- Introduction
- Examining the Dreamweaver Window
- Working with Toolbars
- Resizing Panels
- Working with Panels
- Docking and Undocking Panels
- Grouping and Ungrouping Panels
- Creating a Workspace
- Using the Status Bar
- Changing the View with the Zoom Tool
- Working with Rulers
- Working with the Grid and Guides
- Creating Keyboard Shortcuts
- Setting General Preferences
- Setting New Document Preferences
- Working with Colors
- Setting Highlighting Color Preferences
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Examining the Dreamweaver Window
When you start Dreamweaver, the program window displays several windows of varying sizes you can use to create Web pages. These windows include the Program window, Document window, various panels, and the Properties panel. Depending on your installation and previous program usage, not all of these windows may appear, or additional ones may be visible. You’ll do the bulk of your work in Dreamweaver with these windows.
In Dreamweaver, windows appear in the workspace with a title bar, such as the program window, a document window tab, or in a panel.
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The Program window displays a Title bar with the program name Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 and the filename of the active open file in brackets. The Title bar also contains a Close button and resizing buttons to the far right.
A menu bar appears below the title bar with menu names. A menu is a list of commands that you use to accomplish specific tasks. A command is a directive that accesses a feature of a program. Dreamweaver has its own set of menus, which are located on the menu bar along the top of the Dreamweaver window. On a menu, a check mark identifies a feature that is currently selected (that is, the feature is enabled or on). To disable (turn off) the feature, you click the command again to remove the check mark. A menu can contain several check marked features. A bullet (Win) or diamond (Mac) also indicates that an option is enabled, but a menu can contain only one bullet-or diamond-marked feature per menu section. To disable a command with a bullet or diamond next to it, you must select a different option in the section on the menu.
When you perform a command frequently, it’s faster, and sometimes more convenient, to use a shortcut key, which is a keyboard
alternative to using the mouse. When a shortcut key is available, it is listed beside the command on the menu, such as 
+F3 (Mac) or Ctrl+F3 (Win) for the Properties command on the Window menu.
Below the menu bar is the Insert toolbar, which appears by default and provides tabs with a variety of different buttons. A Toolbar contains a set of commonly used buttons you can quickly access to help you to create Web pages. Dreamweaver comes with five different toolbars, which you can show or hide to customize the Program window The Document window displays open Dreamweaver documents. Dreamweaver uses tabs to make it easier to switch back and forth between documents. Below a Document tab is the Document toolbar. Each document window includes a Minimize, Maximize, and Close button at the top, and a Status bar at the bottom, which displays current information about the active document and common display tools.
A panel is a window you can collapse, expand, and group with other panels, known as a panel group, to improve accessibility and workflow. A panel appears with a shaded header bar, which includes the window title and additional options. A panel group consists of either individual panels stacked one on top of the other or related panels organized together with tabs, such as the Files panel, to navigate from one panel to another. Dreamweaver provides a wide variety of panels you can use to work with different aspects of a Web page, including CSS Styles, Databases, Tags, and Frames, which you can open and close from the Window menu. As you open, close, and move around windows and panels to meet your individual needs, you can save the location of windows and panels as a custom panel layout set, which you can display again later.
The Properties panel, known more commonly as the Property Inspector, at the bottom of the Program window provides a convenient way to view and change attributes of any selected object or multiple objects, such as graphics and shapes, on a Web page. After you select an object, relevant commands and associated fields for it appear in the Property Inspector.