Set up your project files

When you create a local site, you can place any existing assets (images or other pieces of content) in the local site’s root folder (the main folder for the site). Then when you’re ready to add content to your pages, the assets are there and ready for you to use.

The sample files included with Dreamweaver contain assets for the sample website you’ll build using these Getting Started with Dreamweaver tutorials. The first step in creating the site is to copy the sample files from the Dreamweaver application folder to an appropriate folder on your hard disk.

1. Create a new folder called local_sites on your hard disk.

   For example, create a folder called local_sites in either of the following two locations:

   • In Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\your_user_name\My Documents\local_sites
   • On the Macintosh: Macintosh HD/Users/your_user_name/Documents/local_sites

     NOTE

     On the Macintosh, there’s a folder called Sites already in your user folder. Don’t use that Sites folder as your local folder; the Sites folder is where you place your pages to make them publicly accessible when you’re using the Macintosh as a web server.

2. Locate the cafe_townsend folder in the Dreamweaver application folder on your hard disk.

   If you installed Dreamweaver to its default location, the path to the folder is as follows:

   • In Windows: C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 8\Tutorial_assets\cafe_townsend\.
   • On the Macintosh: Macintosh HD/Applications/Macromedia Dreamweaver 8/Tutorial_assets/cafe_townsend.

     ABOUT...

     About local and remote "root" folders The local "root" folder of your Dreamweaver site is often the main or top-level folder for your website. It usually corresponds to an identical folder on the remote site (web server). The root folder also usually defines the first part of your website’s URL, following the domain name. For example, if your local root folder is called mywebsite, and you have an identical root folder defined on the remote site, the URL for your website would be something like http://www.yahoo.com/mywebsite. In some cases, the local root folder may not have an exact name equivalent on the remote site. For example, if you own the domain name www.mywebsite.com, with a remote root directory of public_html, your local root folder could still be called mywebsite. The files in both the local and remote root directories would be identical; only the folder names (public_html on the remote site, and mywebsite on the local computer) would be different.

3. Copy the cafe_townsend folder into the local_sites folder.

   The cafe_townsend folder is the folder that you will use as the root folder (main folder) for your Dreamweaver site.