Plan and set up your site

Determine where the files will go and examine site requirements, audience profiles, and site goals. Additionally, consider technical requirements such as user access, as well as browser, plug‑in, and download restrictions. After you’ve organized your information and determined a structure, you can begin creating your site. (See Working with Dreamweaver sites.)

Organize and manage your site files

In the Files panel you can easily add, delete, and rename files and folders to change the organization as needed. The Files panel also has many tools for managing your site, transferring files to and from a remote server, setting up a Check In/Check Out process to prevent files from being overwritten, and synchronizing the files on your local and remote sites. From the Assets panel, you can easily organize the assets in a site; you can then drag most assets directly from the Assets panel into a Dreamweaver document. You can also use Dreamweaver to manage aspects of your Adobe®Contribute® sites. (See Managing files and folders and Managing assets and libraries.)

Lay out your web pages

Choose the layout technique that works for you, or use the Dreamweaver layout options in conjunction with one another to create your site’s look. You can use Dreamweaver AP elements, CSS positioning styles, or predesigned CSS layouts to create your layout. The table tools let you design pages quickly by drawing and then rearranging the page structure. If you want to display multiple elements at once in a browser, you can use frames to lay out your documents. Finally, you can create new pages based on a Dreamweaver template, then update the layout of those pages automatically when the template changes. (See Creating pages with CSS and Laying out pages with HTML.)

Add content to pages

Add assets and design elements such as text, images, rollover images, image maps, colors, movies, sound, HTML links, jump menus, and more. You can use built-in page-creation features for such elements as titles and backgrounds, type directly in the page, or import content from other documents. Dreamweaver also provides behaviors for performing tasks in response to specific events, such as validating a form when the visitor clicks the Submit button or opening a second browser window when the main page is finished loading. Finally, Dreamweaver provides tools for maximizing website performance and for testing pages to ensure compatibility with different web browsers. (See Adding content to pages.)

Create pages by hand coding

Coding web pages by hand is another approach to creating pages. Dreamweaver provides easy-to-use visual editing tools, but it also provides a sophisticated coding environment; you can use either approach, or both, to create and edit your pages. (See Working with page code.)

Set up a web application for dynamic content

Many websites contain dynamic pages that allow visitors to view information stored in databases, and usually allow some visitors to add new information and edit information in the databases. To create such pages, you must first set up a web server and application server, create or modify a Dreamweaver site, and connect to a database. (See Preparing to build dynamic sites.)

Create dynamic pages

In Dreamweaver, you can define a variety of sources of dynamic content, including recordsets extracted from databases, form parameters, and JavaBeans components. To add the dynamic content to a page, simply drag it onto the page.

You can set your page to display one record or many records at a time, display more than one page of records, add special links to move from one page of records to the next (and back), and create record counters to help users keep track of the records. You can encapsulate application or business logic using technologies such as Macromedia® ColdFusion® from Adobe® and web services. If you need more flexibility, you can create custom server behaviors and interactive forms. (See Making pages dynamic.)

Test and publish

Testing your pages is an ongoing process that happens throughout the development cycle. At the end of the cycle, you publish the site on a server. Many developers also schedule periodic maintenance to ensure that the site remains current and functional. (See Getting and putting files to and from your server.)