Adobe 38040334 - Dreamweaver CS3 User Manual page 112

DREAMWEAVER CS3 105
User Guide
You should make sure that your pages look and work as expected in the browsers you're targeting, that there are no
broken links, and that the pages don't take too long to download. You can also test and troubleshoot your entire site
by running a site report.
The following guidelines will help you create a good experience for visitors to your site:
1. Make sure your pages function in the browsers you're targeting.
Your pages should be legible and functional in browsers that do not support styles, layers, plug-ins, or JavaScript. For
pages that fail badly in older browsers, consider using the Check Browser behavior to automatically redirect visitors
to another page.
2. Preview your pages in different browsers and platforms.
This gives you an opportunity to see differences in layout, color, font sizes, and default browser window size that
cannot be predicted in a target browser check.
3. Check your site for broken links and fix them.
Other sites undergo redesign and reorganization too, and the page you're linking to may have been moved or deleted.
You can run a link check report to test your links.
4. Monitor the file size of your pages and the time they take to download.
Keep in mind that if a page consists of one large table, in some browsers, visitors will see nothing until the entire table
finishes loading. Consider breaking up large tables; if this is not possible, consider putting a small amount of
content—such as a welcome message or an advertising banner—outside the table at the top of the page so users can
view this material while the table downloads.
5. Run a few site reports to test and troubleshoot the entire site.
You can check your entire site for problems, such as untitled documents, empty tags, and redundant nested tags.
6. Validate your code to locate tag or syntax errors.
7. Update and maintain the site after its published.
Publishing your site—that is, making it live—can be accomplished in several ways and is an ongoing process. An
important part of the process is defining and implementing a version-control system, either with the tools
Dreamweaver includes or through an external version-control application.
8. Use the discussion forums.
The Dreamweaver discussion forums can be found on the Adobe website at
www.adobe.com/go/dreamweaver_newsgroup.
The forums are a great resource for getting information on different browsers, platforms, and so on. You can also
discuss technical issues and share helpful hints with other Dreamweaver users.
For a tutorial on troubleshooting publishing problems, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0164.
See also
"Fix broken links" on page 296
"Test links in Dreamweaver" on page 289
September 4, 2007