Working Within the Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Environment

• By Steve Johnson
• Dec 17, 2008
• Sample Chapter is provided courtesy of Que Publishing

This chapter is from the book
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 on Demand

Introduction

Getting to know the Dreamweaver authoring environment makes you more effective and efficient as you create Web pages and manage Web sites. You’ll get to know the parts of the Dreamweaver window, which include toolbars and panels.

The Toolbars contain buttons that you can use to perform common tasks. Dreamweaver comes with four toolbars. The main one is the Document toolbar, which appear by default. The Document toolbar appears under an open document tab and allows you to change views, specify a title, manage files, preview pages, enable or disable page view options, and perform document validation. The Dreamweaver window also included panels. Panels are windows that allow you to view, organize, and change elements and related options in a document. The Insert panel provides the commands for inserting various types of objects. The Properties panel is a specialized panel that allows you to change object specific attributes and options. To work efficiently in Dreamweaver you need information about the active document. Dreamweaver displays current information about the active document and common display tools on the Status bar, located at the bottom of the document window. For example, working with the Zoom tool on the Status bar gives you one more way to control the view size to exactly what you see in Dreamweaver. In addition, you can use rulers, guides, and the grid to help you lay out artwork and objects with precision.

Dreamweaver uses built-in keyboard shortcuts designed specifically for Dreamweaver. The built-in keyboard shortcuts are organized into sets, which you can duplicate and customize to create your own personalized set. Dreamweaver allows you to set preferences to customize the way you work in the program.