When Publish (for this target) Is Clicked, What Happens?

Normally, I just upload the pages as I build the site. When I reach the final touchup phase before going live, I am always curious about the Publish ‘button’ on the bottom menu bar… I tried it once and I really didn’t like the outcome. It appeared that if a file no longer existed on my local but was on the target, it was removed.

Besides the site being published to the target destination, what else takes place with the files on the target side? Does it clean up any orphans not on the local? Or was my experience an anomaly?

I just want to make sure that I’m not going to lose any of the ‘work in progress’ files that may still exist on the target side.

Thanks for any insight on this…