CMS Made Simple Forums

What is the fastest way to view changes to templates and stylesheets in the final output?

Thanks.

Open two browser windows (preferably of the same browser). One window has the admin with the template or stylesheet open. The other one has the frontpage loaded.

Then, here comes the trick, you press the 'submit' button in admin, wait for the confirmation message, and quickly change to the other window and hit F5 on your keyboard (I assume you're using a keyboard).

Excellent tip! That does sound like the fastest way.

Thanks much.

There is another associated side to this issue. What if one does not want to post the changes to the web? What is the best way to view the changes then?

If you need to make quick template changes to a live site then you can use a smarty conditional as outlined in this forum post.

For stylesheet changes I'd recommend sticking with the tools in your browser. I'm a big fan of the Firebug plugin, but the developer tools in most browsers will let you make live changes to the css which you can then copy back into your stylesheet.

Thanks much everyone.