Adobe 38040334 - Dreamweaver CS3 User Manual page 287

Absolute paths
Absolute paths provide the complete URL of the linked document, including the protocol to use (usually http:// for
web pages), for example, http://www.adobe.com/support/dreamweaver/contents.html.
You must use an absolute path to link to a document on another server. You can also use absolute paths for local links
(to documents in the same site), but that approach is discouraged—if you move the site to another domain, all of
your local absolute-path links will break. Using relative paths for local links also provides greater flexibility if you
need to move files within your site.
Note: When inserting images (not links), you can use an absolute path to an image on a remote server (that is, an image
that is not available on the local hard drive).
Document-relative paths
Document-relative paths are usually best for local links in most websites. They're particularly useful when the current
document and the linked document are in the same folder and are likely to remain together. You can also use a
document-relative path to link to a document in another folder by specifying the path through the folder hierarchy
from the current document to the linked document.
The basic idea of document-relative paths is to omit the part of the absolute path that is the same for both the current
document and the linked document, providing only the portion of the path that differs.
For example, suppose you have a site with the following structure:
•
To link from contents.html to hours.html (both in the same folder), use the relative path hours.html.
•
To link to tips.html (in the resources subfolder), use the relative path resources/tips.html. At each slash (/..), you
move down one level in the folder hierarchy.
•
To link to index.html (in the parent folder, one level above contents.html), use the relative path ../index.html. At
each slash (../), you move up one level in the folder hierarchy.
• To link to catalog.html (in a different subfolder of the parent folder), use the relative path ../products/catalog.html.
Here, ../ moves up to the parent folder, and products/ moves down to the products subfolder.
September 4, 2007
DREAMWEAVER CS3 280
User Guide