Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition) General Discussion

I've found this topic discussed in several places on these forums, however, no one has seemed to give a definitive answer and support from netbeans and their tutorials seems to be avoiding this issue. I'm referring to using templates that Netbeans Visual Web editor did not generate. The scenario is very common, and I'm surprised it is not addressed. Most company's that are large enough that they actually use java instead of a scripting language for their websites will also be large enough to have professionally designed websites. The problem comes when you need to be using a visual web editor to make development faster for you (costs less for the company) and easier for the next guy who comes (once again costs less for the company) while fitting within the template so your maintain your "professional" look to your client.

The problem? Netbean's visual web editor seems to require you to build the the templates within the visual web editor.. which ends up breaking your professionally designed layout if it has any complexity to it at all (such as variable width design that changes with the browser size). You can't directly pull in your own code for any portion of the webpage without letting it be defined by the visual editor. Does anybody know of a solution beyond hacking away at your layout to make it work with the visual web editor? I'd rather not take hacking the layout approach as that will require re-hacking the layout everytime the web designer changes the template! Or, do you know of a different IDE.. maybe even drop JSF, but still in the java world, that has a good visual web editor that allows you to use your own templates? Really I'm looking for a visual web editor that ONLY works with the content area, not all of the html!

Any suggestions are welcome. I'm surprised at the small amount of discussion to this issue. It makes me believe that I am missing something in visual web editor that allows you to do this, or that most companies would rather code their apps by hand in JSF rather than use a visual web editor. Any experiences or suggestions?