Using the Files panel

The Files panel enables you to view files and folders, whether they are associated with a Dreamweaver site or not, and perform standard file maintenance operations, such as opening and moving files.

You can move the Files panel (see Docking and undocking panels and panel groups), as necessary, and you can set preferences for the Files panel (see Setting preferences for the Files panel).

Use this panel to perform the following tasks:

• Accessing sites, a server, and local drives
• Viewing files and folders
• Managing files and folders in the Files panel
• Working with a visual map of your site

For Dreamweaver sites, use the following options to display or transfer files:

Site Files view displays the file structure of the remote and local sites in the panes of the Files panel. (A preference setting determines which site appears in the left pane and which appears in the right pane; see Setting preferences for the Files panel.) Site Files view is the default view for the Files panel.

Testing Server view displays the directory structure of the testing server and the local site.

Site Map view displays a graphical map of your site based on how the documents are linked to one another. Hold this button down to select Map Only or Map and Files from the pop-up menu.

The current pop-up menu lists your Dreamweaver sites, servers you’ve connected to, and provides access to your local drives and desktop.

Connect/Disconnect (FTP, RDS, WebDAV protocol, and Microsoft Visual SourceSafe) connects to or disconnects from the remote site. By default, Dreamweaver disconnects from the remote site if it has been idle for more than 30 minutes (FTP only). To change the time limit, select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Dreamweaver > Preferences (Macintosh), then select Site from the category list on the left.

Refresh refreshes the local and remote directory lists. Use this button to manually refresh the directory lists if you deselected either Refresh Local File List Automatically or Refresh Remote File List Automatically in the Site Definition dialog box (see Setting up a remote folder).

Get File(s) copies the selected files from the remote site to your local site (overwriting the existing local copy of the file, if any). If Enable File Check In and Check Out is turned on, the local copies are read-only; the files remain available on the remote site for other team members to check out. If Enable File Check In and Check Out is turned off, getting a file transfers a copy that has both read and write privileges.

The files Dreamweaver copies are the files you select in the active pane of the Files panel. If the Remote panes is active, the selected remote or testing server files are copied to the local site; if the Local pane is active, Dreamweaver copies the remote or testing server version of the selected local files to the local site. For more information, see Getting files from a remote server.

Put File(s) copies the selected files from the local site to the remote site.

The files Dreamweaver copies are the files you select in the active pane of the Files panel. If the Local pane is active, the selected local files are copied to the remote site or testing server; if the Remote panes is active, Dreamweaver copies the local versions of the selected remote server files to the remote site. For more information, see Putting files on a remote server.

If you are putting a file that doesn’t already exist on the remote site, and Enable File Check In and Out is on, Dreamweaver adds the file to the remote site as "checked out." Click the Check In Files button if you want to add a file without the checked out status.

Check Out File(s) transfers a copy of the file from the remote server to your local site (overwriting the existing local copy of the file, if any) and marks the file as checked out on the server. This option is not available if Enable File Check In and Check Out in the Site Definitions dialog box is turned off for the current site. For more information, see Checking files into and out of a remote folder.

Check In File(s) transfers a copy of the local file to the remote server and makes the file available for editing by others. The local file becomes read-only. This option is not available if the Enable File Check In and Check Out option in the Site Definitions dialog box is turned off for the current site. For more information, see Checking files into and out of a remote folder.

Synchronize synchronizes the files between the local and remote folders. For more information, see Synchronizing the files on your local and remote sites.

The Expand/Collapse button expands or collapses the Files panel to display one or two panes.