Operation Manual

Last updated 3/28/2012

Chapter 2: Workspace

Dreamweaver workflow and workspace

Dreamweaver workflow overview

You can use several approaches to create a website. This is one approach:

Plan and set up your site

Determine where the files will go and examine site requirements, audience profiles, and site goals. Additionally,

consider technical requirements such as user access, as well as browser, plug-in, and download restrictions. After

you’ve organized your information and determined a structure, you can begin creating your

site. (See “Working with

Dreamweaver sites” on page 34.)

Organize and manage your site files

In the Files panel you can easily add, delete, and rename files and folders to change the organization as needed. The

Files panel also has many tools for managing your site, transferring files to and from a remote server, setting up a Check

In/Check Out process to prevent files from being overwritten, and synchronizing the files on your local and remote

sites. From the Assets panel, you can easily organize the assets in a site; you can then drag most assets directly from the

Assets panel into a Dreamweaver document. You can also use Dreamweaver to manage aspects of your

Adobe®Contribute® sites. (See

“Managing files and folders” on page 70 and “Managing assets and libraries” on

page 104.)

Lay out your web pages

Choose the layout technique that works for you, or use the Dreamweaver layout options in conjunction with one

another to create your site’s look. You can use Dreamweaver AP elements, CSS positioning styles, or predesigned CSS

layouts to create your layout. The table tools let you design pages quickly by drawing and then rearranging the page

structure. If you want to display multiple elements at once in a browser, you can use frames to lay out your documents.

Finally, you can create new pages based on a Dreamweaver template, then update the layout of those pages

automatically when the template changes. (See

“Creating pages with CSS” on page 116 and “Laying out pages with

HTML” on page 164.)

Add content to pages

Add assets and design elements such as text, images, rollover images, image maps, colors, movies, sound, HTML links,

jump menus, and more. You can use built-in page-creation features for such elements as titles and backgrounds, type

directly in the page, or import content from other documents. Dreamweaver also provides behaviors for performing

tasks in response to specific events, such as validating a form when the visitor clicks the Submit button or opening a

second browser window when the main page has finished loading. Finally, Dreamweaver provides tools for

maximizing website performance and for testing pages to ensure compatibility with different web browsers. (See

“Adding content to pages” on page 195.)

Create pages by hand coding

Coding web pages by hand is another approach to creating pages. Dreamweaver provides easy-to-use visual editing

tools, but it also provides a sophisticated coding environment; you can use either approach, or both, to create and edit

your pages. (See

“Working with page code” on page 276.)