Manage your Links in Dreamweaver 4

 

Sometimes it is necessary to remove an old, outdated file or graphic from your web page. This could be a simple document, graphic or something like a newsletter. In most cases this page is linked to and from various other pages on your web site. For example you are replacing last month's newsletter with this month's and you have many links to the old newsletter. Another example would be if you are wanting to change a header or specific/common image (like a signature) throughout the site.

 

Dreamweaver makes it easy to change the link of the old document to the link of the new document.

 

Dreamweaver can update links to and from a document whenever you move or rename it within a local site. It can also check your links and fix them.

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Automatically Update Links

1. Open your Site Manager Window
2. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
3. Choose General on left side.
4. In this window, locate Update Links when moving files.
5. Select Always from the Update Links pop-up menu.
   - Selecting ALWAYS automatically updates all links to and from a selected document whenever you move it or rename it
   - If you choose PROMPT, Dreamweaver first displays a dialog box that lists all the files affected by the change. Click Update to update the links in these files or Don't Update to leave the files unchanged.
   - Selecting NEVER, means that none of the links will be updated if you rename or move a file to another directory.
6. Click OK.

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Change a Link Site-Wide

This is particularly useful if you delete a file that other files link to. Dreamweaver updates any documents that link to the selected file, forcing them to point to the new file, using the path format that exists in the document.

1. Open your Site Manager Window.
2. Select the old document you are going to replace.
3. From the Site menu, choose Change Link Site wide
   - Do NOT choose, Check Links.
4. In the dialog box that appears, click the folder icon to browse to and select a file, or in the Into Links To field, type the path and file name of a new file to link to.
5. Click OK.
6. If you get a window for updating files, click Update.
   
   Note: You are now done changing the link(s) for the document. You can delete the old one, rename it and link it to an archived page, etc.

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Checking Links

Use this feature to search for broken links and unreferenced files in an open file, a portion of a local site, or an entire local site.

1. Open the file you want to check the links.
2. From the File menu, choose Check Links.
3. Link Checker dialog box opens with any broken links.

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Fixing Broken Links

1. To fix links in the Link Checker dialog box, double-click on the file listed.
2. Find the broken link in the document.
3. Select the text that is linked.
4. To fix links using the Property Inspector, double-click the entry in the Link box.
5. To set a new path and file name, click the folder icon in the Property Inspector to browse to the correct file or type over the highlighted text.
6. Press Enter.
7. Save the file.
8. Upload the file when ready.

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