Public_Access_Page Dreamweaver 4.0 Tutorial

Lesson Five: Editing Your Web Site


Editing a Remote Site

Dreamweaver 4.0 lets you copy an existing remote site (or any part thereof) to your local hard drive and edit it there, even if you didn't use Dreamweaver 4.0 to create it in the first place.

Duplicate the entire branch of a site, even if you only want to edit a single document or small part of it.

Example: Your site folder is the yellow folder. The lavender.html file is the document you wish to edit. When you want to edit a document, duplicate the entire path to the root folder. In this example, you would copy the path from the lavender.html file to the yellow folder.

 

 

 

 

 


Figure 36 Duplicating a Web site branch for editing.


1. Create a local folder (if you do not already have one).

2. Connect to the remote site.

How much you want to edit will determine the next step. Do one of the following:

3a. Select the root folder of the remote site and click "Get."

This command will download the entire site to your local hard drive.

3b. Click on the file or folder in the Remote pane of the Site window.

This command will download the selected files or folders to your local hard drive for editing.

Note: Select all the files necessary. Broken links may occur if you do not select all the necessary files and folders.

4. Edit the documents as if creating the documents from scratch.

5. Upload the edited Web Site. Follow the procedures you used in uploading your web site to your host server or host service provider.

Site Management

Your Web site is not static, but a dynamic, ongoing process. Your needs will change and so will your site. Below is the Site window. This window will help you keep track of your site. Finding folders and files is essential if you want to edit your Web site. Use the Site window to organize your Web site activities so you can efficiently locate, edit, add, or delete your Web site's files and folders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Figure 37 The Site management window.

Organizing files into logical folders in your Local Folder window helps you locate files when you need to make changes. The Site Map window shows the relationships that these files and folders have to each other; it gives you a visual map of the links between pages and folders.

The icon bar gives your immediate access to Site window functions. Choose the site you want to edit from the Site: list box (if you have more than one site on the local drive). Clicking the Site Map icon opens the Site Map window so you can review your links. Clicking on the Site Files icon closes the Site Map window and shows only the Site Files window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Figure 38 The Site window Menu and Icon bars.


The Remote Host icon connects you to your remote host. The Get File/Put File icons are for collaborative work on a site and the Help icon is online help with references to every subject in the Dreamweaver 4.0 program.

The File menu performs three major functions:

  • Creating (new windows, templates, files, and folders)
  • Editing (opening, closing, renaming, and deleting existing files and folders)
  • Testing (using browsers to test your site and the links in it)

The Edit menu has a variety of features to manipulate text and files:

  • Cut
  • Copy
  • Paste
  • Select
  • Find and replace
  • Set preferences
  • Learn keyboard shortcuts

The View menu lets you change what, and how, you see files, links, pages, and layouts.

The Site menu lets you create new sites, open existing sites, and define your site parameters. For collaborative work, you can Get (Ctr+Shift+D) files, Put (Ctr+Shift+U) files, manage your Check-in (Crt+Alt+Shift+U)/Check-out (Ctr+Alt+Shift+D) procedures, create, check and change links, and set home pages.

The Window menu switches to the file window, the map window, lets you view your assets, or view your FTP logs.

The Help menu gives you options on which type of online help you want about Dreamweaver 4.0.

Collaboration

The Site menu's Get (Ctr+Shift+D) command, Put (Ctr+Shift+U) command, Check-in (Crt+Alt+Shift+U) command, and Check-out (Ctr+Alt+Shift+D) command is your primary tools for managing your collaboration in site development.

These tools let you control the process of editing your site by setting parameters for how your site collaborators access the your site's files and folders.

You must associate your local site with a remote site before you can use these commands.

Checking-in copies files to the local site. This gives Web page editors control (read/write) over the files they access when editing the page. You can prevent others from altering these same files at the same time (read only). Checking-out transfers your files to your remote site.

Getting files permits you to copy the files for editing. Putting files lets you put the files back in their original folders when you finish editing them.

Another Dreamweaver 4.0 feature is Design Notes. This feature lets collaborators track extra document file information like image source-file names and comments on file status.

Synchronizing files lets you use the most recent version of you site files. This feature synchronizes the files between your local site and your remote site.

To_Glossary Glossary of Terms

Go to: Getting Started | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 3 | Lesson 4 | Lesson 5 | Lesson 6 | Home Page | About | Administrative | Activities | Constitution | Program | Professional | Treasurer's | How to Join | How to Contribute | .

Copyright © 2001 Chico STC Chapter. Send comments to (jjayj@mail.csuchico.edu). Last Updated: 13 June 2001.