Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual

Adding a Link

If all that talk of links got you confused, don’t worry. Links are confusing, and that’s one of the best reasons to use Dreamweaver. If you can navigate to a document on your own computer or anywhere on the Web, you can create a link to it in Dreamweaver, even if you don’t know the first thing about URLs and don’t intend to learn.

Browsing for a File

To create a link from one page to another on your own Web site, use the Browse for File button on the Property inspector (see Figure 4-2) or its keyboard shortcut (see the steps below). Browsing for a file in Dreamweaver uses the same type of dialog box that you already use to open or save a file, making this the easiest way to add a link. (To link to a page on another Web site, you’ll need to type the Web address into the Property inspector. Turn to page 99 for instructions.)

Figure 4-2. Here are three ways to add links on a Web page: the Link field, the Point-to-File icon, and the Browse-for-File icon.

Note

Before you add any links, save your Web page. Not only is saving often good computer common sense, but saving a document means that you’ve settled on a folder location for it—a requirement if you hope to use document-relative links.

1. In the document window, select the text or image you want to use for the link.

   You can select a single word, a sentence, or an entire paragraph. When this process is over, the selected words ...