Assets, Media, and Publishing
Managing assets
The Assets panel catalogs images, colors, URLs, and library items for the defined site; it reads from the site's folders, so files must be inside the local site root to appear. Library items (.lbi) are reusable snippets that update across pages when the source changes - but only pages using that item are updated on save. Templates (.dwt) define editable and locked regions; changing a template updates all child pages, while editing a child outside an editable region is blocked. Candidates must distinguish library items (fragment-level reuse) from templates (page-level structure).
Media and links
Know the difference between relative, root-relative, and absolute links, and that media such as video should be embedded with correct MIME awareness; alt and captions support accessibility. Inserted images should be copied into the site folder - Dreamweaver prompts to save assets outside the root into it.
Publishing traps
- Put/Get direction: Put sends local to remote; Get pulls remote to local.
- Dependent files must be selected or linked assets won't upload.
- Synchronize compares timestamps, so clock skew or unchanged-but-edited files can be missed; review the preview list before transferring.
- Templates: a page detached from a template stops receiving updates.
Rule of thumb
Before publishing, run Check Links Sitewide and review the Synchronize preview. If a page looks unstyled after upload, check that the linked CSS was included as a dependent file.