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Naming Files for the Web

Now is probably a good time to save the document locally (locally means "on your computer").

  1. go to the "File" menu
  2. choose the option "Save"
  3. call this page "index.html" - all lower case
  4. create a new folder on your hard drive
  5. name the folder "~yourinternetid"
  6. open the folder (Mac will open automatically)
  7. click "Save"
Any page named "index.html" will be the default page of that directory.

Huh?

When you go to the UMD homepage with the url:


http://www.d.umn.edu/

you're actually going to the page at that directory location called "index.html." Web servers are set up to do this as part of the Web protocol (hypertext transfer protocol or http). Each directory can have one index page for its default page.

If you go to the url:

http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/

you'll get the "index.html" page for the ITSS directory by default. Pretty neat!

So what does this mean for you? We're going to put your Web page in your directory. Your directory is:

http://www.d.umn.edu/~yourinternetid/

and when people type in this url they should get your homepage without having to type anything else. In order for this to happen your homepage must be saved as "index.html." If you'd like to see what a directory looks like when it has no "index.html" page just follow this link to a directory without an "index.html" page. Note the contents of the folder are displayed like a list.

What if you have other pages in your directory you want people to see? Link to them from your "index.html" page.

  1. select the text that will be the link
  2. go to the "Properties" panel
  3. click on the folder icon to the right of the "Link" text box called "Browse for File"
  4. browse to the file you want to link to
  5. double-click the file name to create the link

If you think this describes making a relative link, you're right!

When you're ready, move on to "Viewing Your Web Page in a Browser."

Making Your First Web Page with Dreamweaver Workshop Navigation

  1. Making Your First Web Page with Dreamweaver Workshop
  2. Opening Dreamweaver and Setting Defaults
  3. Adding and Changing Your Content
  4. Absolute and Relative Links
  5. Naming Files for the Web
  6. Viewing Your Web Page in a Browser
  7. Creating a Site
  8. Letting the World See Your Page
  9. Setting Preferences
  10. Basic Web Page Exercise
  11. Web Design References
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Last modified on 01/03/06 		Contact ITSS | Privacy