Use one of the following three ways to enter paths in HTML each time you create a hypertext jump or link a file to a document. When browsing to select files for linking, use the Relative To option to choose either Site Root, or Document as the type of path and then specify the path. To enter an absolute path, type the full URL. See also Creating links between documents.

Absolute paths are complete paths, such as http://www.macromedia.com/dreamweaver/intro.htm. Absolute paths remain accurate from wherever the source document is located, but they do not link correctly if the target document is moved. You must use an absolute path when creating a link to a file outside the current server.

Site-root-relative paths always begin at the site root of the current server. All files on the site that are visible to the public branch from the site root. Site-root-relative paths begin with a slash that identifies the site root. For example, the path /dreamweaver/intro.htm links to a document named intro.htm in the dreamweaver directory, which is at the root level of the site.

A site-root-relative path is usually the best way to link files in a professional web development environment where content must be moved frequently. Using site-root-relative paths, links continue to work even if the document is moved within the site.

When you working with Dreamweaver on a local disk, you define a local site by choosing a folder to serve as the equivalent of the site root on a server. Dreamweaver uses this folder to locate all links to local files specified as site-root-relative URLs. Site-root-relative links don't work until you save the document in a local site. To define a local site, choose File > Open Site > Edit Sites in the Document window or Site > Edit Sites in the Site window. See Creating a local site.

Note: Content linked with a site-root-relative path does not appear when you preview documents in a local browser, because browsers don't recognize a site-root when opening a local file. To preview content linked with site-root-relative paths, set up a local server and use the Preview Online option (Windows only), or put the file on a remote server to view the page in a browser.

Document-relative paths are relative to the directory containing the current document. For example, document.htm specifies a document in the current directory, ../document.htm specifies a document in the directory above the current directory, and htmldocs/document.htm specifies a document in a subdirectory named htmldocs of the current directory. Document-relative paths are often the simplest paths to use for links to files that will always be in the same directory as the current document. You can't enter a document-relative path until you've saved a document.