Using Adobe GoLive CS, Part 1

Now click the Extras tab on the right side of the site window. The Extras tab displays additional folders that were automatically created when you created a site or imported a site into GoLive. The purpose of those folders is to help you organize your project. The items housed here, such as templates, components, and Smart Objects, are used during the creation process, but because there is no need to upload them to the Web server, they are kept separate from the items shown in the Files tab. They physically exist in the folder called web-data.

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Tip - Just as you can with palettes, you can tear off tabs in the site window and rearrange them as you like.

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To close the right pane of the site window, click the Toggle Split View button in the lower-right corner (see Figure 9.11).

Figure 9.11 The site window opens into two panes by default. You can close the right pane by clicking the button with a double arrow in the lower-right corner.

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Note - The web-content folder is the one that holds your home page, which is the default page that loads into a browser when someone visits your site. The web-content folder is also referred to as the root folder of your site.

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The nine folders automatically created and displayed in the Extras tab are Components, Diagrams, InDesignPackages, Queries, SiteTrash, Smart Objects, Snippets, Stationery, and Templates. Let's define what is stored in these folders:

• Components—Components are pieces of a page that are reuseable. You may, for example, create a navigation bar and save it as a component. Then you simply drop the component onto a page and have all the links intact. Later, if you want to change a link on the navigation bar, you simply need to make the change to the component and GoLive will update all the pages on which you have used that component.

• Diagrams—Diagrams are a method of mapping out the architecture of your site before actually building it. You can create a hierarchy of folders and pages, show links between pages, add annotations, and more. Although diagrams are stored here, you open a diagram from the Diagram menu.

• InDesignPackages—If you havecreated a document in Adobe InDesign and want to reuse its elements in your Web site, you would invoke the Package for GoLive command in InDesign. Packages imported into GoLive are placed in the InDesignPackages folder.

• Queries—Queries are a powerful way to search for items in your site using multiple criteria. After you have created a query, you can save it. Saved queries are stored in the Queries folder.

• SiteTrash—The SiteTrash folder is a holding area for files you have removed from your site. They remain in the SiteTrash folder until you put them into your system trash.

• SmartObjects—This folder is where you can place native Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat PDF files that you intend to use in your site. GoLive's Smart Object technology allows you to create Web-ready versions of these files while retaining a link to the original. Thus, if you update the original file, your Web version will update as well. More information on Smart Objects follows later in this chapter.

• Snippets—Pieces of HTML, images, text, or just about anything you might like to have handy to use throughout your site are stored in the Snippets folder.

• Stationery—You can design a page the way you like it, and save it into the Stationery folder. Later you can use the stationery to create a new page that is a duplicate of the original.

• Templates—Template pages work similarly to stationery, but are even more powerful. If you update a template page, all the pages that are based on that page will be updated, too.

Although all these items are stored in the web-data folder, which causes them to appear in the Extras tab of the Site window, the easiest way to use many of them is by dragging and dropping them from the Library palette, where they will also be listed.

To save a page as a component, stationery, or template, set up the page as necessary, choose Save As from the page's flyout menu, and select an option from the list. GoLive's Save dialog will open and take you directly to the appropriate folder on your hard drive. Give the file a descriptive name and save it. From then on the file will appear both in the corresponding folder in the Extras tab and in the Library palette.