Degaging the structure of a site

Make a tree of the structure of an already existing site

[sebzzz]

Hi,

I'm a 20 years old student who just started a summer job to help a Webmaster in an organization recreate their site (the old site is ugly and cluttered).

I have a background with HTML/XHTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and I'm in the process of learning XML technologies.

Now, unfortunately, I noticed that the job wont make me use those skills of mine. The Webmaster there doesn't have a big technical background and the foundation of the site is supposed to be done by an other company. Our job will be to place the content of the old site in this new foundation (and there's a lot of content!)

Now, the webmaster wants me to get the old site in a tree-like structure in word, including every link to every page. They want to do that to look at the tree at the end and decide what they keep and what they trow and in what order it's presented. My question is : Is there an easy way to create such a structure instead of copy/paste everything and loosing my time with this. A software or something?

He also want me to copy all the text of those pages in some other documents to paste the information in the new site when it's available. I asked him why we don't just copy data from the old site to the new site and he told me the old deprecated tags stay with the code this way (like <font>, <center> ...). But they work with dreamweaver and I'm sure this software as the ability to paste information without any formating in the back. Correct me if I'm wrong.

My second preoccupation, since they still are in planning mode, I wonder if I could make them consider an already built CMS like Drupal or Joomla!. They want a shopping system, a member area, dynamic content by the members and lots of those things that can be done with those CMSs.

Now, if I can convince them, I could be doing what I like (implementing the CMS) and they would save money (no need for an extra firm to make their site). The organization's webmaster is scared that at the end of the summer he wont be able to maintain the site with such an option (since I wont be there anymore). So, the way they want to do their site is proceed with the external firm and find a pluggable solution for the shopping section of the site. I think it's a lot of work for nothing.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to possibly convince them about the good of this solution?

[le_gber]

Is there an easy way to create such a structure instead of copy/paste everything and loosing my time with this. A software or something?

try xenu link sleuth to spider your site it will make your job easier

But they work with dreamweaver and I'm sure this software as the ability to paste information without any formating in the back. Correct me if I'm wrong.

if you copy and paste from your browser to DW if may keep all the 'junk' code. What I usually do is copy from browser to notepad and then from notepad to DW. Copying from Word my also get some jusk code in, so if you get round to do it, make sure you do it in .txt files

Now, if I can convince them, I could be doing what I like (implementing the CMS) and they would save money (no need for an extra firm to make their site). The organization's webmaster is scared that at the end of the summer he wont be able to maintain the site with such an option (since I wont be there anymore). So, the way they want to do their site is proceed with the external firm and find a pluggable solution for the shopping section of the site. I think it's a lot of work for nothing.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to possibly convince them about the good of this solution?

I don't really know what to say for this except that what the firm will probably deliver is a similar system than drupal/joomla and that they are likely to pay $$$ for it. You could also ask the firm if it's a CMS 100% developed in-house or if it's their own spin on drupal/joomla.

You could also say that the money they will save on having you do the job could be use to pay you part time for x hours support/training as and when they need it :)