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Adobe Dreamweaver has brought the business of web development within the reach of everybody. However, it is still a sophisticated piece of software with numerous floating palettes which can be a little off-putting for the new user. So, in this article, we aim to show you how to find your way through the maze of features and create a basic Dreamweaver web site.

It is very important that you design and sketch out how you want the site to work and what information will be available for users to navigate their way through. It is also a good idea to keep your first project simple. Once you have completed a basic version of your site, you can look to expand your knowledge and expertise and then add enhancements to the site.

The second important pre-Dreamweaver operation is the creation of a “local root folder”. This is Dreamweaver jargon for the folder that contains all of the files which form part of your site. You can create it anywhere: your desktop, your hard drive, a network volume, etc. However, it is important that you only put your site files in this folder and nothing else.

You should also add an images folder inside the “local root folder”. It can have any name you like but later, when you set up the Dreamweaver site, it will be designated as the default images folder and will help to ensure that your visitors don’t see any blank image icons on your pages.

Now, finally, we launch Dreamweaver and create a new web site by choosing New Site from the Site menu. Click the Advanced tab (”Advanced” here simply means manual, so don’t be intimidated.) You will notice a series of categories on the left of the screen. Only the first two categories need to be completed: Local Info and Remote Info.

In the Local Info window, enter a name for you new site then specify the location of the local root folder and default images folder you created earlier. The easiest way of doing this is to click on the browse icons next to each of these two boxes (the yellow folder icons).

Now activate the Remote Info section on the left. If your website will be an intranet, choose Local/Network from the Access Method drop-down menu. Click on the Browse icon then locate the server and sub-directory where your intranet resides. For a public web-site, choose FTP. Enter the appropriate information in each of the boxes. These details are available from your web hosting company and will have been emailed to you when you signed up.

The next step is to create all of the pages in your website arranged in the appropriate sub-directories. Don’t put any content in the pages at this stage, just create and save each page into your local root folder. This is done, so that later, when you create links on any page, the page that you link to will already exist, so you can just point to it and automatically create the correct link.

There’s still one more step that you should do before you are ready to actually start work on the page content; you should create at least one template. Templates allow you to maintain a consistent look and feel throughout the site. It consists of fixed elements, such as logo and navigation links and what Dreamweaver calls “Editable Regions”. These are the areas of the page which can be altered each time you use the template.

Once you have your template(s) in place, you are ready to start putting the actual pages. Open each of the pages, apply the appropriate template then add your content. To test our page at any time, just press F12 on your keyboard.

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