Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Unleashed- P5 doc

Alternatively, youcan choose the Check Links Sitewide option from the Site submenu located within the Files panelOptions menu.. Check the external link references within your site by cho

Broken Links— Broken links are hyperlinks that are not referenced properly They generally will be

linked to a file that does not exist in a particular directory or that in most cases is misreferenced

External Links— This report is a list of external path references within your site Because

Dreamweaver has no way of checking for external links, it will, at the very least, list them out so youcan check them manually in one short concise list

Orphaned Files— Orphaned files are files that exist within folders in your site but that are not directly

referenced by your web pages Assets, for instance, will always appear within this list even whencloaked Dreamweaver is providing a list so that later you can go into your site and perform a manualclean up of unused files

Before we demonstrate the process of checking links, let's actually create a broken link within our newsample.html page You can do this by opening sample.html, placing your cursor on the page, and choosing

Insert, Hyperlink When the Hyperlink dialog appears, enter the value "Fake Link" within the Text text box and then enter a broken path in the Link field, perhaps homepage.html Remember, homepage.html

doesn't actually exist We're purposely creating a broken reference here to test the functionality Click OKand save the page Now we're ready to check for bad links Checking links within your site can be

accomplished using one of two methods First, you can check the links for an individual file; and second, youcan check links for an entire defined site Because the process for both is similar, I'll demonstrate the CheckLinks Sitewide feature for an entire site here You can do this by following these steps:

1. Within the Files panel, select the defined site, right-click (Control+click) to access the context menu,and choose Check Links, Entire Local Site The Results panel will appear with the Link Checker tabhighlighted, similar to Figure 3.34

Figure 3.34 Open the Link Checker by choosing Check Links, Entire Local Site.

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As you saw, the Check Links submenu also features the Selected Files/Folders option If you didn't

need to check the links for the entire site, you could highlight the files and/or folders and choose thisoption Also, the path we took to open the Link Checker is merely one method Like every other feature

in Dreamweaver, the Check Links feature can be accessed using numerous methods: the Link Checkercan also be accessed directly from the Site menu by choosing Check Links Sitewide Alternatively, youcan choose the Check Links Sitewide option from the Site submenu located within the Files panelOptions menu

2. With the Link Checker tab open, you'll notice a few options First and foremost, in the top-left corner isthe Show drop-down menu that offers the three available options for link checking reports (BrokenLinks, External Links, and Orphaned Files) Also, you'll notice that the Link Checker tab is divided intotwo columns; the left side is where problematic files will be listed, and on the right is the link that iscausing the problem

3. To fix the broken link, double-click the document on the left side of the pane within the Files column.This opens the document and highlights the problematic link Within the Property inspector, change thelink in the Link text field to something that you know is valid, such as index.html Alternatively, youcould click the troubled link on the right side of the dialog box within the Broken Links column Hereyou can either type in the link manually or click the folder icon to search for the appropriate file Afterthe file is found, the correct path is added and the reference to the broken link disappears within theLink Checker menu

You can also check the external links within your site by choosing the External Link option from the Showmenu As you can see from Figure 3.35, the Link Checker pane lists all the external link references, includingthe link to the public website as well as the mail link that we created in the previous chapter

Figure 3.35 Check the external link references within your site by choosing the External Links

option from the Show menu.

[View full size image]

You can change the link references within this list, but they won't ever be removed Dreamweaver willalways list all external links regardless of whether you know they're correct or not

Finally, you can view orphaned files, files that are in your site but that aren't linked to any pages, by

choosing the Orphaned Files option from the Show menu As you can see from Figure 3.36, all files notdirectly referenced from an HTML file are shown as orphaned

Figure 3.36 Orphaned files are listed after you select the Orphaned Files option from the Show

menu.

