About the Check-In/Check-Out system

If you’re working in a collaborative environment, you can check files in and out from local and remote servers.

If you’re the only person working on the remote server, you can use the Put and Get commands without checking files in or out.

Note: You can use Get and Put functionality with a testing server, but you cannot use the Check In/ Check Out system with a testing server.

Checking out a file is the equivalent of declaring “I’m working on this file now—don’t touch it!” When a file is checked out, the name of the person who checked out the file is displayed in the Files panel, along with a red check mark (if a team member checked out the file) or green check mark (if you checked out the file) next to the file’s icon.

Checking in a file makes the file available for other team members to check out and edit. When you check in a file after editing it, your local version becomes read-only and a lock symbol appears beside the file in the Files panel to prevent you from making changes to the file.

Dreamweaver does not make checked-out files read-only on the remote server. If you transfer files with an application other than Dreamweaver, you can overwrite checked-out files. However, in applications other than Dreamweaver, the LCK file is visible next to the checked-out file in the file hierarchy to help prevent such accidents.

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Set up the Check-In/Check-Out system

Before you can use the Check In/Check Out system, you must associate your local site with a remote server.

Select Site > Manage Sites.

Select a site and click Edit.

In the Site Setup dialog box, select the Servers category and do one of the following:

  • Click the Add New Server button to add a new server
  • Select an existing server and click the Edit Existing Server button
  • Specify Basic options as necessary, and then click the Advanced button.
  • Select Enable File Check Out if you are working in a team environment (or working alone but from several different machines). Deselect this option if you want to disable file check in and check out for your website.
  • This option is useful to let others know that you checked out a file for editing, or to alert yourself that you may have left a more recent version of a file on another machine.
  • If you do not see Check In/Out options, it means that you have not set up a remote server.
  • Select the Check Out Files when Opening option if you want to automatically check out files when you double-click to open them from the Files panel.

Using File > Open to open a file doesn’t check the file out even when this option is selected.

Set the remaining options:

Check Out Name The check-out name appears in the Files panel alongside any files that are checked out; this enables team members to communicate with the right person if a file they need is checked out.

Note: If you work alone from several different machines, use a different check-out name on each machine (for example, AmyR-HomeMac and AmyR-OfficePC) so you’ll know where the latest version of the file is if you forget to check it in.

Email Address If you enter an e-mail address, when you check out a file, your name appears in the Files panel as a link (blue and underlined) next to that file. If a team member clicks on the link, their default e‑mail program opens a new message with the user’s e‑mail address and a subject that corresponds to the file and site name.

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See also Using the Files panel.