How to Set Page Properties
Page properties control many things: color schemes, backgrounds, page titles, and even page margins. The Page Properties screen allows you to not only set page properties, but also to modify them at any time. Every Web page you create must have this information, so get into the habit of setting a title straight away and making sure that you are using matching colors.
Open the Page Properties Dialog Box
The main settings for your pages are kept in the Page Properties dialog box. To open this important dialog box, choose Modify, Page Properties from the main menu bar.
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Give the Page a Title
Each Web page needs a title the text displayed in the title bar at the top of the Web browser. The title of the page is also the reference given to pages when a visitor creates a bookmark or favorite place in her browser. The title you give your page should specify the name of your site as well as the page within the site. In the Title field at the top of the Page Properties dialog box, type the title you want to assign this page and click Apply. The title immediately appears in the title bar of the document window.
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Set a Background Image
Background images in Dreamweaver tile to fill the screen exactly as they do in a Web browser. To select a background image for your page, click the Browse button next to the Background Image box in the Page Properties dialog box. Navigate to the image you want to use and click Select (click Choose on a Mac). You are prompted to save a copy of the image file into the site folder (you should do so). Click Apply; the image appears in the document window.
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Set a Background Color
Even if you use a background image, you should select a matching background color as well. The background color displays while the background image is loading and makes your text visible even if the image fails to load. To set a background color, click the button to the left of the Background box and choose a color from the palette that pops out. Click Apply to apply this color to your page.
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Set Text and Link Colors
You can use the Page Properties dialog box to set default text and link colors for your page. Text automatically appears in this color when you type. There are three link colors to set on your page: Links (how links first appear to a visitor), Visited Links (how links appear after they have been clicked), and Active Links (the color a link changes to for the brief moment it is being clicked). Click the color palette button next to each option, make a selection, and click Apply.
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Set Margins
There are two sets of margin options available in the Page Properties dialog box, and these should be set to the same values. The Left Margin and Top Margin values are recognized by Internet Explorer; the Margin Height and Margin Width values are recognized by Netscape Navigator. The margins you set are visible only when you check your page in a browser window. When you finish setting page options, click OK to close the dialog box.
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How To Hints
Color Schemes
If you are not confident about getting your colors to coordinate properly, Dreamweaver allows you to choose from some predefined color schemes. Select Commands, Set Color Scheme. When you choose a background color, suggestions for coordinating text and link colors appear.
Background Logic
In this task, we set a background image andýa background color. But only one of these will display in the final page. Almost everyone who sees your page will see the background image you set, and the page will display as you intended. However, you need the background color to display when the page is loading and also just in case some browsers don’t have the capability to view images at all.