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If you've determined that a file is no longer needed, you can select it within the list and click the Delete key

on your keyboard Doing this permanently deletes the file

Additional options provided by the Link Checker include the following:

Play button— Although the Play button exists as a way to rerun the Link Checker, holding down the

icon displays options for checking links for the current document, the entire site, or selected files andfolders within the site

Stop button— As your site grows in size, so will the search time If the search becomes excessively

long, click this button to stop the link checker's search

Save button— Click this button to save a text-based report of broken links, external links, and

orphaned files for later reference

Status bar— Click the status bar, located at the bottom of the Results panel, to see a total count of

files scanned as well as a breakdown of total broken, external, orphaned files, and so on

When you're satisfied with results, close the panel or choose Close Panel Group from the Results panelOptions menu

Changing Links Sitewide

One of the simplest and most time-efficient methods of managing links within your site is the Change LinksSitewide feature This feature, available by choosing Site, Change Links Sitewide, allows you to quicklychange the name of all instances of a specific link referenced within your site To demonstrate this feature,let's assume that Mike in Marketing decided he no longer wants the navigation item Company Directory but

instead wanted it to read Employee Directory Aside from changing the link on every page, you would alsohave to rename the file, essentially breaking all references to that file A quick way to fix this, withoutlaunching the Link Checker, is to use the Change Link Sitewide feature, shown in Figure 3.37, to change alllink references from companydirectory.html to employeedirectory.html.

Figure 3.37 Use the Change Link Sitewide feature to quickly change references of a link.

When you click OK, Dreamweaver scans and fixes all instances of the file

Creating Site Reports

One of the basic premises behind site management is having the capability to check your work againstvarious factors before considering your site done Are you sure every page has a title? Did you add alternatetext to all your images for accessibility's sake? Is your HTML clean enough to be considered valid? Thesequestions and more can be answered by running site reports on your site Available by selecting Site,

Reports, the Reports dialog box (shown in Figure 3.28) features numerous options for customizing

Dreamweaver's reporting capabilities

As you can see from Figure 3.38, the dialog box is split into two parts The first part, the Report On listallows you to choose whether to run site reports on the current document, the entire current local site,selected files within the site, or a specific folder The second part of the dialog is the Select Reports pane.Within this pane, you'll choose the options for reporting These options include the following:

Checked Out By— When Checked Out By is selected, the Report Settings button in the bottom-left

corner of the dialog box becomes active Click the button to search for an individual who may havefiles checked out It's important to know that this value is case sensitive; however, you don't need totype in someone's entire name For example, if you were looking for Zak Ruvalcaba, you could simplytype in Zak, zak, or even Ruvalcaba

Design Notes— When this option is selected, the Report Settings button also becomes active Click it

to bring up the Design Notes dialog box in which you can enter the design note to search for and how

to search for it When searching for a design note, you must enter in a condition, such as contains,does not contain, is, is not, and so on, for the search to meet

Recently Modified— Again, choosing this option makes the Report Settings button active Click the

button to launch the Recently Modified dialog, which allows you to customize time ranges, modified by,and server location filters for recently modified files

Combinable Nested Font Tags— Use this option to perform searches for unnecessary uses of

multiple Font tags If for some reason there is more than one Font tag around a particular area of text,most likely it's because each Font tag has a different attribute For example, the following Font tags

<font size="3"><font face="Arial"></font></font> could be combined to read <font

face="Arial" size="3"></font> This option would alert you of this.

Accessibility— As you'll see in Appendix A, "Accessibility," this option reports on glaring accessibility

issues Checking this option also makes the Report Settings button available, which, when selected,allows you to configure various potential accessibility issues to report on

Missing Alt Text— This option searches all <img> tags within your document to find missing Alt

attributes

Redundant Nested Tags— This option checks to see if tags are nested inside themselves and

removes them as necessary For instance, <em>Visit Vecta Corp's website<em>today!</em></em>could be combined to read <em>Visit Vecta Corp's website today!</em> This option would alertyou of this

Removable Empty Tags— Use this option to report on any tags within your web pages that do not

contain anything An example of an empty tag looks like this: <font></font> Because the tag doesn'tcontain anything, it's not needed and should be removed

Untitled Documents— Use this handy option to run reports on duplicate titled documents, nontitled

documents, and documents titled as the Dreamweaver default of Untitled Document

Figure 3.38 Use the Reports feature to run checks on HTML and workflow processes.

