More and more I find out that people are not aware of the FTP client built in Dreamweaver. People use 3rd party FTP clients to manage the updates for their own site. Although I do recommend in having a dedicated 3rd party FTP client, like FileZilla (my favorite), Dreamweaver allows you to easily maintain your site and upload/download to your hosting account.

To setup the FTP account to connect to your hosting account:

1. On the top menu bar in Dreamweaver, go to “Sites” -> “New Site…”. You will see this screen, which you will setup your web site’s site definition. (Use the advanced tab for more control):

2. The “Local Info”, is exactly that. Info on your local files (your site on your computer). Dreamweaver needs to know where your site’s local files are located. Once you set that up, click on the “Remote Info” to setup your FTP info.

3. Select FTP from the Access drop down. You will need the FTP info which should have been provided by your web host.

• FTP Host: usually your domain name or an IP address
• Host Directory: your public web folder, usually public_html or htmldocs
• Login: your FTP login name
• Password: your FTP password

The rest you can take the defaults. Once you are done, click OK to create the new site definition. At this point you are all done. If you manage more than one site, you may create multiple site definitions.

Now you can just edit your site like usual, once you are ready to upload, click the 1st icon from the left (on the yellow bar below) to connect to your site. Use the arrows to upload/download. To see both local and remote files, click on the last icon.

That’s it. This is a great tool to manage multiple sites (for webmasters) or even for one site, you don’t have to launch that 3rd party FTP client every time you do an update.

Tags: FTP Client Built In Dreamweaver