Once you know what your design and layout will look like, you can create and gather the assets that you will need. Assets can be items such as images, text, or media (Flash, Shockwave, and so on). Make sure you have all of these items gathered and ready to go before you begin developing your site. Otherwise, you'll have to continually stop development to find an image or to create a button.

If you are using images and graphics from a clip-art site or someone else is creating them, make sure you collect them and put them in a folder on your site. If you are creating the assets yourself, make sure you create them all before you start development, including any images you need if you are using roll-overs. Then organize your assets so you can access them easily while creating your site in Dreamweaver.

You can reuse page layouts and page elements in various documents by using templates and libraries in Dreamweaver. However, it is easier to create new pages with templates and libraries than it is to apply them to existing documents.

Use templates if many of your pages will use the same layout. Plan and design a template for that layout, and then you can create new pages based on that template. If you decide to change the layout for all the pages, you can simply change the template. For more information on templates, see Chapter 16 of Using Dreamweaver 4, or Dreamweaver Help (Help > Using Dreamweaver).

Note: There are certain restrictions on what changes you can make to documents that are based on templates. Templates are best used in collaborative environments, to ensure that everyone is using the same page layout. Library items may provide more flexibility for use outside of collaborative environments.

Use library items if you know that a certain image or other content will appear on many pages throughout your site; design that content ahead of time and make it a library item. Then if you change that item later, the updated version appears on all pages that use it. For more information on library items, see Chapter 16 of Using Dreamweaver 4, or Dreamweaver Help (Help > Using Dreamweaver).

For a list of other helpful articles about Web site planning and design, see the Dreamweaver Support Center Tutorial and Article Index.