To run a site report, follow these steps:

1. Choose Site, Reports to open the Reports dialog box.

2. In the Report On list, you can choose the current document (if a document is open), the entire currentlocal site, any file you may have selected in the Files panel, or a selected folder For this example, I'llchoose the Entire Current Local Site option

3. Now that you've selected what you're going to report on, the next thing to choose is what report youwant to build You can choose from any one of the options discussed in the preceding bullet points I'llchoose all the HTML reports except for Accessibility

4. Click the Run button to generate the report

5. Dreamweaver scans the documents and presents the site report as a list in the Site Reports tab of theResults panel similar to Figure 3.39 As you can see, Dreamweaver displays an icon symbolizing theseverity of the error (question mark means minor or the user may need to provide more info, a yellowwarning means slightly higher than minor and that the page may fail in certain aspects when validation

is performed, and the red x means a critical error or that the page will fail if validation is performed).The results also display the filename in which the error appears, the line number of the code in whichthe error appears, and a description of the actual error

Figure 3.39 Site report results are displayed within the Site Reports tab in the

Results panel.

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6. Similar to the functionality within the Link Checker, you can double-click the error within the Resultspanel Dreamweaver will automatically open the document (in Code view) and have your cursor

focused on the exact line that contains the error

7. You can also save the report for later use To do this, choose the Save button (floppy disc icon).Dreamweaver will save the file in XML format, allowing you to later format the report into a web page,

a spreadsheet, or a database

After you've fixed the errors, you can run the report again by selecting the Play button to reopen theReports dialog

Using Advanced Site Management Options

Although it seems we've run the gamut in terms of site management functionality, Dreamweaver includes afew more features that can only be categorized as advanced site-management options Available from theAdvanced submenu of the main Dreamweaver Site menu at the top of the screen, these advanced featuresinclude the following:

FTP Log— While transferring files using the built-in FTP client, Dreamweaver records all activity If an

error occurs when you are transferring a file using FTP, the FTP log can help you determine the

problem Select this option to present the text-based log within the FTP Log tab in the Results panel

Recreate Site Cache— You may remember from the beginning of the chapter that we discussed the

cache I mentioned that Dreamweaver takes a snapshot of your folder and file structure and caches it.

In most cases, this cache is automatically generated, and in some cases, when changes are madewithin Dreamweaver, regenerated If for some reason you make changes to the folder and file

structure outside of Dreamweaver (not recommended), run this handy utility to re-create

Dreamweaver's cache for the site

Remove Connection Scripts— When connecting to databases, Dreamweaver relies on a connection

script built in to a file and placed within a Connections folder on your site If you've begun workingwith databases, this file is automatically created for you Unfortunately, Dreamweaver doesn't knowwhen you're no longer working with databases You can minimize the security risk of someone

tampering with your databases (if they found this file and were able to decipher the connection stringinformation) by removing these connection scripts manually Because your system can be

compromised only while the scripts are actually present on the server, removing the connection scriptswill remove the risk of database access in the future

Deploy Supporting Files— When working with dynamic web applications, Dreamweaver relies on

prebuilt files and scripts (like connection scripts) to create the functionality that you'll ultimatelyinteract with In most cases, Dreamweaver will automatically create a folder within your site for thesefiles If for some reason the folder isn't created, you can select this option to force Dreamweaver to do

so This option will be covered in more detail in Part V, "Dynamic Web Page Development."

As you've seen in this chapter, Dreamweaver includes numerous options for managing a site By defining asite first, you can take advantage of various features outlined within Dreamweaver's framework, includingcaching, link verification, file transfer using FTP, site maps, and so on Now that you have a foundation interms of Dreamweaver's user interface, building a web page, and managing a website, let's look at

customizing your preferences so that you can configure Dreamweaver to best suit your workflow

Chapter 4 Defining Preferences

IN THIS CHAPTER

Using the Preferences Dialog

Setting Keyboard Shortcuts

Working with Tag Libraries

As you become more involved with the development of your web pages, defining preferences will becomeincreasingly important and, at times, essential Let's face it, no one likes to develop in a rigid environmentwhere you're forced to work with a predetermined interface that stifles adaptation to your workflow process.After all, everyone is different; everyone develops differently, and most importantly, everyone uses certaintools within Dreamweaver more than others To this end, Dreamweaver is unusual in the sense that justabout everything can be customized From workflow processes, to keyboard shortcuts, code hints for tags,favorite objects, commands, dialog interfaces, the menu bar, and so on—all can be customized to suit theway you like to work, and not necessarily the way someone at Adobe thinks that you should work

