Working with Paragraph Elements and HTML Styles in Macromedia Dreamweaver 4
The Property inspector in Dreamweaver is used to select the various formatting options for paragraphs. Some tags, such as the Heading tags, <h1> for example, automatically create a paragraph when the closing tag is inserted in the HTML source code. For continuous text, you must specify the line and paragraph breaks by using the <br> or <p> tag. Besides affecting the way text looks onscreen, you also can affect the paragraph text by specifying formatting for definition lists, bulleted and numbered lists, text alignment, and indents. You can use the preformatted text option to utilize the HTML <pre> tag to align text vertically using the browser's default monospace font. The horizontal rule tag, although not a paragraph formatting option, is included in this chapter because it is widely used to create divisions among formatted paragraph text.
Using the HTML Styles panel, you can define customized styles that format text using standard HTML formatting commands. For example, you can create HTML styles named subhead1 and subhead2, each with specific formatting that includes typeface, size, color, and format. This feature is very helpful if you're working on a large Web site in which text is consistently formatted a particular way and works in concert with Dreamweaver templates and library items to maintain a uniform look and feel for your Web site (see Chapter 19, "Creating Templates and Libraries").
Entering Paragraph Breaks
Two basic HTML tags create line breaks and paragraph breaks: The <br> tag breaks lines without adding extra space, and the <p> tag inserts an additional blank line after each paragraph.
Position your cursor in the Document window where you want to insert a paragraph break.
Press the (Return)[Enter] key to insert a paragraph break
Figure 5.1 In HTML code, the paragraph is preceded by the <p> tag and ends with the </p> tag.
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