Getting Started With Dreamweaver

To start Dreamweaver on the machines at Llanover you need to define your site each time you turn the machine on. Once the site is defined at home you will not need to re-define the site again, it will remember your settings.

First create a folder in My Documents with your name on it, then:

1. Go to Start/All Programes/Macromedia/Macromedia Dreamweaver MX (click)

2. This will launch the programme. In the Site window click Define a Site :

3. Name your site i.e. johnweb (on these machines the name is not important)

4. Click next, select No I don’t want to use a server technology – next.

5. Click on the folder icon and browse to find your web folder click open/select – next.

6. In the how do you connect to your remote server select None – next / done.

7. *Your site files will now show up in the site window. Double click on the page you want to work on.

* When you first come to this point you will need to set up your site structure.

Set up a folder for your images and files for each page. A simple site would look something like this:

To create a new folder or file, right click on the main site folder (Site-test site 1 above) select new file/folder. For the pages add .html. Once your site structure is set up you will be able to save your work using File/Save, all the work will be in the main root folder. This makes it a simple job to upload your website when you are ready to do so.

To Start working on your first page (index), double click on the index.html file and the page will open in its own window.

Once your page has opened the first thing to do is to define your page properties. Click Modify/Page Properties (Ctrl+J)

Using the Page Properties window you can give the page a title - enter this in the Title box. This is the title that will appear on the title bar at the top of your window when the page is viewed in internet explorer/netscape navigator. It may also be displayed in search engine results.

If you are using a background image, browse to find it (click on the browse button). Make sure background images are not too overpowering - strong images will detract from the content of the site. Small Images will tile.

Alternatively you can use a background colour, enter a colour value in the box, or click on the small box to select a colour. Again do not use a colour that is too strong unless you have a strong design reason to do so.

You can change the colours for the text, linked text etc. but these can be changed later so I tend to leave these on the default.

Once you have set up the page properties the page is now ready for you to add text, images etc.

Index Introduction Setting up Text Preparing images Adding images Tables Design/research More stuff Getting noticed Publishing your site Links