Operation Manual

35
USING DREAMWEAVER
Working with Dreamweaver sites
Last updated 3/28/2012
The following example shows a sample local root folder on the left and a sample remote folder on the right. The local
root folder on the local machine maps directly to the remote folder on the web server, rather than to any of the remote
folder’s sub folders, or folders that exist above the remote folder in the directory structure.
Note: The above example illustrates one local root folder on the local machine, and one top-level remote folder on the
remote web server. If, however, you are maintaining a number of Dreamweaver sites on your local machine, you would
need an equal number of remote folders on the remote server. In such a case the above example would not apply, and you
would instead create different remote folders within the public_html folder, and then map them to their corresponding
local root folders on your local machine.
When you first establish a remote connection, the remote folder on the web server is usually empty. Then, when you
use Dreamweaver to upload all of the files in your local root folder, the remote folder populates with all of your web
files. The directory structure of the remote folder and the local root folder should always be the same. (That is, there
should always be a one-to-one correspondence between the files and folders in your local root folder, and the files and
folders in your remote folder.) If the structure of the remote folder doesn’t match the structure of the local root folder,
Dreamweaver uploads files to the wrong place, where they might not be visible to site visitors. Additionally, image and
link paths can easily break when folder and file structures are not in synch.
The remote folder must exist before Dreamweaver can connect to it. If you don’t have a designated folder that acts as
your remote folder on the web server, create one or ask your ISP’s server administrator to create one for
you.
Set up a local version of your site
To set up a local version of your site, all you need to do is specify the local folder where you’ll store all of your site files.
The local folder can be on your local computer or on a network server.
1 Identify or create the folder on your computer where you want to store the local version of your site files. (The
folder can be anywhere on your computer.) You’ll specify this folder as your local site in Dreamweaver.
2 In Dreamweaver, choose Site > New Site.
3 In the Site Setup dialog box, make sure the Site category is selected. (It should be selected by default.)
4 In the Site Name text box, enter a name for your site. This name appears in the Files panel and in the Manage Sites
dialog box; it does not appear in the browser.
5 In the Local Site Folder text box, specify the folder you identified in step one—the folder on your computer where
you want to store the local version of your site files. You can click the folder icon to the right of the text box to
browse to the folder.
6 Click Save to close the Site Setup dialog box. You can now begin working on your local site files in Dreamweaver.
login directory
(Shouldn’t be remote folder
in this case)
public_html
(Should be
remote folder)
Assets
(Shouldn’t be
remote folder)
Local folder
(root folder)
HTML
Assets
HTML
no
no
yes