Checking links in Dreamweaver

There’s nothing that puts a visitor to your site off more than a string of broken links, missing graphics or files. To avoid this embarrassment and the consequent exodus from your site, Dreameaver has a neat tool that helps you make sure everything is working properly. Simply go to the ‘Site’ menu in the application and choose ‘Check Links Sitewide’. Adobe’s flagship web editor will then willingly generate a report of all broken links on your site.

To fix a link all you need do is click onto the broken link and browse to the correct file. Be warned though, if you need to view local file references you’ll need to change your Link Checker from ‘Show Broken Links’ to ‘Show External Links’. You can also use the app to find orphan files (i.e. files that aren’t in use) by altering your link report to ‘Show Orphaned Files’. If you’re a HTML puritan and don’t use a WYSIWYG editor then try Web Link Validator, which is more than adept at checking broken external links.