sure design is still ok, make
changes and publish. (I dont know how to do this step.)

Obviously I would like to keep using the more powerful css and design tools in
dreamweaver, but keep the writers from destroying the pages (with dreamweaver)
by constraining them with contribute.

[ThinkInk]

Why don't you use editable regions in your templates. That way Contribute users
can't touch the design. They can only ad content to the regions you specify.
This way you separate design/development and content.

[arfore]

The drafts system is not designed for the Dreamweaver Admin, unless you enable
the Contribute Compatibility piece of the site inside Dreamweaver. The
Contribute compatibility pieces enable the you to use the rollback function.

In my experience you are unable to access the draft of a page directly via DW.
What we have done in my environment is to use the "Edit in External
Application" option for certain user roles. So when someone send me a draft
that I need to edit in DW I can just launch the external editor via Contribute,
then I am accessing the page using DW. After I make my changes I just save the
file and use Contribute to either publish my changes or send it back to someone
else as a new draft.

[SJimba]

afore.. Thanks for that explanation. I've been wondering about the DW /Contrib
conbination use. I'm with TxTx about not totally wanting to stop using DW.

While we are on the subject of DW: Anyone ever had a DW site stop saving the
server login information after a contribute site was established? I turned off
all the Contribute enabled features in DW, but still, every time I open DW, I
have to type userid and password to connect. Annoying!