Templates Editing

I tried to search in the forum but these keywords return a broad set of confusing results... so I have to ask you directly:

I’m switching to MODx to enable some of my websites to be edited by customers. Very good for this, I think!
I’m having some little problems porting my XHtml template to a MODx enabled template, but I’m slowly figuring out how to make it.

I make my template in a classic way, then I create a folder under assets/templates/myTemplate with all JS, CSS and image resources.
Then I create, in MODx, a template resource and I paste the html code, changing references to the resources. It works fine.

Only one thing is making me suffer: the template editor.
When I port my html to MODx, I have to use this to change how my site looks.
It’s a simple text area with no highlighting or autocompletion, and I understand this because of its web based nature. But I really would appreciate to edit my template using my classic tools.

1) Unfortunately, I can’t find where MODx saves the template files. I could open that files in my editor to work, but where are they?! I can only access my template from the Manager -> Resources -> Manage Templates...

2) The new Dreamweaver CS5 feature, that enables the editing of PHP templates finding the right references of the various server-side files, could really help. But in Wordpress, for example, I can edit directly the template files. Again, where are they in MODx?

Thank you!

You cannot find the templates because they are stored in the database. You can install editarea plugin (link: http://modxcms.com/extras/package/514) to highlight the html in MODx manager, or install a snippet that gives you the possibility to use a external file as template, so you can edit it with dreamweaver.
I didn’t test it but there is a snippet for external files in this thread http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,10351.0.html.

Furthermore, don’t use the search module in this forum, it doesn’t work well (I don’t know why). The best way is to use google, for example you could search for: "external template MODx".

As stated above it’s in the DB.

I use FF addon It’s all Text and set that to use Notepad++ but could be any editor of your choice.
I split my templates into Chunks(also in DB) so there is little code in each chunk not much to edit don’t need anything fancy.

External files other option. Use Google search as above.

Welcome to MODx.

Thank you, guys. Very helpful.