So far you've learned about the various tools, panels, and windows that Dreamweaver provides as aids inyour site development endeavors You built a simple web page using these tools within Dreamweaver, andthen you saw how defining a site is beneficial in terms of managing the pages and ultimately the sites thatyou work with Before we continue with more advanced development topics such as tables, CSS, forms, andthe like, let's look at the various preferences you can set to further enhance your website developmentexperience Specifically, we'll explore the following:

The Preferences dialog and categories for defining preferences

Keyboard shortcuts

Tag libraries

Although this particular chapter won't examine every customizable feature Dreamweaver provides, don't

worry—most features briefly covered here will be covered in great detail as their usage becomes requiredthroughout the book For instance, in Appendix B, "Extending Dreamweaver," we'll discuss how simplemodifications to the menus.xml file can customize the way you interact with the menu bar Furthermore,we'll examine how you can build your own objects, behaviors, and server behaviors, and how you canpackage and distribute these items to the Dreamweaver community through the Dreamweaver Exchange.For now, we're merely concerned with customizing the workflow process through simple editable

preferences, keyboard shortcuts, and tag libraries Let's begin

Using the Preferences Dialog

Dreamweaver offers numerous methods for workflow customization, but in reality, everything begins withthe Preferences dialog (see Figure 4.1) Available by choosing Edit, Preferences (Dreamweaver, Preferences

on a Mac), the Preferences dialog includes numerous categories for fine-tuned workflow customization

Figure 4.1 The Preferences dialog includes numerous categories for fine-tuned workflow

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As you can see from Figure 4.1, everything from how you interact with the Document window to how code iswritten within Code view can be customized from this dialog A complete list follows:

Setting general preferences for Dreamweaver

Optimizing the workspace for accessible page design

Setting AP element preferences

Setting code-coloring preferences

Setting code-formatting options

Setting code hints preferences

Setting code-rewriting preferences

Setting copy-and-paste preferences

Setting CSS Styles preferences

Defining a file-compare program

Setting file types and external editors

Setting fonts preferences for Dreamweaver display

Setting highlighting preferences

Setting invisible elements preferences

Setting preferences for Layout mode

Setting options for new document creation

Setting preferences for previewing in browsers

Setting site preference options

Setting status bar preferences

Setting validator preferences

Note

Most Dreamweaver categories can be accessed from specific panels and dialogs while you're working.For instance, because the Preview in Browser category allows you to set web browsers for previewingyour pages, it can be accessed directly by selecting the Edit Browser List option located within thePreview in Browser list on the Document toolbar Most of the categories you see within the

Preferences dialog function that way It's simply a matter of convenience to select Edit, Preferences(Dreamweaver, Preferences) to quickly and easily have access to everything

Let's discuss each of these preferences in more detail You may find some preferences that you'll want tocustomize to improve the way you work with Dreamweaver

The General Category

As you can see from Figure 4.1, basic preferences will appear within the General category of the Preferencesdialog As you've seen in chapters up to this point, options including enabling the Welcome screen, workingwith HTML tags instead of CSS, and setting the spell checker dictionary language can all be customizedwithin this category A complete list of customizable functionality follows:

Open documents in tabs— This Macintosh-only preference tells Dreamweaver whether to open

documents in tabs or to open each document in its own window that you can freely position on the

Always show tabs— This preference, which is also Macintosh only, tells Dreamweaver whether to

always show the Tab bar in the Document window or to only show it when there's more than onedocument open in tabs This option is switchable only when the previous preference is enabled Irecommend that you select this option or else you will find that your Document window will be resizingitself every time you open or close a second document This jumping can become distracting

Show Welcome Screen— As you saw in Chapter 2, "Building a Web Page," the Welcome screen is a

handy window that allows you to quickly open recently opened files, create new files, and create newfiles from prebuilt Dreamweaver skeleton files Choose this option to enable or disable the Welcomescreen when Dreamweaver opens for the first time or when all Document window instances have beenclosed

