In this series, we’ll cover various aspects of using Dreamweaver and review useful tools and features that are built into Dreamweaver so you can use them to quickly build compelling websites. It seems logical to start with Dreamweaver’s built-in FTP system… more specifically, the profiles section of the site.
Of course, before you can create a work profile, you’ll need to have access to a web hosting service, and it’s good to have a domain name. From the top menu select: Site > New Site…
Let’s take a quick look at the profile area:
If you click on the ‘basic’ tab, you can use a wizard to create a profile… I prefer to just click on the advanced tab and fill in the site details.
Here, for starters, the only two areas you really need to fill out are ‘Local Information’ and ‘Remote Information’.
The local information includes the name of your site profile (in this sample, sample site) and the folder on your hard drive where you want to save the website files associated with this profile (html, jpg, gif files, etc.) On the remote information tab, you’ll want to select the connection type (mostly FTP) and then fill in your username and password, as well as the host directory on your server.
The host directory can be different depending on your web server, but usually it’s something like:
/public_html/
Prayed
/httpdocs/
Check with your web host. Once you have filled in all the details, simply click the ‘Test’ button to see if Dreamweaver can connect to your web server. If there is an error, try to find what it is and try again until it connects. Once you connect, you’re ready to create web pages and start uploading! One of the beautiful things about Dreamweaver is the ease with which you can manage 2.3 or even dozens of websites.
Once the site profile is created, you can simply choose which site you want to work on from the dropdown menu in Dreamweaver, and you’re ready to go. I think this is a clear advantage over programs like Microsoft FrontPage. All these details are covered in the step by step video tutorials. In the next lesson, we’ll cover creating a test folder on your website so you can easily build your site.
