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Using Dreamweaver: Managing your
site
Working on a Web project in Dreamweaver
is like performing surgery. You must block off the parts
that are not relevant in order to concentrate on the project
at hand.
In order to work on specific Web projects,
(your Web art project, your Final Project, or your Final
Exam) you must "define your site" each time you
begin working on that project.
You must "define a site"
before you begin working on any Web project.
Whenever you work within Dreamweaver,
the first thing you must do is to Define Your Site. You
must do this every time you use Dreamweaver. If you always
use the same computer, you can save your settings and reuse
them, but you still must always begin your session with
Dreamweaver by Defining Your Site.
Defining Your Site: What Does That
Mean?
When we write HTML pages by hand, as
you know, we must make sure to save all of these pages and
related files inside a single folder. In class, we set up
a folder called www which houses all of the Web files for
your various Web projects. Your Photoshop files are outside
this folder. All that belongs inside your www folder are
your sub-folders with HTML pages and GIF and JPG images
(saved inside an images folder).
Dreamweaver helps you manage your Web
site. The way it does this is by associating all of your
files with a "local root directory." This
directory can be any folder, as long as ALL OF YOUR HTML
FILES AND WEB IMAGES ARE INSIDE THIS FOLDER.
- When you work on your Web art assignment
the "webart" folder will be your local root
folder in Dreamweaver.
- When you work on your Final Web
Site Project, the "finalproject" folder will
be your local root folder in Dreamweaver.
By "defining your site"
(specifying a local root directory) you are setting up the
architecture of your links. You can link to any file inside
this folder very easily, but in order to use Dreamweaver
you must start by telling Dreamweaver what folder all of
your Web-only files are in-- this is called "Defining
Your Site" or "Specifying a Local Root Folder."
 Step
ONE: Launch Dreamweaver from Start-->Programs
If you cannot find Dreamweaver in the
Programs folder, check the Novell Applications window. If
you still can't find it, do a search by going to Start-->Search
and typing "dreamweaver" in the search field.
 Step
TWO: Define your Site
At the top menu, select Site-->Define
Sites (If you are working on a computer where you already
did this, you can go to Site-->Open Site)
 Click
New to Define a New Site if your site is not listed in the
window.
 Fill
in the following fields for this Local Info dialog box.
**FOR YOUR LOCAL ROOT FOLDER, CHOOSE
THE FOLDER OF THE PROJECT YOU ARE WORKING ON; DO NOT CHOOSE
THE IMAGES FOLDER. CHOOSE THE FOLDER THAT HOUSES YOUR
IMAGES FOLDER.
This example is for the Web art assignment.
For the Final Project assignment, substitute webart with
finalproject.
When you are done, do not click OK.
Instead, choose Remote Info from under Category on the left.
 Under
Remote Info you will fill out the fields to FTP to the server.
Choose FTP from the pulldown list under Access. Type nmc.loyola.edu
in the FTP Host field.
Leave the Host Directory field blank
ONLY if you want to work on your Table of Contents, otherwise
you must specify the folder that will hold the files for
your particular project, webart or finalproject or postmodernism.
You should think of each project or
assignment as an entirely new Web site.
Enter your FTP login and Password and
then click OK.
 You
will get this message. Click OK.
 Now
you are done defining your site. The site you defined is
now listed in the list. Click Done.
 Now
Dreamweaver will automatically open your site in the
Site Management Window. All of your HTML files and your
images folder with your GIF and JPEG images inside will
be viewable from here in the right hand window.
To connect to the Web server, click
the 2 plugs icon and the files on the server will appear
in the left window. NOTE THAT THIS IS OPPOSITE FROM THE
OTHER SOFTWARE WE USED WS_FTP WHERE THE SERVER FILES WERE
LISTED ON THE LEFT AND LOCAL FILES ON THE RIGHT.
You can double-click the name of the
HTML file you want to work on and Dreamweaver will open
it in the editor window.
To make a new HTML page, go to File-->New.
Why is Defining Your Site So Important
Dreamweaver makes many things, such
as linking to images and other HTML pages very easy, but
it only knows how to make a relative link if:
#1 YOUR FILE IS SAVED. SAVE YOUR HTML
FILE BEFORE LINKING TO PAGES OR INSERTING IMAGES.
#2 YOUR SITE IS DEFINED; so that it
knows the "relationship" between the HTML file
with the link and the page or image you are linking to.
What you use the Site Window for:
If you want to rename a file, rename
it from the site window and Dreamweaver will search your
site for all links to this file name and change them to
the new name. Very convenient!
If you want to move a file. Say you
accidentally saved an HTML file inside your images folder.
Just click the plus sign next to the images folder to expand
its contents, and then drag the file out of the images folder.
Dreamweaver will again check all of your links and rename
them so you don't break any links.
When you are ready to move your files
to the server, this is where you do it now. Be careful to
make sure that file structure is exactly the same on both
the Local Folder and the Server.
You can also use the site window to
search and replace text or code in all files in a Web site.
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