Reopen documents on startup— Enable this option if you want Dreamweaver to automatically open

the last file(s) you had open when you closed Dreamweaver If you disable this option, Dreamweavereither opens the Welcome screen, if you have that option selected, or a blank screen

Warn when opening read-only files— Checking this option forces Dreamweaver to alert you when

opening files that are set as read-only When the alert appears, you are given the option to unlock thefile, check it out, open the file with read-only status, or to cancel completely

Update links when moving files— This option determines how Dreamweaver should handle the

moving, renaming, or deleting of files within your defined site From the menu, you have the option ofchoosing whether to have Dreamweaver update links automatically, never, or to prompt you beforeperforming any operations

Show dialog when inserting objects— Disable this option if you don't want to see a dialog box

when inserting objects such as images, tables, and so on from the Insert bar If this option is disabled,all properties for the object must be set within either the Property inspector, Code view, or the

Attributes panel located within the Tag Inspector panel group

Enable double-byte inline input— Choosing this option enables you to enter double-byte text

directly into your pages if you are using a language that facilitates double-byte text (such as Japanesecharacters) When this option is deselected, a text input dialog box appears for entering and

converting double-byte text

Switch to plain paragraph after heading— Enabling this option causes Dreamweaver to insert a

new paragraph (represented with the <p> tag) when you press Enter after a heading (represented bythe <h1>, <h2> tags, and so on) If this option is not selected, pressing Enter (Return) after a headingcreates a new paragraph with the same heading tag

Allow multiple consecutive spaces— By default, inserting a normal space into a web page is

represented by the Non-Breaking Space (&nbsp;) special character The Non-Breaking Space is

accessible by choosing Insert, HTML, Special Characters, Non-Breaking Space or by pressing thekeyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+space Check this option to insert a Non-Breaking Space when thespacebar is pressed

Use <strong> and <em> in place of <b> and <i> — For standards compliancy, this option should

remain enabled In fact, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) discourages the use of the <b> and

<i> tags Choosing this option guarantees that the <strong> tag (Bold) is used in place of the <b> tagand the <em> tag (Italic) is used in place of the <i> tag when their respective buttons are selectedfrom the either the Property inspector or from the Text, Style submenu

Use CSS instead of HTML tags— As you saw in Chapter 2, deselecting this option allows you to work

with traditional HTML formatting options As you'll see in Chapter 6, "Page Formatting Using CascadingStyle Sheets," you would check this option to work with standards-compliant CSS

Warn when placing editable regions within <p> or <h1> - <h6> tags— This option specifies

whether Dreamweaver displays a warning message whenever you save a Dreamweaver template thathas an editable region within a paragraph or heading tag The message tells you that users will not beable to create more paragraphs in the region It is turned on by default

Centering— This option group allows you to specify how centering of content should be handled when

the Align Center icon within the Property inspector is selected on an element Choose the compliant <div> tag option when you want to wrap your element within a <div align="center"> tag,attribute, and value Choose the <center> tag option when you want to use the deprecated <center>tag The latter option is not recommended by the W3C

standards-Maximum number of history steps— Specifies the maximum number of history steps to store in

memory These steps, also represented by repeatedly choosing Edit, Undo (or by pressing Ctrl+Z/+Z) are also visible within the History panel Although you can increase this number, be aware thatthese steps are stored in memory The higher you increase this number, the more of your computer'smemory Dreamweaver will consume

Spelling dictionary— Lists the various dictionaries to use with the spell checker By default this

option is set to English (American)

The Accessibility Category

As you can see from Figure 4.2, the Accessibility category of the Preferences window enables you to

customize how you work with various accessibility features within Dreamweaver

Figure 4.2 The Accessibility category enables you to customize how you work with accessibility

features in Dreamweaver.

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More information on Accessibility can be found in Appendix A, "Accessibility."

