PHP w/ Dreamweaver

[Gibson070602]

I just gained a client who's site was completely built off of Contributor using
PHP scripting.

When I went and downloaded their site into Dreamweaver some pages dont show
text at all. And the images are all done in Fireworks and I am used to
photoshop. HOw can I change these so I can see the images and they look like
normal .jps to me instead of Firework .jpg. I tried to save them in Photoshop
CS2 and then save them for the web and as a .jpg and that doesnt work. It only
seems to let me save it in .gif only. Any suggestions.

My BIGGEST PROBLEM:

Do you happen to know or anyone out there as I AM DESPERATE if there is a way
I can easily use PHP in Dreamweaver without having to rebuild the sites into
htm or html?

I looked up PHP and I am not familiar with it at all - why is it used vs. htm
or html? Does anyone know?

IF anyone has any recommendations I WOULD VERY MUCH appreciate it!

THANK YOU,
Ann

[ChrisHe]

Yes, you can use php without contribute etc. , although if the original site
was built with contribute it's going to be extremely tied into DW MX etc.
I write using dreamweaver just to create the basic page and some php, then use
"Zend Platform" (very good, written by the same people as php) to do the rest.
Zend gives you good debugging, which is what is missing otherwise.
normal html images are best as .gif for small ones, jpg maybe for larger, or
you can use png. But jps is not a web format. Your "file associations" on your
pc determine what application is connected to each extension - remove that and
you don't need to edit images in fireworks, you can use anything.

PHP is very different to html - have you used PHP before? It's for SERVER side
control of variables etc. (e.g. $total = $price * qty)
you then display the result within the html page using something like
<p> Thanks for you order , the total is: <?php echo $total ?> </p>

You can switch in and out of php within the html as much as you like.