Publishing you site is putting it on the web.
You will need a Web Host: this is a company that will charge you for managing your site on the web: you just upload your pages and they do the rest so you do not need to know any of the technical aspects unless you wish.
When you choose your host consider whether you want email, a shopping cart, etc.
Some hosts have unlimited space, others charge more for extra space. (To find the size of your site look in your computer files where the site is stored)
this web site compares hosts: http://www.thetop10bestwebhosting.com/uk/
Most hosts will also register your domain name (sometimes included in the host cost).
The cost varies but is generally less per month if you sign up for two years or more.
When you sign up with a host they will give you a user name and password (you cannot choose these). Make sure you have saved these as you will need them.
See also the checklist of things to do before publishing and Inserting Meta tags page
Things to note:
Plan and organise your site before you publish it as it is not a good idea to change things from one folder to another after you have published. If you do this people who have bookmarked a particular page will not be able to find it if you have changed its location.
Choosing a domain name: There are sites on the web that will let you know if your chosen name is available. Choose a name that will make you easy to find
Choosing a suffix to your name: if you choose .co.uk people are likely to know you are in the UK. If you choose .com you could be anywhere, you decide which you want.
Cloaking
This is a way of stopping some files in your site being uploaded, either to keep the size down or because you do not want pages to show or they will not be needed.
Examples of not needed files are the Assets (templates, etc.)
Cloaked files have a diagonal red line through them in the files list.
To cloak: Select the file or folder from the files list (Windows, right click; Mac, cmd+click) and choose cloaking > cloak
To upload your site
Site (top bar) > edit. This leads you to the menu when you first defined the site. Choose the Advanced tab.
From the category list on the left of the Advanced page choose Remote Info
Now you have some boxes to fill in:
Access: FTP
FTP Host: what your host tells you: probably your domain name
Host directory: this will probably be: public_html
login: your user name given by your host
password: your password given by your host
There is a test button on the page to check if all is OK.
When all is OK you can upload your pages:
Choose the expand icon (on far right of files tab): 
This will show your local (on your computer) files list and your remote (web) files list (when there are any).
Click on the connect icon (looks like two electric plugs): 
Put: this is the word for uploading your files, its icon is a fat upwards arrow: 
Choose Site (top menu) > Put
You will be asked if you want to Put the whole site.
When the whole site is uploaded, disconnect from the remote files (click on connect icon again).
Web hosts are usually helpful if you get in a muddle.
It is a good idea to write down what you did as you do not do this very often and so might forget.
To upload more pages or revised pages to remote server:
Choose expand icon and connect to the remote files.
Choose Site > synchronise. Choose whether you want new files or entire site and click Preview. This will bring up a list of files that are new or different from the remote ones and allow you to choose whether to Put them.
When sychronising you also have options to only put newer files to remote; to get new files from remote; to get and put newer files. Also you can delete remote files that are not local files.
Disconnect when done.
To upload or update a single file:
You can do this from the Files menu: use the connect , put , and/or the synchronise icons 
.
Note: on your computer you might find that revisions do not show immediately as your computer remembers the site as it was. To change this: clear your browser history or cache.
To download files from remote server:
You might want to do this if you are working on a site in a team or if you need to get files that are different from the ones you have saved in DW
Select the files to download; click the down arrow (get files) 
page updated 27/5/10