1. Make sure you uploaded your site to the right place. On many web servers, if you use the FTP info they send, you enter the main folder on the server where they keep your email, web folder, etc, but you need to then open the web folder and upload your files into that folder. It’s often called something like htdocs, or webdocs, or it could be named the URL of your site. It depends on your server, but the key thing to know is that you need to upload the files for your new site into that folder for them to become visible at your URL.

On a related note, a good way to make sure you’re in the right folder is to look for the pages of your old site, make sure you find the main page of the site, and then replace it with the main page of the new site and all of your other files.

2. Make sure you named the main page of your site correctly. On most servers, the main page of your site should be named index.html, but some servers are set up for default.html. It’s often okay to use .html or .htm — they work the same. However, if the main page of your old site is called, say, default.htm and you upload the new version with a main page named index.html, you won’t see the new page if the server is still ‘serving’ the old default.htm page.

Whatever the main page of your old site was called, assume that’s what you should name the main page of the new site and make sure you replace the old page with the new page.

I hope that helps and I wish you all be best with your newly redesigned site.

Janine

Here’s an example of what it looks like:
<img src=”photo.jpg” width=”250″ height=”360″ alt=”My Great Photo” title=”My Great Photo” />
Note that the code: alt=”My Great Photo” is alternative text, which is recommended because this text is used by screen readers for the blind that ‘read’ web pages to people.
Adding the code: title=”My Great Photo” is not redundant, but you don’t have to use the same text for both. The title text will appear when you roll a cursor of the image.

Hope that helps,
Janine

Answer:

In any URL, caps are optional up to the .com part. Addresses are only case-sensitive after the .com (same goes for .org, .edu, and other types of URLs).

When I’m advertising a Web address or URL, I like to use caps in the URL because most web site names are easier to read that way.  I recommend:

MyDomainName.com

or for my site: DigitalFamily.com

However, if anyone types your domain in all lowercase, they’ll get there just fine. (Some publications prefer that style and will only print URLs in all lowercase, but it’s not necessary.)

Both DigitalFamily.com and digitalfamily.com will take you to the same web page, but if you have an address that extends beyond the .com part, the case does matter.

For example: DigitalFamily.com/Books and DigitalFamily.com/books are not the same address — the one with the capital B will not work.

The technical reason is that most web servers are case-sensitive and the part of the address that comes after the .com is based on the name of the folder or the filename that page resides in on the server.

For the same reason that links within a web site should match the case of the name of the file they link to, the address after the .com needs to match the case of the specific file or folder.

Think of a long URL as being one long link to a page within a site. In this example, DigitalFamily.com/books takes you directly to a page on my web server that is in a folder named “books.” This won’t work with “Books” because I didn’t use a cap when I named the folder. Most web designers use lowercase after the .com consistently so they can easily keep things the same, but if you do use mixed case on folders and filenames, you need to do the same in the URL (as you see in this next example).

I could have linked specifically to the page about my newest book, Mobile Web Design For Dummies, by using this URL: http://www.digitalfamily.com/books/mobileWebdesign/index.html.

And here’s your bonus lesson for the day

Name your main pages index.html to create shorter sub-URLs.

The URL http://www.digitalfamily.com/books

goes to this page: http://www.digitalfamily.com/books/index.html

If you name the main page in any folder index.html, you can shorten the address and just use the folder name. That makes it easier to give the URL out in print, and because most web servers are designed to “serve” the index.html page first, you can more easily set it up.

Save people typing the extra long addresses and use index pages to take people directly to subsections of your sites.

Oh, and if you have a blog, use an SEO plugin to help create clean URLs. Short URLs are better for humans and computers…

I’ve watched your video (Total Training Dreamweaver CS3) and I’ve designed a new intranet site. This is my first time and I don’t know how to upload onto the server via local/network connection.

Please advise how I can go about.

Regards,
Freeman in
Papua New Guinea

Hi, Freeman,

You will need to ask your network administrator for this information as it depends on how your intranet system is set up. You will use the same site-management features but will select local/network connection and then enter your server information in the dialog.

I hope that helps and I wish you all the best,
Janine

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.

Thank you for your tutorials. They were very useful and easy to practice. It really helped me to learn web design by myself.

As for me, I am a freelance graphic designer. I have been working for so long in the design area. Currently, I am focusing more on web design as I work on Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver.

I would like to know if you can help me find some tutorials on how to work on “Shopping Carts” software. I am sure there are a lot! Which one is the best? Are they easy to learn? For e-commerce, shop online web sites…

I am looking forward for your reply.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Janet

Hi Janet,

There are many shopping cart options on the web so it really depends on what you’re selling and what kinds of features you need.

In this article, you’ll find a review of some of the most popular shopping cart programs and why you might choose one over another.

If you’ve found another you like, I’d love to know about it. If you’re still looking and can tell me more about what you need, I’d be happy to try to help.

Janine

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.

