Visual studio ftp website filepath issue
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I'm currently redesigning a company's website and I'm doing so by opening a website and editing it using FTP in Visual Studio 2010 (I'm on Vista, ASP.NET 4.0).

The problem I have is that some of the .aspx pages cannot find files (master pages etc) because visual studio says the filepath is wrong. The filepath is fine for the server (windows server) but not for Visual Studio. An example filepath is:

    ~/design/MasterPageDesign.master

However, if I change the filepath to

    MasterPageDesign.master 

Which is correct because the master file is in the same folder as this aspx page.

Then visual studio automatically changes the filepath to the ftp path 

    ftp://the.server.address.etc.etc

Thus it will work on Visual Studio but not on the server.

I've read about IIS and using a virtual directory but I don't see how this can help. Is there a way round it or is it a dead end?

My Thanks in advance