xampp questions following migration to WP

[jcalcina]

Based on Brian's article "Editing a WP site with Dreameaver", I successfully setup a local server, briefly tweaked a few things in the associated MyThemes theme, and then migrated the files to my hosting provider GoDaddy, not without some headaches, but in hindsight it basically mirrors the xampp 'localhost' configuration. This is the point right, or is there a way to bypass GoDaddy altogether, using xampp?

So, if something doesn't look right when I deploy my WordPress page from the link at my static html website, based on the migrated theme, do I need to go back to edit my local server files, and go through the whole migration/configuration process again.

Maybe I jumped the gun in migrating to host server; I just wanted to figure out the process.

I'd appreciate any clarification. Is this the best place to follow up with Brian Wood's article? Thank you.

[Nancy OShea]

I typically install WordPress on the remote server and use WP's admin panel to edit the site's appearance as much as possible. 

Then, I GET the Theme files: header.php, footer.php, child theme .css, etc... from the remote server and edit those in DW's code view.

I frequently use my browser's Web Developer Toolbar to tweak the remotely hosted CSS code.  When it looks good in browser, I copy & paste that code it into my local copy & upload it to the remote server.

Working this way, I rarely need a local testing server because my work is on the remote site.

Nancy O.