Resources for Web Development Students @ Robin’s Blog

It’s a good idea to periodically backup your Dreamweaver site settings. When you backup your site settings the backup file is saved with an *.ste extension. This file includes your Remote site information (FTP username, login name, and password), Local Site Information, (the local path to your root folder), and any testing server information you may have setup. This is especially handy if you have to switch to a different computer or you want to setup classroom site definitions at home. This process does not backup the actual site files (html). To manually backup your Dreamweaver Site Definitions, perform the following steps:

1. Click Site > Manage Sites.
2. Select the site you would like to backup from the list, click Export.
3. Select Back up my settings (includes login, password and local paths).
4. Save the site definition file inside your site folder (you can save it to another folder, but it should be easy to find in the site folder. You may want to give this file the same name as your site.
5. Repeat this process for each of your sites.
6. To Restore the Site Settings.
7. Click Site > Manage Sites.
8. Click Import.
9. Browse to your site folder and locate the ste file, click Open.

If you are prompted for to Choose the local root folder for site "sitename", navigate to the folder that contains your site files (html). You will probably receive this message if you copy a site definition in class and then Import the settings at home. You must tell Dreamweaver where the local files are located if they are not found in the same "exact" folder path that was used when you performed the Export. Since you do not have a drive F:\ at home, you will have to navigate to the new folder location. A new site cache will be recreated and you’re done!