02web Creating a Site in DreamWeaver

Difficulty Level: Beginners
Dreamweaver Version: MX
Assumed Knowledge: Limited

 

 

Setting up with Dreamweaver MX

Before you open DreamWeaver you should create a folder for your web site. This will be a folder on your local hard drive. It's best to place this folder at the top level of your main C: drive (or in My Documents). I would like you to create a folder called: Dreamweaver Sites

  1. Open: My Computer
  2. Open: The C: Drive
  3. Right click and select: New > Folder
  4. Call the Folder: Dreamweaver Sites
  5. Open this folder and create two more folders.
    One of them should have the name of your site
    The other folder should be for your non site files.
  6. If you wish you may want to copy and paste your index.htm file (that you created last week) in to the folder where you will keep your site files.

Define your site in Dreamweaver

To use all the site management features bundled with Dreamweaver MX, you will need to create a "site definition". This specifies to Dreamweaver where your files are located on your computer and how to move them back and forth between the web server.

Site Definition

Launch Dreamweaver MX.

  1. Go to: Site > New Site



  2. Select the: Advanced tab

  3. Under "Site Name" type in what you want to call this site in Dreamweaver MX. This is only seen in Dreamweaver MX, so you can call it "My Web Site" or whatever you like.



  4. Define your "Local Root Folder" by clicking on the yellow folder icon next to the text field. Use the dialog box to find and select the local directory you created.
  5. You can put the full URL of your site - i.e. http://whatever - into the "HTTP Address" field if you want. This helps if you wish to check your site for broken links. You can also just leave it blank, especially if you don't understand what this means. It's not an essential setting.

    When you're done defining Local Info, your window should look something like the one shown below.



  6. Click on: Remote Info
    Drag the "Access" drop down menu to: FTP



    Fill in your: FTP Host, Login and Password

    When you have filled in these details click on the Test button to check can link to the host server correctly.

Note: If more than one person will be accessing and working on the site, you should probably also use the setup in "Check In/Out" from the Category list in the "Edit" window. This allows you to make sure you and your colleague don't work on the same files and over-write one another's work.

Your site is now defined! You can proceed to work on the site's files.

Preferences

When you start using Dreamweaver MX, it's a good idea to set some preferences. Pull the "Edit" menu to "Preferences." There is a list of categories on the left and preference settings appear on the right. As you grow with Dreamweaver, you may want to come back here and change other settings, but for now, let's just tweak a few:

  1. Select "Code Rewriting" from the Category list. I recommend clicking all the boxes shown on the right and proceed to other settings or click "OK." The function of this preference setting is to automatically re-write any bad code you may have in a file. You will get an alert any time this happens.


  2. "Site" controls how Dreamweaver MX uses FTP to contact the server and move files back and forth. The main one you might want to change is "FTP Connection ...Disconnect after __ Minutes Idle." Leave this checked, because you don't want to stay logged on when you're not using it (security). But bump the Idle number up to 120 minutes or more.

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