Following is a complete list of customizable functionality:

Show attributes when inserting— As you will see in Appendix A, "Accessibility," form objects,

frames, media elements, and images all carry accessibility attributes that you can set Checking theseboxes guarantees that whenever we insert a form object, create a frame, or insert a media or imageelement, a dialog appears allowing for customization of accessibility attributes for the respectiveelement If these check boxes are left unchecked, an accessibility dialog will not automatically appearwhen you insert the previously mentioned elements onto the page Again, we'll discuss these optionswith more detail in Appendix A

Keep focus in the panel when opening— Maintains focus on any panel, which makes it accessible

to screen readers If you use a screen reader and don't select this option, the focus remains on theDocument window when you open a panel and the screen reader won't know anything is different.(Windows only)

Offscreen Rendering— Select this, Windows-only option if you use a screen reader and

Dreamweaver

The AP Elements Category

AP Elements, as you will learn in Chapter 7, "Page Structuring Using Cascading Style Sheets," are HTML

elements that can contain text, images, media, and so on The benefit to using AP Elements is that they arestackable and moveable within the design window, enabling pinpoint accurate designs As shown in Figure4.3, the AP Elements category in the Preferences dialog allows you to customize the look of the AP Elementwhen it's inserted into the design window.

Figure 4.3 Use the AP Elements category to customize the initial look of <div> tags as they are

inserted into your page.

[View full size image]

Note

Most of these customizable features are also available from the Property inspector after an AP

Element has been inserted into the Document window The options in the Preferences merely

customize the look of AP Elements when inserted for the first time

A complete list of functionality exposed by the AP Elements category is given next:

Visibility— Choose an option from this menu to set the initial display properties of the AP Element.

Options include default, inherit, visible, and hidden Again, you will learn more about these options inChapter 7

Width— Sets the width in pixels of the AP Element when it's first inserted into the Document window.

Height— Sets the height in pixels of the AP Element when it's first inserted into the Document

Background color— Sets the background color of the AP Element when it's first inserted into the

Document window

Background image— Sets the background image of the AP Element when it's first inserted into the

Document window If a background image is set and it is smaller than the width and height of the APElement, the image will tile vertically and horizontally

Nesting— Enable this option to automatically nest an AP Element within another AP Element if it is

initially created within the boundaries of an existing AP Element Disabling this option causes the APElement to stack instead of nest

Netscape 4 compatibility— Enable this option to allow Dreamweaver to automatically insert

JavaScript code within the <head> tag of the web page to fix a known problem within Netscape 4browsers that automatically causes an AP Element to lose its positioning values if a user resizes thebrowser window Alternatively, you can manually add/remove this code by choosing Commands,Add/Remove Netscape Resize Fix

The Code Coloring Category

One of the subtle benefits to working in the code environment within Dreamweaver is that all code isseparated into colors For instance, most ordinary HTML elements appear as blue, styles as maroon, scripts

as red, form elements as orange, literal text as black, and so on You may want to pursue these colors evenfurther and customize them to your liking Even better, you might want to create more color combinationsfor tags If this is the case, the Code Coloring category of the Preferences dialog is for you As you can seefrom Figure 4.4, the Code Coloring category allows you to customize how elements within a specific taglibrary are displayed

Figure 4.4 The Code Coloring category allows you to customize the color of elements within

various tag libraries.

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As you will see, aside from plain HTML, other tag libraries exist and can be modified A complete list ofcustomizable functionality follows:

Document type— This list includes all the document libraries that are supported and can be

customized within Dreamweaver After you've found the tag library whose colors you'd like to

customize, select it, and click the Edit Coloring Scheme button (discussed next)

Edit Coloring Scheme— After you've selected a tag library from the Document type list box, and

you've clicked the Edit Coloring Scheme button, the Edit Coloring Scheme dialog box appears As youcan see from Figure 4.5, the Edit Coloring Scheme for <your tag library> dialog allows you to pickfrom a Tag list on the left and customize the color of that tag on the right Dreamweaver also givesyou the options of adding a background color to the tag and changing the weight to Bold, Italic, andeven Underline After you've customized how you want the tag to look, review it within the Previewpane and click OK to apply the changes

Figure 4.5 The Edit Coloring Scheme for HTML dialog box allows you to customize tag colors

as they will appear within the Code view in the Document window.