First I would like to say that I am enjoying your CD on Web2  –  very well done.  I have a little problem, though. Is there  something special that I have to do to get the program to read the Photoshop PSD pics?

Hope that you can help.

Regards,
Kay

Hi Kay,

Glad you like my video. Expression Web can’t read Photoshop PSD files because it is designed to read only the file formats that work on the web, which are JPEGs, GIFs, and PNGs.

What you need to do is convert your images into one of these formats in Photoshop and then you can use the images in Expression Web.

To optimize an image for the web, which both gets it in the correct format and makes it download faster, choose File > Save For Web. Then select the image type and compression or color options you prefer. You’ll find some basic instructions in my training video for optimizing images for the web with this technique.

I hope that helps and I wish you all the best,

Janine

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.

Bet you’ve seen this question before: Which do you prefer, Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Web? I’m a novice, not by any means at the PC computer, but at web site design. I was given Dreamweaver CS3 and PhotoShop Extended CS3 and bought your Total Training “essentials” tutorials for both.

Then I noticed the Microsoft  Expression video series at Total Training and now I wonder which you prefer. I enjoy your work. I am also reading an article of yours in Layers Magazine. You are a gifted woman. Keep up the fine efforts.

Chris

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your kind words. Whether you use Adobe Dreamweaver or Expression Web is very much a personal choice. They are similar programs (at least compared to Dreamweaver vs. Microsoft’s previous Web design program FrontPage) and both have much to offer.

Here are a few things to consider as you make your decision. Dreamweaver is a more mature program than Expression Web. It’s been around for many years, and is by far the top choice among professional Web designers. Dreamweaver has excellent  CSS support and includes features you won’t find in Expression Web, such as the Spry menu, which makes it easy to create drop-down menus and other AJAX features.

That said, Expression Web is a major improvement over FrontPage. Expression Web (now available in version 2) offers good CSS support, follows standards better than FrontPage ever did, and shows great promise.

If you generally prefer Microsoft products and/or work with a developer who uses Visual Studio to create ASP.NET, you may also find some advantages in compatibility with Expression Web.

Although in theory you could use both programs on the same site, I definitely recommend that if you are working with other people on a Web site that you all try to use the same program.

You can learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of different web design programs in my tutorial: “What’s the Best Web Design Program?”

As for my videos, I’ve created training programs for both. Follow these links to my video section and you’ll find videos on:

• Dreamweaver CS3 and CS4
• Ashort video to help GoLive users make the transition to Dreamweaver
• Videos on Expression Web and Expression Web 2
• And a short vidoe to help FrontPage users make the transition to Expression Web.

No matter what program you use, I wish you all the best and I’m pleased know that my videos and articles have been helpful to you,

Janine

I’m hoping you can help. I’ve been searching and searching for an answer to a problem I’ve run across, to no avail.

I am creating my website in Dreamweaver CS3 and I’ve run into a situation I can’t resolve. I have two images on a page that are supposed to link to different pages on the site. They seem to have become connected to each other somehow because when I change the link for one of the images, the link for the other image changes as well. I’m not using any sitewide link change options, just doing it manually.

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and I love your site!

Rachel

Hi Rachel,

I can suggest a couple of solutions to your problem. The simplest is to add some space or a return between the images. Remove the link and then reset each link separately. Once you have some space between them, Dreamweaver should recognize that they are separate links.

If that doesn’t work, you may need to fix the links manually in the code. Here’s a quick guide to how that would work:

The HTML for a link begins with the tag <a href=”link.html”> and then has </a> at the end. Image tags use <img src=”image.jpg”>. You may need to cut and paste the </a> tag so it appears between the two tags for the images instead of surrounding both of them to create one link.

Here’s an example of how yours might look now:

<a href=”link.html><img src=”image1.jpg”><img src=”image2.jpg”></a>

You would need to cut and paste the </a> so the images are separated like this:

<a href=”link.html><img src=”image1.jpg”></a><img src=”image2.jpg”>

Of course, there may be other code that makes your pages a little more complex, but this is essentially what the code probably looks like and how you would fix it.

I hope that helps and I wish you all the best,
Janine

Hi Janine -

Thank you SO much for your speedy response. I took the plunge and looked at the actual code and was able to fix it. For some reason there was no <a href = linkimg.html> before the second image I was trying to create a link for. So I guess both images were referencing the same link.

I feel much more confident about working with the actual code now instead of doing it all visually, thanks to your clear instructions!

Thanks again.
Rachel

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.

Carol

Hi Carol,

There are a couple of ways to remove the colored border around an image you use as a link. The simplest option is to select the image, and then in the Property inspector at the bottom of the workspace, enter a 0 in the Border field.

You can also create a style for the image tag with the border set to none and remove all of the borders from all images at once.

I wish you all the best,
Janine

Still want more? Visit the Dreamweaver Help Center at www.DigitalFamily.com/dreamweaver to find Dreamweaver tips, tricks, and tutorials.