Use the SiteCheck software recently purchased by the University to check your links and spelling errors. Find out where to get Sitecheck and how to use it.

Checking links in Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver only checks internal links on your pages. Before checking links in Dreamweaver, make sure that the HTTP address of your site is correctly configured:

1. Click 'Sites > Manage Sites...'
2. Select your current site setup and press 'Edit...'
3. In the 'Advanced' tab, under 'Local Info', the 'HTTP address' should point to the live location of your web site, for example: 'http://www.kent.ac.uk/web/'

Now we can check our site for broken links or orphaned pages (pages which currently have no link to them).

1. Go to the Site tab and then Check Links Sitewide.

A list of broken links within the web site will now be displayed. Double-clicking on the file name will open that page at the correct location to edit an incorrect link.

Checking links with Xenu

Xenu is a freeware application which checks for broken links (both external and internal) on a specified web site.

Xenu link checker can be downloaded from here.

1. Open Xenu, and click 'File > Check URL ...'
2. Enter the full URL of the web site you wish to check, ensuring to keep a trailing slash. For example 'http://www.kent.ac.uk/web/'
3. Make sure the 'Check external links' box is unchecked.
4. In the text box labeled 'Consider URLs beginning with this as internal', enter the web site address as in step 2. Then press the 'Add' button.
5. If there are any subfolders within the site you do not wish to check, enter their URLs in the text box below. Otherwise leave this blank.
6. Press 'Ok'.

Xenu will begin to check the files on the current site.

1. When it is finished, you will be prompted to create a report of the results. This is optional.
2. Click the 'Status' column heading so that files with correct links are displayed first.
3. Scroll down the list until you find any links labeled 'not found'.
4. Navigate to that file in Dreamweaver and update the link accordingly.