From the book
From the book
Creating the Local Site
Because the process of setting up your local and remote sites has several steps, Dreamweaver provides a handy Site Setup dialog that contains all the settings. In Dreamweaver CS5, the process of site definition was considerably streamlined to make it easier and faster.
You’ll use the Site Setup dialog to create both the local and remote sites. In this section, however, we’ll just create the local site. See “Defining the Remote Server,” later in this chapter for instructions on how to tell Dreamweaver about the remote site.
To create the local site:
- In the Dreamweaver Welcome screen, click the Dreamweaver Site link A.
- In the Site Name field, enter the name you want for your site.
- Local Site Folder is the location on your computer where you want to store your files. Click the folder icon to the right of the text field, which brings up the Choose Root Folder dialog, and browse to the folder on your hard disk that contains all of the files for your site. If the folder doesn’t already exist, on either Windows or Macintosh, click the New Folder button in the dialog, and then name and save the folder. It’s usually a good idea to give the folder the same or similar name to the site name.
- Click the Advanced Settings category in the Site Setup dialog.
- Click the Browse icon next to the Default Images Folder field. This brings up the Choose Image Folder dialog inside the local root folder.
- You need to create the Images folder, so click the New Folder button in the dialog to create the folder. Name it images. On Windows, you can create the folder without a naming dialog; on the Mac, you’ll have to click Create after you enter the name. You will return to the dialog showing the contents of the root site folder, which will now contain the new images folder. Click Select (Choose).
- In the Web URL field, enter the Web address of your site including the leading http:// D.
- Click Save.
or
Choose Site > New Site.
The Site Setup dialog appears, set to the Site category B.
The site name is only for your reference; it won’t be visible to users of the site.
On Windows, select the folder in the dialog, click Open, and then click the Select button.
or
On Macintosh, select the folder in the dialog and click the Choose button.
The dialog closes and you will return to the Site Setup dialog. The field next to Local Site Folder now shows the path to the folder you just selected.
That’s all you absolutely need to do to define a site and get started with it in Dreamweaver CS5. You can click Save now and start working. As you build your site and Dreamweaver needs additional information, it will prompt you as needed.
Our recommendation, however, is to go ahead and complete two other items in the Site Setup dialog.
The Advanced Settings subcategories appear, with the Local Info category selected C.
You will return to the Local Info category of the Site Setup dialog, with the path to the images folder filled in in the Default Images Folder field.
In this case, we are only creating the local site. If you want to continue on and define the remote site, go to step 3 in “Defining the Remote Server,” later in this chapter.
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A Click the Dreamweaver Site link in the Welcome screen to begin creating your site.
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B In the Site pane of the Site Setup dialog, enter the name and local site folder of your site.
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C Next, you should tell Dreamweaver where the images folder is and the site’s Web URL in the Local Info category.
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D When you enter the information about the images folder, Dreamweaver displays the path to the folder.