Using the Files Panel


The Files panel, which displays the file and folder structure of your site, can be viewed either as a docked panel or in an expanded mode as a larger window. You can use the Files panel in either the collapsed or expanded views to perform a wide variety of maintenance tasks such as adding, deleting, renaming, and moving files and folders. Doing all file maintenance within a Dreamweaver site ensures that the paths to links, images, and other elements are automatically updated if necessaryDreamweaver tracks your changes and updates your files based on any changes that you make within a defined site. Conversely, if you make file or folder changes in the Finder (Macintosh), in My Computer (Windows), or in Windows Explorer File Manager (Windows), Dreamweaver doesn't recognize the changes and cannot keep the paths correct unless you are careful to use the Refresh button to update Dreamweaver's information about the files.

1.

Open the Files panel group and select the Files tab.

By default, the Files panel is initially accessible through the collapsed view in which the panel is docked with the Assets panel in the Files panel group, and only the local files are visible. The Files panel contains a site toolbar as well as extensive context menu options with functions specifically for site maintenance. The Show menu allows you to switch to any site that you have defined or to your computer. The View menu at the top of the panel allows you to switch between the Local view, Remote view, Testing Server, and Map view options.

Note

Macintosh users: You might see files called .DS_Store in most folders. DS_Store files contain information that is used by the Macintosh Finder to view folders. For more information on them and how to delete them, see Macromedia's Tech Note at: http://www.macromedia.com/go/tn_16831.

2.

Verify that the site Yoga Sangha is selected in the Site menu and click the Expand button on the Files panel toolbar.

Macintosh users: You should close the Start page, if it is open, by clicking the Close Window button in the upper-left corner of the window. You'll be working with the Files panel for the majority of this lesson, and the Start page might obscure the expanded Files panel at times.

Windows users: You do not need to close the Start page because the expanded Files panel expands to fill the space occupied by the Dreamweaver application.

After you click the Expand button, the Files panel opens into its own expanded window, as shown in the following figure. You'll be using the expanded Files panel throughout this lesson.

Your local files appear in the right pane of the Files panel (the Local Files pane). Any time the Files panel is expanded, you can collapse it back to the Files panel group by clicking the Expand/ Collapse button again. The local files consist of everything within the root folder, DW8_YogaSangha, which you defined in Lesson 1. In this window, that root folder is listed by the name you gave to the site in Lesson 1: Yoga Sangha.

At this point, you see help text displayed in the left pane of the Files panel window (the remote pane), which lets you know that to see the files that exist on your Web server listed in this pane, you need to define a remote site. You can adjust the size of the panes by dragging the bar that separates them.

Note

You will define a remote site later in this lesson. Clicking Define A Remote Site opens the Site Definition dialog box to the Remote Info category of the Advanced tab. When you connect to the remote site, the remote files appear in the left pane.


The main Files panel tools are located on the toolbar:

  • The Show menu lists all the sites that you have defined and gives you access to other files on your computer and quick connections to remote sites. To open a particular site, simply select the desired site from the menu. For this exercise, you should have Yoga Sangha selected.

  • Connect/Disconnect connects to or disconnects from the remote site. Because you have not yet defined a remote site, clicking this button opens the Site Definition dialog box. By default, Dreamweaver disconnects a remote FTP site if it has been idle for more than 30 minutes.

    Note

    If you need to change the time limit, you should choose Edit > Preferences (while the Files panel is in the collapsed view), select the Site category, and change the number listed in the Minutes Idle text field for FTP Connection.


  • Refresh does what you would expect: It refreshes the local and remote directory lists. Any changes that were made to the file lists will be shown after a refresh. If you made changes to your site outside of Dreamweaver, in the Finder (Macintosh) or Windows Explorer (Windows), you might need to refresh Local Files to see the changes.

  • The set of three buttons gives you four different view options: Site Files, Testing Server, Map Only, and Map And Files. The active view is highlighted, and the default is Site Files.

  • Get File(s) copies the selected file(s) from the remote site to your local folder, overwriting any existing local copies. This option is not functional at this time because a remote site has not been defined.

  • Put File(s) copies the selected file(s) from the local folder to the remote site, overwriting any existing remote copies. This option is not functional at this time because a remote site has not been defined.

  • Check Out File(s) copies the selected file(s) from the remote server to your local folder, overwriting any existing copies. The file is then marked as "checked out" on the server. The Check In/Check Out feature is a great tool for collaborating on a Website. If a file is checked out, Dreamweaver prevents anyone else from editing that file. This option is not functional at this time because a remote site has not been defined, and the Check In/Check Out option has not yet been enabled for the Yoga Sangha project site.

  • Check In copies the selected file(s) from your local folder to the remote server, overwriting any existing remote copies. The file that exists on the remote server is then available for editing by others. The copy of the file that exists in your local folder (usually on your computer) becomes read-only and is not editable unless you check it out. This option is not functional at this time because a remote site has not been defined, and the Check In/Check Out option has not yet been enabled for the Yoga Sangha project site.

  • Synchronize synchronizes the files between the local and remote folders. This option is not functional at this time because a remote site has not been defined.

  • The menu options File, Edit, View, and Site are located in the Options menu in the upper-right corner of the expanded Files panel (Macintosh) or across the upper-left of the expanded Files panel (Windows). The Options menu is also available on the upper-right of the Files panel group, providing access to the menus when the Files panel is collapsed for both Macintosh and Windows.




Macromedia Dreamweaver 8(c) Training from the Source
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8: Training from the Source
ISBN: 0321336267
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 326

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