Before we begin ... this is not the place for Do It Yourself

While I'm a real advocate of DIY - that's how I got into this business - the learning curve with designing, constructing and optimising a website is steep, it requires a huge investment in time, and getting to a finished quality product will be as expensive - if not more expensive - as the other options. Your minimum software investment will be about $2000. You will need books on design, html and css coding, software tuition, search engine optimisation, and you'll need years to pull all that knowledge into a practical and cohesive whole. The best option for DIY'ers is to find a personal web designer who will get you started, while you learn to effectively manage your site. It's rather like getting a car: it's best to get Citroen, Toyota or Ford to build your car, but know how to keep it running smoothly yourself.

Ok, now we've got that over with ... this is an introduction to Dreamweaver to help you use it to manage your site in conjunction with our on-site personal training

Dreamweaver is an Adobe software for website construction and management. Initially, you will only use a small portion of its abilities, but its potential will open up as your knowledge and needs increase.

So, the first thing to realise is that there'll be lots of functions you won't understand, at least at first. That's not a problem. All you need to do is become familiar with a few Dreamweaver concepts and know how to make the most common changes to your site.

The other thing you need to know is that Dreamweaver enables you to perform the same function in at least three different ways: through the drop-down menus at the top of the screen, by right clicking on something and selecting a function, by clicking on an icon at the top of the screen, or by editing the Properties at the bottom of the screen. They could have reduced the clutter but different people like to work in different ways.

The files and folders

The Dreamweaver program will be installed in your Programs file. Your Dreamweaver project - your website - will be in your Documents folder in a subfolder called 'Dreamweaver' in a subfolder which is usually an abbreviation or acronym of your business name. Do not delete or move any of your website files outside of your Dreamweaver program. Your website is constructed from the relationships and links between the different files in this folder. Making changes within the Dreamweaver program will preserve these relationships; making changes outside the Dreamweaver program could destroy them.

Within Dreamweaver you will see a tree-diagram of your website files in the lower half of the right side of the screen. The only files you will need to update - at least at first - are HTML files, the ones that end in an 'html' file extension. Websites are wriitten in a code called html. These pages store your site's structure, interfile relationships and links, and, importantly: your text. Not all areas of the html pages are editable. We lock up certain areas for your site's security and make other areas editable.

Your Home Page will always be called 'index.html'. That's the filename Browsers (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox etc) look for to display as the first page on a site. The other html files will have names corresponding to the page heading - your Contact page being 'contact.html', for example.

Backups and safeguards

Everyone makes mistakes, so we have a number of ways to reverse up when they happen.

First, we always have a secure copy of your site so we can take you back to when your site was completed and delivered, or - if we managed your site for you - back to the point when it was handed to you to manage. Additionally, we can download your site on the first of every month (for $15 pm) to restore you to that point if needed.

Second, if you haven't uploaded your mistake, Planet Domain has a secure copy of your site, current to when it was last uploaded. 'Uploading' is copying your files to Planet Domain; 'Downloading' is copying files from Planet Domain back to your computer.

Third, Dreamweaver has an excellent 'Undo' function to take you back to where you last saved the file.

And fourth, you have your own Backups, which I presume you do at least weekly and preferably daily, with at least one backup off-site. You do regular backups, don't you? More information on Backups and Safeguards can be found here ....

The two views

There are two different views of an html file in Dreamweaver: the Code view and the Design view. Most of the time you will edit your website in Design view, but you should become familiar with Code view as you may need this view to diagnose problems that may occur. Your on-site training will familiarise you with these perspectives of your site's structure.

We will familiarise you with these functions of Dreamweaver in our on-site training.