Dreamweaver set up

First you need to have a local directory to store your web. Using (spit!!) Windows placings, is as good a place as any. Create a directory (folder) at:
c:/my documents/my webs/blob.com
this will be the local web directory.

I would also suggest a local copy of this for a future local Apache server (create folder):
c:/WWWblob
this will be the remote directory for testing purposes.

Now start up dreamweaver. The first thing to set-up is a site. I set up two: Blob local and Blob remote. The local site is for testing and the remote site is for when transferring files to the remote host... the server.

If you do not wish to test with a server running locally, then just use the remote site (next paragraph). For the local site go to site>define sites>edit and add a site for Blob local. Enter the name (blob local) and the rest of the details for page one. For page 2 (remote info) specify the file server for local network (c:/my documents/my webs/blob.com) and the remote directory (c:/WWWblob) as above. Check-in and out is not required nor are any of the next three pages.

For the remote set-up you need server ftp details and to be connected to the www, ie dialed-up. Now set-up Blob remote. The first page (general) is as above. The remote access page is:

remote access ftp
ftp host blob.com
host directory /www/
login and password as given for your account (ftp)
use passive ftp yes, the others no.

Now, if you are online, select the remote site.. if you connect you should see the directory structure of your remote web site.

Play with it

Now you need to play with files and directories (Microsoft call them folders; don't let them get you down!). Play with templates and Cascading Style Sheets. Copy this site if you wish, it has basic functionality for a good set-up. (send a mail, I'll tell you how). Once you have a site of sorts, you need to know the file transfer terms:

Put

You put files from your local site to the remote site

Get

You get files from the remote site to your local site

Sychronize

Dreamweaver can check to see which files need updating, from or to the remote host. This is useful when you have a large site and don't want to put all of the same files again (slow connections, big files etc).

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