Using Macromedia Dreamweaver 4

Site management

Before you begin editing web pages that go together, you should set up a folder for them to go into and create a 'site' for them. (If you are only doing one page in passing, you can skip this step.)

Before you begin, use Windows Explorer or the My Computer Icon to create a new folder to put your site in, if you don't already have a folder with documents for the site.

Setting up a 'site' in Dreamweaver allows you to do things like search and replace across the entire site, list and open documents from the directory, and (for advanced users) use templates and other advanced features.

Go into the Site menu and choose 'New Site'.

• Enter a name for the site in the Site Name box,
• click on the folder icon to select the Local Root Folder (where your files will go),
• type in the web address where the pages will be going to in the HTTP address.

If you already know the filename of the main page (index.html? userid.html? etc) for the site, click on Site Map Layout in the left column. Then put the filename of the main page in the Home Page: box.

Then click OK at the bottom of the window.

The site window will be displayed:

You can open files in the site folder by clicking on them; once you have some interlinked files in the folder, you can see a map of them by clicking on the site map button .

This is useful to see how the pages you have are interrelated/interlinked.

To change the definition of a site, go to the Site Menu, choose Define Sites, select the site whose definition you wish to change, and click Edit. Make the changes you wish, click OK, and then click Done in the Edit window.

Jennifer Heise, Last updated March 29, 2001