TIP 21: Understanding the Site Window Tabs

Before we get much further into our exploration of GoLive, let's do a quick rundown of all the different tabs in the Site window. We'll begin on the left side and work our way across (Figure 21a).

Files: Think of this tab as the root folder of your Web site. Everything that you upload to your Web server needs to be stored here (see Tips 17 through 20).
External: Store all the email addresses and Web site addresses you'll link to in here (see Tip 26).
Colors: To keep the colors throughout a site consistent, you can store frequently used color swatches here (see Tip 71).
Font Sets: Whether you use font tags or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), this is where you store your favorite font groupings for Web-friendly type.
CSS: This tab is new in GoLive CS2 and helps you track all your CSS files, classes, and IDs from one central location (see Tip 117).
Diagrams: GoLive includes integrated site-mapping tools, and this is where you store those diagrams (see Tip 200).

Figure 21a. The left side of the Site window is where you'll perform most of your day-to-day site-management tasks.

Now, the right side of the Site window is also really important, but it's responsible for behind-the-scenes tasks such as storing templates, tracking errors, and saving settings files (Figure 21b). You'll definitely use these tabs, but less frequently than the ones on the left.

Figure 21b. The right side of the Site window is where you upload files to a server, fix errors, and store library items.

Simplifying the Site Window

You can hide and reveal the right side of the Site window by clicking the Toggle Split View icon in the bottom left corner of the window. You can also Toggle Split View from the flyout menu in the upper right corner of the window.

Publish Server: Use this tab to upload and download files to your Web server right within the Site window (see Tips 212224).
Collections: Store aliases (or shortcuts) to frequently used files here (see Tip 210).
Errors: The real-time error checking in GoLive instantly flags any broken links, missing images, or orphaned files and displays the errors here (see Tip 202).
Extras: The assets available in the Library palette (templates, components, snippets, and so on) are stored here in the Site window (see Tip 129).