To edit a web site with Dreamweaver, you should edit the site directly on the server, or (my preference) create a local site on your workstation.
The latter has several benefits:
1. If you mess up, production is still okay.
2. You can work offline.
3. You can show changes to someone (locally) without the world seeing them.
4. Broken hyperlink checks work locally, and not via remote FTP site.
5. It's faster, because you don't have to wait for pages.
6. You can easily back the site up. (What a concept!)
6. You have more flexibility and options running local.
The latter has one drawback.
1. You have the extra step to publish your changes up to the server.
Unless you are editing HTML or JS code directly in dreamweaver, you should take the trouble to set up a site. There are some "weird" things that could happen to your links and images if you are working outside a site.
To create/set up a new site or edit an existing site in Dreamweaver is very easy.
1. Open the Files tab in the righthand Dreamweaver window
2. Along the top are menu buttons. Click the "Site" one. Select either the "New Site... " or "Edit Sites..." option.
3. Follow the wizard...
It will allow you to give a name to your site.
It will allow you where to put your local files (in a site folder under My Webs inside My Documents is a good place)
It will ask you what the domain name of the site is (e.g. www.mindwatering.com )
It will ask you for logon info to your "production" site to do uploads and to get any current content down to populate your new local copy of your web site.
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