[View full size image]

Default background— Sets the background color of the Code view By default, the color is set to

white (represented by the hexadecimal value #FFFFFF)

The Code Format Category

Although the Code Coloring category allows you to make tailored changes that affect the color of code as it'sadded to the coding environment, the Code Format category of the Preferences dialog box, shown in Figure4.6, allows you to customize how the code is added and subsequently formatted within the coding

environment

Figure 4.6 HTML code is formatted within the coding environment based on modifications you

make within the Code Format category.

[View full size image]

A complete list of customizable functionality follows:

Indent— Enable this option to allow Dreamweaver to automatically indent HTML code according to the

rules specified to the right of this check box If this option is enabled, specify how many spaces or tabsDreamweaver should indent code

Tab size— The value in this text box determines how many characters wide each tab character

appears in the Code view For example, with the Tab size set to 4, the default, each tab is displayed inCode view as a four-character-wide blank space

Automatic Wrapping— Enable this check box to have Dreamweaver insert a line-break character

when a line reaches the specified column width within the code Because Dreamweaver inserts break characters only in places where they don't change the appearance of the document in browsers,some lines may remain longer than the Automatic Wrapping option specified

line-Line break type— Choose from one of the three options within this list to set the type of line break

based on the remote server's operating system Choosing the correct version ensures that your pagesare accurately formatted on the remote server As you can see from this list, options include CarriageReturn Line Feed (CR LF) for Windows, Carriage Return (CR) for Macintosh, and Line Feed (LF) forUNIX

Default tag case— Choose from one of the two options in this menu to force Dreamweaver to add

tags in either uppercase or lowercase format Because of XHTML compliancy standards, it's generally agood idea to stick with lowercase

Default attribute case— Choose from one of the two options in this menu to force Dreamweaver to

add tag attributes in either uppercase or lowercase Again, because the Web is moving toward XHTMLcompliancy, it's generally a good idea to stick with lowercase

Override case of: Tags and Attributes— Use these powerful check boxes to always force the two

uppercase/lowercase rules mentioned previously By enabling this option, Dreamweaver converts thecase of code in any document opened within Dreamweaver to lowercase/uppercase This is a greatway to enforce the rules that you set previously, even for documents you open within Dreamweaverthat weren't created in Dreamweaver

No break after TD— Choose this option if you don't want Dreamweaver to add a line break after the

<td> (table data for the parent <table>) tag is inserted in code, such as: <td>Hello World</td>.Disabling this option simply adds a line break after the opening <td> tag and then again after theliteral text

Advanced Formatting (CSS)— Click this button to launch the CSS Source Format Options dialog

(shown in Figure 4.7) Within this dialog box, you can set generic properties for how Dreamweaverwrites and formats CSS code Options within this dialog include the following:

Indent properties with— Sets the indentation value for properties within a rule You can

specify tabs or spaces

Each property on separate line— Places each property within a rule on a separate line.

Opening brace on separate line— Places the opening brace for a rule on a separate line from

the selector

Only if more than 1 property— Places single-property rules on the same line as the selector.

All selectors for a rule on same line— Places all selectors for the rule on the same line.

Blank line between rules— Inserts a blank line between each rule.

Figure 4.7 The CSS Source Format Options dialog allows you to customize how

Dreamweaver writes and formats CSS code.

Advanced Formatting (Tag Libraries)— As you will see later in the chapter, selecting this option

opens the Tag Library Editor, which lets you set the formatting of individual tags in contrast to globalsettings that appear within this preferences category

The Code Hints Category

You can set options within the Code Hints category of the Preferences dialog box to customize how

Dreamweaver helps you along in the coding environment Shown in Figure 4.8, the Code Hints categoryallows you to enable or disable automatic tag completion as well as delay in milliseconds the time it will takefor the Code Hints drop-down menu to appear as you write code in Code view

Figure 4.8 Set preferences in this category to customize how Dreamweaver works with tag

completion and code hints.

