Creating a local site

A local site—the local storage area for your Web site's files—requires a name and a local root folder where you plan to store all of the site's files. Create a different local site for each Web site you work on.

The local root folder of your site should be a folder you set up specifically for that site. Don't use your disk as the site root, and don't use the Dreamweaver application folder. One good organizational approach is to create a folder named Sites, and then create local root folders inside that folder, one local root folder for each site you're working on.

To create a local site:

1	Choose Site > New Site.
	In the Site Definition dialog box that appears, the Local Info category is selected.
2	Enter the following options:
	In the Site Name field, enter a name for the site. The site name appears in the Site window and on the Site > Open Site submenu. The name can be anything you like.
	In the Local Root Folder field, specify the folder on your local disk where site files, templates, and library items will be stored. When Dreamweaver resolves root-relative links, it does so relative to this folder. (See About root-relative paths) Click the folder icon to browse to and select the folder, or enter a path and folder name in the text field. If the local root folder does not yet exist, create it from within the file browsing dialog box. (Note that you may be unable to create a folder in that dialog box if you're using a Macintosh without Navigation Services installed.)
	For the Refresh Local File List Automatically option, indicate whether or not to automatically refresh the local file list every time you copy files into your local site. Deselecting this option improves the speed of Dreamweaver when copying such files, but when this option is deselected, the Local pane of the Site window does not automatically refresh. To manually refresh the Site window, click the Site window's Refresh button. To manually refresh the Local pane only, choose View > Refresh Local in the Site window (Windows) or Site > Site Files View > Refresh Local (Macintosh).
	In the HTTP Address field, enter the URL that your completed Web site will use, so that Dreamweaver can verify links within the site that use absolute URLs. (See Checking links between documents.) For example, the HTTP address for Macromedia's Web site is http://www.macromedia.com.
	For the Cache option, indicate whether or not to create a local cache to improve the speed of link and site management tasks. If you do not select this option, Dreamweaver will prompt you again about creating a cache before it creates the site.
3	Click OK.

Later, when you're ready to publish the site on a remote server, you will need to add additional information about the site. For information about remote sites, see Setting up a remote site.