It has been a few days since your original post. If you have found your solution then great. However, there are new users out there that might have the same or similar problems so answering the post with detailed help.
Yes, it is a path problem.
Please be specific as to how your site is set up. Another thing I will assume is that if your using your own computer to host your site and you did want your site to use that path (your c: drive) then it could be a firewall/secruity issue that is causing the problem.
However, I will explain this as if your using a hosting service.
First quesion is... have you setup the site in dreamweaver? Dreamweaver needs to know what you want to use as your root folder. It is usually pretty good about reminding users of this. If you have setup a root folder and then want to add images and links that are not in the root folder then you will get path problems.
Lets take an image for an example.
In this example my site is setup in Dreamweaver on my e: drive in a folder called "my site" and within that folder is a subfolder called "images" and another sub folder called "downloads"
While I am building my site I decide I would like to add an image from my c: drive. I go to the program menu and choose insert, image, and dreamweaver will open a window asking me to choose the image. I locate the image I would like to use on my c drive.
Now Dreamweaver will notice the image resides in a folder that is outside of your sites root folder. You will see a window that says "the file is outside the root folder of site your site name, and may not be accessible when you publish the site. it then shows you the path to your root folder."
It asks you would you like to copy it there now? choose yes.
If you do NOT choose yes this is what can happen.
<img src=file:///c|/documents and settings/username/my documents/my files/workspaces/workspaces/imagename.gif width=318 height=146 />
You go and upload your site to your hosting server. You open your browser to load the page, and check the url. Sadly it will not work because that path is not pointing to your host root folder (it is still pointing to your computer's hard drive)
If you click yes then Dreamweaver will ask you where would you like to copy this file to? You would choose the root folder and its sub folder. Now upload the files to your hosting server, load the page, and check your URLs. Your paths should be correct, and working fine.
example of a proper path for an image within the main root folder:
<img src=images/imagename.gif />
Remember it does not matter where the main root folder is on your drive, but what does matter is how you set up your site in Dreamweaver. As long as Dreamweaver knows the root folder and its subfolders then your structure should be OK.
Just for good practice: Always, before uploading your site to your host OR launching it from your own server (local/remote) you should check all URLS to pages, and images. They should never show your drive letters. After time your eyes will adjust to scanning code and you will be able to pick out error in not time.
For good file structure:
index page it should be like this
<a href="index.html" target="_top">
For images within your root folder they should really be in a folder called images (cleaner structure) like this
<img src="images/myimage.gif" height=" " width=" " alt="image description goes here">
If you were to add sub folders for animation images then again you must follow the path like this
<img src="images/animations/myimage.gif" height=" " width=" " alt="image description">
What you do NOT want:
If you do not allow dreamweaver to copy files to a root/subfolder then you will get full Hard Drive URLS like this
<img src="c:\program files\macromedia\dreamweaver\picture.gif" height=" " width=" " alt="my picture">
then of course it will not work on your site.
My personal opinion I do not recommend using your hostings site editor to fix your pages. I prefer editing in the original editor, saving it, then re-upload. This will help prevent errors as some editors can change your code.
This is the same way with flash. You will need to edit your actionscript to point to the correct URL structure, save your flash file, and re-upload it to the server. To do this you will open your Flash program, double click on your button and then choose to edit the actionscript for that button.
Michele
Michele's Paint Shop
SEO Newbie 101 Site & Graphic Design.
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