Site definition in Dreamweaver is simply telling Dreamweaver where your site is going to be located on your computer (also known as your local folder) and where your site is going to be located online. The online location is basically inputing your FTP settings.
By defining your site you are allowing Dreamweaver to update your site if you need to rename a file/folder, move a file/folder, update links as well as a number of other sitewide changes. If you do not define your site Dreamweaver will lose the ability to keep your files in check and there is even a slight possibility Dreamweaver might try to update your pages and do so incorrectly.
Bottomline…. define your site before working on a site.
With that said if you are using Dreamweaver to just open a single page, make a couple of changes, and that’s it… that’s fine.
Here is an outline of steps to take when defining a site:
- Create a folder to hold your site on your computer – it is important to place this folder in the correct location and to name it correctly as it can be difficult to make changes once you have defined your site and start working.
- In Dreamweaver go under the SITE MENU and choose NEW SITE
- Give your Site name – this part is english, spaces are allowed.
- Select your local folder
- Create an ‘images’ folder in your local root folder and select it
- Input your FTP settings
That’s pretty much it. If you need to go back and make any changes you can go under the SITE MENU and select EDIT SITE.
You will have to repeat these steps on every machine you work on – meaning, if you create a site in class, you will have to upload the file to the server, and then at home define a site on your computer pointing to a local folder but using the same FTP settings, and then you can download the files to your computer.
EXERCISES
- Review HTML & CSS!
- Define a Site on your computer – name the folder web-exercises
- Create a new HTML page and save as index.html into your site root folder
- Add some content to the page – could just be a simple message.
- Post the contents of your exercises folder online through the Dreamweaver FTP
- At home create a folder for your website
- Define a site on your computer using the same setting but pointing to your home computer folder
- Download the file from the server