Haulin' Ass With Dreamweaver: 10 Site Management Tools [ continued ]

Time-Saver #5: Cookin' With Cloaking!

As you’re working on updating your site, you can save a lot of time by enabling cloaking. If a file or folder in your site is cloaked, it will be ignored by certain site functions, such as Put (uploading) and Get (downloading). For example, if you have folders of PDF and MP3 files already uploaded to your live site, there’s no sense in uploading them again when you update other parts of your site. Instead, just cloak ‘em and Dreamweaver will ignore them. Cloaking’s turned on by default for your defined sites, so if you didn’t turn it off, you should be good to go. To cloak a file or folder, select ‘em; then from the Files panel option menu (top-right corner, bub!), choose Site > Cloaking > Cloak. There ya go! There’s just somethin’ cool about the word cloak. "Captain! There’s a folder of PDFs de-cloaking off our port bow!" Anyway, have fun!

Time-Saver #6: Soupin' It Up With Site Synchronization!

So many files, so many folders…how can ya keep track of it all? Easy. Get Dreamweaver to do it for you, so you can watch TV instead! Here’s the goods: Dreamweaver has this awesome command (I use it all the time) called Synchronize. What it’ll do is take a look at the remote version of your site and the local version of your site, compare the two; then tell ya the difference. In other words, it’ll tell ya what’s updated, what needs to be uploaded, and what’s out of date. It’s pretty sweet stuff, and it makes keeping your site up to date a freakin’ breeze. Give it a whirl by choosing Site > Synchronize Sitewide. In the dialog box that appears, choose what you want to synchronize, and the direction you want to synchronize in; then hit Preview. Easy as that!

Time-Saver #7: Last Minute Link Checkin'!

One of the last things that should be done before a site goes live is checking that all the hyperlinks and paths to other content is all functioning. Of course, back in the day, this used to be done manually. Thank god Dreamweaver has a built in command that’ll do this for us (yay, no more wasting weekends checking links one by one!). So here goes. Choose Site > Check Links Sitewide. Dreamweaver’s Results panel appears, open to the Link Checker tab. Within, Dreamweaver lists (to your horror!) any broken links. Better you find out about ‘em now though, right? Now here’s the cool part: Lets say there’s a busted link on your index page. You could click on index.html in the left-hand column, but why? Just single-click on the link path in the right column, and you can fix it right there—without even opening the file! How awesome is that? So, just make your way down the list, make your fixes, and Bob’s your uncle. Or maybe he’s my uncle. Anyway, you get the idea!

Time-Saver #8: Faster! Faster! It’s Site Reports!

Dreamweaver comes packed with a set of site reports just waitin’ to be run against your site. You can use reports to troubleshoot your site, test content, or make sure certain tasks have been completed. Give ‘er a go by choosing Site > Reports. In the Reports dialog box that appears, choose what you’d like to run your reports against; then from the list at the bottom, choose what reports you’d like to run, like Recently Modified, Accessibility, or for the SEO-conscious designer, Missing Alt Text. Yup, she’s a sweet ride—so whatcha waitin’ for? Get reportin’!

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