adobe dreamweaver cs5 on demand part 83 pot

In addition, if it's some-What You’ll Do Use the History Panel Undo and Redo History Steps Replay History Steps Copy History Steps Between Documents Save History Steps as Commands Use an

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Automating Dreamweaver

Introduction

You can't change time; it plods forward at sixty minutes an

hour, twenty-four hours a day Unfortunately, when you're

involved in creating a complex Web site, and up against a

deadline, there never seems to be enough time in the day

Adobe understands the need for efficiency in their

appli-cations, and Dreamweaver is no exception Built into the

structure of the program are ways to help you get the job

done, and get it done quickly However, it's not just about

fin-ishing a project fast, it's also about doing it right Again,

Dreamweaver creates a perfect balance between efficiency

and quality

For example, you're working along, and suddenly decide

that 6 steps ago, you deleted something that should not have

been deleted No problem, just use the History panel to go

back in time and correct the error That's great, but the

History panel is much more than multiple undos It actually

allows you to automate repetitive tasks by creating

com-mands out of selected history steps

Here's another one: You're almost finished with your site;

it's 75 pages, all nicely checked out and ready to go Then you

discover a misspelling that occurs on all the pages No

prob-lem, you simply access Find and Replace and correct the

error But Find and Replace is more that just a simple text

corrector; you can search for specific source code, text within

tags, even search for a specific tag In addition, if it's

some-What You’ll Do

Use the History Panel Undo and Redo History Steps Replay History Steps Copy History Steps Between Documents Save History Steps as Commands Use and Manage History Commands Record Commands for Temporary Use Set History Panel Preferences Use Advanced Find and Replace for Text

Use Advanced Find and Replace for Tags

Create and Use a Search Query

The History panel helps you automate and

streamline the way you work in Dreamweaver

As you work in Dreamweaver, the History

panel tracks all your steps behind the scenes

for the entire document or only for individual

or all objects With the History panel, you can

undo or redo steps to correct mistakes, replay

selected steps for new tasks to streamline

repetitive work, or record steps for replay

from the Commands menu to automate your

work

The History panel doesn’t replace the

Undo, Redo, and Repeat commands on the

Edit menu, it simply tracks every step you

per-form When you undo or redo one or more

commands, the History panel displays the

results; the Undo/Redo slider moves

accord-ing to the commands you select

You can open the History panel using the

Window menu like any of the other panels in

Dreamweaver Each step you take in the

active document during a work session (since

you created or opened the document) appears

on a separate line in the History panel Steps

you take in one Dreamweaver document don’t appear in other documents’ History panel lists The first step you perform in a session appears at the top of the list and the last step appears at the bottom If a red X appears in the icon for a step, it indicates Dreamweaver cannot save or replay the step Unlike other panels in Dreamweaver, the History panel includes a slider on the left side you can use

to undo/redo steps; the Undo/Redo slider ini-tially points to the last step you performed As the History panel records each step taken to the active document, it consumes memory and hard disk space If you no longer need the steps in the History panel and want to free

up some memory, you can clear the entire list with the Clear History command on the Options menu When you close a document, Dreamweaver clears the History panel The bottom of the History panel includes buttons

to replay selected steps, copy selected steps

to the Clipboard, and create a command from selected steps

Using the History Panel

History steps

History panel

Options menu

Clear History command

As you change the current open document, you begin to see the History panel record each action you make For example, type in a line of text and a typing layer displays in the History panel Now, select the text and change it to italic: the History panel displays the change Each action in the document creates a new action layer in the panel Now, continue on for a few steps, and then you realize that you didn't want to italicize the text As long as that history step is still in the History panel, you can go

in and undo it If the step you need to change is the last one, then all you need to do is press A+Z (Mac), or Ctrl+Z (Win) If you change your mind you can always press A+Y (Mac), or Ctrl+Y (Win) to redo the last undo… sound confusing? Not really; however, if it is, then the History panel eliminates the confusion by giving you a visual list of all your his-tory steps

