Libraries Overview

Dreamweaver has many options available to help create consistency on the Web sites you maintain. Libraries are a cornerstone element of this approach. Library items can contain images, text, and any other object that will be used frequently and consistently throughout your Web site.

For instance, the navigation menu in t he left corner is a library item. When this page was created, a simple library item was dragged and dropped onto the page. The table, text, links, and behaviors are consistent on all web pages within this tutorial.

And the wonderful thing about using library items is that you can make one change -- to the library item file -- and this change will be updated on ALL pages on your site that use the library item.

For instance, if I wanted to add an additional link to the navigation menu at left, I would simply open and edit the library item in Dreamweaver, and this change would be propagated to all pages on this site that use that library item.

Library items are remarkably easy to use, and once you understand the concept of a master library item that controls how the item appears on all pages, you'll be ready to tackle Dreamweaver templates as well.

Let's start with creating a library item.