[View full size image]

A complete list of customizable functionality follows:

Close tags— Choose from one of the options in this option group to set how and whether

Dreamweaver will automatically close tags for you as you type For instance, selecting the first optionbutton (after typing "</") guarantees that if you type the <td> tag, the closing tag won't

automatically appear until you type "</" Selecting the second option button (after typing the opentag's ">") guarantees that if you type the <td> tag, the closing tag will automatically appear whenyou close the opening tag with the ">" symbol Selecting the Never option guarantees that

Dreamweaver will never automatically close tags

Options: Enable code hints— As discussed in Chapter 2, the Code Hints menu is a collection of tags,

attributes, and values for various languages supported within Dreamweaver This option enables ordisables the Code Hints menu that appears when you write code in the Code view

Delay— Choose a time in seconds from this slider to set the delay of the Code Hints menu If you

prefer the Code Hints menu to appear instantly, set the slider to 0; if you prefer a longer delay, movethe slider to the right

Menus— Choose from the check boxes in this list box to set which type of code hints you want

displayed while typing You can enable a few or all of these options

The Code Rewriting Category

As you can see, each code category within the Preferences dialog allows you customize the look, formatting,and in general, the interaction of Dreamweaver and code within Code view The Code Rewriting category,shown in Figure 4.9 is no different It is within this category that you will customize how Dreamweaverrewrites code of a certain type, encodes special characters, encodes URLs, and so on

Figure 4.9 Use the Code Rewriting category to customize how Dreamweaver should handle the rewriting of code of a certain type, how it should encode URLs, and how it should encode special

characters.

[View full size image]

A complete list of functionality is given here:

Fix invalidly nested and unclosed tags— Choose this option to rewrite tags that are invalidly

nested or accidentally left unclosed For instance, the code <strong><em>Hello

World</strong></em> is rewritten as <strong><em>Hello World</em></strong>

Rename form items when pasting— This option ensures that forms are always given unique names

when pasting For instance, if you have <form name="form1"><form> and you copied and pasted thatform somewhere else on the page, it would be renamed to <form name="form2"><form>

automatically If this option was disabled, the new form would be pasted in with the same name givingyou duplicate forms with the same name

Remove extra closing tags— Choose this option to force Dreamweaver to delete closing tags that

have no corresponding opening tag

Warn when fixing or removing tags— When the Fix Invalidly Nested and Unclosed Tags option or

the Remove Extra Closing Tags option is enabled, this option becomes available and can be enabled ordisabled Enabling this option forces Dreamweaver to display a list of attempted fixes within theResults panel

Never rewrite code— Useful when working with languages that have third-party tags, this option

ensures that Dreamweaver doesn't rewrite code in files with the filename extensions that you list inthe In Files with Extensions text field

Special characters (Encode)— Enabling this option ensures that attribute values that you enter or

edit using Dreamweaver tools such as the Property inspector contain only legal characters

URL Encoding (Do not encode special characters)— Select this option button to prevent

Dreamweaver from changing URLs to use only legal characters

URL Encoding (Encode special characters in URLs using &#)— Enabled by default, this option

guarantees that URLs edited with tools within Dreamweaver such as the Property inspector containlegal characters

URL Encoding (Encode special characters in URLs using %)— Similar to the previous option, this

option simply uses a different method of encoding more suited to older browsers, but less compatiblewith some languages

Active Content (Insert using browser safe scripts)— This option ensures that active content

(such as Flash or Shockwave media elements) that you insert with Dreamweaver use tags that willdisplay the content correctly in the latest versions of Internet Explorer By default, Dreamweaver willcreate a Scripts directory and place the file AC_RunActiveContent.js within it and will add a reference

to this file within your pages that contain active content

Active Content (Convert tags to scripts on file open)— The previous check box guarantees that

Dreamweaver will include and use the AC_RunActiveContent.js file when you insert active contentinto your page This check box creates and implements that same js file whenever a page is openedthat contains the <object>, <embed>, and <applet> tags Dreamweaver will then render those tagsnull and instead make a direct reference to the js file within the Scripts directory

The Copy/Paste Category

You can use the Copy/Paste category, shown in Figure 4.10, to set how Dreamweaver handles the pasting oftext by default when using Edit, Paste or pressing Ctrl+V ( +V)

Figure 4.10 Use the Copy/Paste category to set how Dreamweaver should handle the pasting of

text when using the Edit, Paste option.

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