Adobe Dreamweaver has brought the business of web development within the reach of everybody. However, it is still a sophisticated piece of software with numerous floating palettes which can be a little off-putting for the new user. So, in this article, we aim to show you how to find your way through the maze of features and create a basic Dreamweaver web site.

Before you start, you should have a clear idea of what information you want to display in your web site and the options that will be available to visitors. It's best to start with an achievable goal, a project that you can bring to a satisfactory conclusion. Don't attempt an "all singing, all dancing" e-commerce site as your first project.

Next, create a folder somewhere on your hard disk or desktop which will contain all of the files which will make up your site. Dreamweaver refers to this folder as the "local root folder". It should contain nothing but the files pertaining to your web site and will become a mirror image of your actual site when the site goes live.

It is also very important to create a folder within the local root to hold all your images. This will help prevent you ending up with missing images on your pages since, when we define the Dreamweaver site, we will designate this folder as the default images folder.

Now, finally, we launch Dreamweaver and create a new web site by choosing New Site from the Site menu. Click the Advanced tab ("Advanced" here simply means manual, so don't be intimidated.) You will notice a series of categories on the left of the screen. Only the first two categories need to be completed: Local Info and Remote Info.

In the Local Info window, enter a name for you new site then specify the location of the local root folder and default images folder you created earlier. The easiest way of doing this is to click on the browse icons next to each of these two boxes (the yellow folder icons).

The second piece of information is Remote Info. In this section, you tell Dreamweaver how to connect to the server hosting your web site. Set you Access Method to Local/Network if you are working on an intranet site then browse to locate your intranet server. Choose FTP if you are working on a public website for the internet and enter your FTP login details in each of the boxes. This information will be supplied by your web hosting company.

The next step is to create all of the pages in your website arranged in the appropriate sub-directories. Don't put any content in the pages at this stage, just create and save each page into your local root folder. This is done, so that later, when you create links on any page, the page that you link to will already exist, so you can just point to it and automatically create the correct link.

Before you start work on the page content proper, you should consider creating one or more templates to achieve a consistent layout across all your pages. You create the basic design with all the elements that will repeat on every page (fixed regions) and then click in each area which needs to have unique content on each page and choose Insert - Template Objects - Editable Region. You can even have a hierarchy of master templates and sub templates.

Once you have your template(s) in place, you are ready to start putting the actual pages. Open each of the pages, apply the appropriate template then add your content. To test our page at any time, just press F12 on your keyboard.

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The author of this article has been teaching training courses on Adobe Dreamweaver for many years. He is a trainer with Macresource Computer Solutions, an independent IT training company based in London.