How to Manage a Web Site With Dreamweaver

Without the right tools, keeping track of all the pages, images, links and other components of a Web site can be a complex task. Dreamweaver 3.0 can display a map of all pages in a site and help you manage the site without a lot of effort.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• FTP Programs
• Macromedia Dreamweaver

1. Start the Dreamweaver program. Open the Site menu and select Define Sites.
2. Type a name for your site in the first box.
3. Type the location of the site in the second box. Click on the folder icon to browse your hard disk for existing sites.
4. Type the URL the page will be published to in the http:// box if you know this information.
5. Click Web Server Info in the box on the left. In the dialog box, select whether you will be publishing via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or Local/Network (use this option if you are moving files on your hard disk or across an interoffice network).
6. Click on Site Map/Layout on the left side of the screen to take you to the management options. Type the location of the home page, typically called index.html or default.html, or click on the folder icon to browse for the home page. Make any other desired changes.
7. Click OK when finished (the other options are explained in the Tips section). The Site Map window will open up.
8. Select Site File view to see a list of all files in the site; choose Site Map view to see a navigational map of the interconnected files within the site.

Tips & Warnings

• The Check In/Check Out option in the Define Sites dialog box is reserved for files that use FTP or Local/Network in the Web Server Info. This option allows you to alert others (or yourself) if a file is being edited or a newer file exists elsewhere. See the Dreamweaver online help documentation for more information about the Check In/Check Out option.
• Design Notes are notes and comments that are attached to individual documents but are not part of the page. The Design Notes option allows you to enable or disable the Design Notes feature and to clean up extra, unneeded notes.
• See the Dreamweaver online help for more information about synchronizing a Web site and updating edited pages to a remote server (your Web host, for example).