Working with Links On Your Own

As you learned through this lesson, creating a test site with navigational links allows you to click through the site and see what about the way the visitor moves through the site is or isn't working. Testing the navigation at this stage offers you the opportunity to make adjustments before you do a great deal of development. In this exercise you'll create a test site for your own site.

1.	Using the file structure that you developed for your site in Lesson 1 as a guide, create the section folders and page placeholders for your site. Setting up the section folders and placeholder files is the first step in creating the test site. Using the expanded Files panel to add these new folders and files to your site is a quick method of creating a number of new files.
2.	Develop a system of links on the placeholder pages of your site using the skills and techniques you learned earlier in this lesson. Using the Site Map view of the Files panel allows you to create links between the pages in your site without having to open each individual file. Don't apply any link colors to your new pagesyou'll learn to control the link colors used in your documents through one file for the entire site in the next lesson.
3.	Use the outline of content that you developed in Lesson 1 to insert text-based content into your pages. You can use outlines or lists of the content that will appear on each page or you can insert the content itself into the pages. Although you'll continue to add and modify the content in your site throughout the different developmental phases, inserting content now can help you see what you've got, what's missing, and how the content is flowing and working throughout the site. You can target links, insert named anchors and links to them, and create e-mail links if needed. You'll continue to work with links throughout the development of your siteyou don't need to complete it all now.
4.	Preview your home page in a browser and test the navigation and site structure you developed by clicking through your test site.

Try to imagine how the visitor might use your sitewhat are potential paths that they might take through the site? Make any changes as needed.