Planning and Setting Up Your Site > Editing an existing Web site

Editing an existing Web site

You can use Dreamweaver to edit an existing site on your local disk, even if you didn't use Dreamweaver to create the original site.

To edit an existing Web site:

1	Choose Site > Define Sites and click New, or choose Site > Open Site > Define Sites.
	In the Site Definition dialog box that appears, the Local Info category is selected.
2	Enter the following options:
	In the Site Name field, enter a name for the site. The site name appears in the Site window and on the Site > Open Site submenu. Use any name you like, it will not appear in the browser and is only for your reference.
	In the Local Root Folder field, specify the folder on your local disk where the existing site files, templates, and library items are stored. Click the folder icon to browse to and select the folder, or enter a path and folder name in the text field.
	For the Refresh Local File List Automatically option, indicate whether or not to automatically refresh the local file list every time you copy files into your local site. Deselecting this option improves the speed of Dreamweaver when copying such files, but when this option is deselected, the Local pane of the Site window does not automatically refresh. To manually refresh the Site window, click the Site window's Refresh button. To manually refresh the Local pane only, choose View > Refresh Local in the Site window (Windows) or Site > Site Files View > Refresh Local (Macintosh).
	In the HTTP Address field, enter the URL that your completed Web site will use, so that Dreamweaver can verify links within the site that use absolute URLs. (See Checking links in a page or site.) For example, the absolute HTTP address for Macromedia's Web site is http://www.macromedia.com.
	For the Cache option, indicate whether or not to create a local cache to improve the speed of link and site management tasks. If you do not select this option, Dreamweaver will ask you if you want to create a cache again before it creates the site. It is a good idea to select this option because the Assets panel only works if a cache is created. For more information about the Assets panel, see Asset management overview.
3	Click OK.

The Site Files window opens. For more information about the site window and site management, see Site management and collaboration overview.