Adobe Dreamweaver is a software program utilized by both Windows and Mac. Essentially, it is a website authoring program that allows users to build multifaceted, interactive websites utilizing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Jquery and server-side languages. It is also robust enough to incorporate blogs built by both WordPress and other content management and blog posting applications.

Becoming familiar with Dreamweaver may seem daunting at first but this tutorial will teach you the fundamental steps needed to create your website. Through its instruction, you will reach the point where you can begin the actual website building process.

How to set up a new site:

1. Create a folder with the name of your website.

2. Create a folder inside your website folder named ‘images’. This is where you will keep all the images for your website. Make sure to give descriptive names to your images so that people with impaired visibility will know what they are. Also, when you name your HTML files make sure to use dashes and not blank spaces. These will then be readable by the search engines and will assist with your search engine optimization efforts.

3. Open Dreamweaver, click on add new site, go to the advanced tab and in your local root folder make sure that the default images folder links to the images folder you created above.

4. In the same area as above, make links relative to document, enable case sensitive checking and enable the cache.

5. For remote info, if you have a website domain make sure that ftp is checked. Contact your remote hosting website provider for the ftp address, ftp domain name, login and password. Next, click the test button. If all goes well, you are ready to proceed. If you have problems try using the passive ftp instead.

6. Create a new html file. Give it a title like ‘homepage’ and save it as index.html. This will be the main page of your website and what visitors will see first. To create additional html pages simply create a new html file. Make sure to give your pages descriptive names. For example, if you own a dog grooming business and you want to have a page for your photos give your page the name dog-grooming-photos.html.

7. You will want to set up Dreamweaver to preview in Firefox, Internet Explorer and possibly Opera and Google Chrome. Different browsers are well known for displaying websites differently and you will need to ensure that your website displays correctly in all of them. To do this, go to edit, preferences, preview in browser, and add your desired browser. I would suggest using Internet Explorer as your main browser as it is the trickiest out of all of them. Generally, if IE displays correctly the others will follow suit. Remember to toggle between IE 6, 7 and 8.

Congratulations! You are now ready to begin building your website in Dreamweaver. Make sure to check out the three different interfaces, Code, Split and Design. Code is primarily for programmers, Split is, as it sounds, a split view between Code and Design, and Design is for non-programmers. Take your time and have fun exploring the interfaces. Good luck building your new site.

Written by Gina Minton. Read more about website design at SEOdress.

Written by Gina Minton. Read more about website design at http://www.seodress.com.

Author Bio: Written by Gina Minton. Read more about website design at SEOdress.

Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: Dreamweaver, tutorial, new site, create site, help, assistance, new project, project, website design