Undoing and Redoing

History Steps

Undo or Redo Multiple History

Steps

Open the Web page you want to

use

Open the History panel

Perform several actions within the

document to create a running

history

◆ To redo steps, undo one or

more actions

In the History panel, perform a

multiple undo or redo using one of

the following methods:

◆ Drag the slider up (undo) or

down (redo) on the History

panel to the desired step in the

History panel

◆ Click the slider bar next to the

step you want to undo or revert

to and the slider will scroll

automatically to that step

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You can replay steps from the History panel to the same object or to a different object in the document You can replay steps only in the order

in which you performed them; you can’t rearrange the order of the steps in the History panel If a red X appears in the icon for a step, it indicates Dreamweaver cannot save or replay the step

Replaying History

Steps

Replay History Steps to the

Same Object or Another Object

Open the Web page containing the

steps you want to replay

Open the History panel

Select the steps you want:

◆ One Step Click a step.

◆ Adjacent Steps Drag from one

step to another or click the first

step, hold down the Shift key,

and then click the last step

◆ Nonadjacent Steps Hold down

the A (Mac) or Ctrl (Win) key,

and then click steps

Select the same object used in the

History steps or another object

Click Replay in the History panel.

The steps are replayed in order,

and a new step called Replay

Steps appears in the History panel

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Each document only tracks its own set of steps in the History panel

When you close a document, Dreamweaver clears the History panel If you want to use a set of steps in another document, you need to copy them from one History panel and paste them to another document You can use the Copy Steps button on the History panel or the same com-mand on the Options menu to complete the task When you paste steps into another document, Dreamweaver replays the steps and the History panel shows the steps as only one step called Paste Steps (Mac) or Paste (Win)

Copying History Steps

Between Documents

Copy Steps Between Documents

Open the Web page containing the

steps you want to copy

Open the History panel

Perform several actions within the

document to create a running

history

Select the steps (called a History

action) that you want to copy

Click the Copy Steps button in the

History panel

Click in the document to place the

insertion point where you want to

paste the steps or select an object

to apply the steps

Click the Edit menu, and then click

Paste.

Dreamweaver executes the saved

History steps at the insertion point

of the cursor

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The History panel records the steps you take in the order in which you perform them in Dreamweaver If you perform the same set of steps several times while you work on a document, you can save the steps in the History panel as a command on the Commands menu, which you can reuse again and again This is where the real power is located

Dreamweaver stores the commands you save for future use in any doc-ument While History records most actions performed while working on

a page, there are some things that it can't record, such as dragging an object from one place on the page to another If a black line separating the steps or a red X appears in the icon for a step, it indicates

Dreamweaver cannot save or replay the step

Saving History Steps

as Commands

Save History Steps as a

Command

Open the Web page you want to

use

Open the History panel

Perform several steps within the

page (in this example, a copyright

notice is created using a specific

font and formatting)

IMPORTANT When selecting

the text to change its formatting do

not click and drag; instead use the

left arrow key while holding down

the shift key

Dreamweaver records all of the

steps within a box in the History

panel

NOTE If you see a black line

separating the steps, or a red X,

that indicates the steps cannot be

saved or replayed as a single

command

When finished creating the

copyright symbol, select all of the

steps that you want saved as a

command, by clicking and

dragging on the steps in the

History panel

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Click the Save Steps button in the

History panel

Enter a descriptive name for the

command

Click OK.

To reuse the command, click the

Commands menu, and then click

the command name

The bottom of the Commands

menu displays a list of your saved

history commands

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Workarounds for Steps Not Recorded

While History records most actions performed while working on a page, there are some things that it can't record For example, some mouse movements, like selecting objects by clicking and dragging, can't be saved or played back as part of a saved command Should they occur during the recording process, those movements appear in the History panel as a black mouse-movement divider line between the steps One way to prevent those black lines from appearing is to

go into Code view and use the arrow keys For example, you can use the arrow keys in Code view to reposition the insertion point in the document before performing the next step of the command In addi-tion to the mouse movements that can't be recorded, there are a few other actions that can't be recorded as part of a saved command, such as dragging an object from one place on the page to another

These types of actions display a small red X next to the action layer in the History panel (the red X is a bad thing)

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