2: Setting Up a Web Site with Dreamweaver 41 If the Start Screen is not visible because you have an existing page already open or youve opted not to show it, follow these steps to create a new page: 1. Choose File?New. 2. Select Basic Page from the Category list. 3. Select HTML from the Basic Page list. 4. Choose File?Save to save your page. You find many other options in the Dreamweaver New Document window, including a wide range of predesigned templates. For now, dont worry about all those. In this chapter, you start off by creating a simple blank page. You find instructions for working with templates in Chapter 4. Make sure you add a page title to each of your pages. You can add a page title by changing the text in the Title box on the Document toolbar. By default, Dreamweaver inserts the words Untitled Page into the Title box, but you can put any text you want in this box. The page title doesnt appear in the body of your Web page, but its important because this text appears at the top of the browser window, usually just to the right of the name of the browser. This text also appears in a users list of Favorites or Bookmarks when that user bookmarks your site. Naming Web Pages When you save Web pages, images, and other files in your site, you need to be careful what you name them and you need to include an extension at the end to identify the file type (such as .html for HTML files or .gif for GIF images). Dreamweaver automatically adds the extension to the end of HTML files, but you can change preferences to use either .html or .htm. In theory, these extensions are interchangeable, but some servers read only .html so thats the safer bet. Filenames in Web sites get incorporated into links and links are easier to manage when they dont include spaces or special characters. For example you shouldnt name a Web page with an apostrophe, such as cats page.html. If you want to separate words, use the underscore (_) or the hyphen (-). For example, cat-page.html is a fine filename. Numbers are fine and capital letters dont really matter, as long as the filename and the link match, which Dreamweaver takes care of for you when you create links (just be careful if you ever create a link in the HTML code). One of the most confusing and important filename rules in Web design is that the main page (or the front page) of your Web site must be called index.html. Thats because most servers are set up to serve the index.html page first. (Although some servers also serve other filenames, such as home.html, or default.asp on dynamic sites, most prioritize and serve index.html before 42 Part I: Fulfilling Your Dreams all others.) If you want to ensure that your visitors see the right page when their browsers arrive at your Web site, make sure the front page of your site is named index.html. After that, you can name your files anything you like, as long as they dont include special characters or spaces. Designing your first page Many people are pleasantly surprised by how easily you can create a basic Web page in Dreamweaver.