Create a Web Site with Dreamweaver CS4

This tutorial will explain how to Create a Web site using Dreamweaver CS4. Before you create a web site, you need to create a local root folder where you'll store all the files, images, and other elements that make up the site. Web sites are much more than just a bunch of web pages.

All of the images, documents, buttons, video files, pdf docs, media clips, etc. are separate files that must be uploaded with the HTML pages. It also includes any CSS files, java scripts, and any other files necessary for the web page to display properly when viewed.

When you create a web site in Dreamweaver CS4, you're instructing Dreamweaver where the local root folder is that contains all of the files in the web site.

Dreamweaver CS4 will keep track of all the files in the folder, update them when necessary, and give you easy access to them when you're editing your pages and working on your site.

Creating a Local Root Folder

Careful planning and organizing the structure of your root folder at the beginning will ensure a successful web site. Your local root folder will hold all of the files, images, documents and other elements that go into making your web site. It could very well be that you've already created or assembled a lot of the images and files that you want to use in your site.

You may have used Photoshop or some other image editing program to create images. You might have some MS Word documents that you've converted to .pdf files or some Excel spreadsheets. All of these types of files will be stored in your root folder.

You can organize this folder with sub folders and other folders within those folders. Once you've got your local roof folder created, you're ready to define your web site in Dreamweaver CS4.

Create a Web site

Follow the steps below to create a web site in Dreamweaver CS4.

You need to define a local root folder where you'll store all of the files that you'll use to build your web site. Eventually, it might look something like the one to the right, filled with sub folders and html files.

Open Dreamweaver CS4

Click the Site menu, and then click on New Site. Dreamweaver gives you two choices for how to create a web site... the

Basic or Advanced method. For now, choose the Basic tab.

Click the Basic tab for now.

Name your site. Know that site names are not file names, so you can use any naming convention you want.

Enter the URL for your web site. For money-making web sites, this should be your very own domain name. Having your own domain name is important for any web site that you want to get a lot of traffic.

Click Next to continue

Click the No option in response to the next screen's question. Do you want to work with a server technology such as ColdFusion, ASP, .NET, .ISP, or PHP. Server technologies like these are for more advanced database driven web sites. This is a more complex topic than we'll cover in this tutorial. For now choose the No option.

Click Next to continue

Click the Edit Local Copies on My Machine Then Upload to Server When Ready option.

When asked, enter the location of your local root folder where you're going to store your files or click on the folder icon, located to the right of the input box, and then select the folder from the Find window. This is the local root folder that you created to store all of your web site files.

Click Next to continue

Click the popup menu, and choose None from the available options. You'll set up your connection to your remote server later.

Click Next to continue. You'll see a list of all the options you've chosen for this site.

Click Back to make changes, or click Done to complete the process. Dreamweaver creates a site definition based on your options and your choice of the local root folder. If you already have files in your root folder, Dreamweaver will go through all of the files and display a list of all your folders, sub-folders, and files.

You've defined your web site in Dreamweaver. Now you'll be able to begin creating web pages inside your root folder.

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