Part One: Basics Explained
Dreamweaver is a fairly intuitive program, so getting up to speed doesn't take long. If you've used other graphic Web site editors, this will be a breeze.
Windows and Menus
Launch Dreamweaver for the first time and you may feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of windows hogging your screen. Here's a guide to help sort them out.
The thin, narrow window at the top left is the Objects Palette.
Use this to select commonly used tags. You can use the popup menu at the top to change the tools in the palette. If you're working on a frameset, for example, select the Frames option. The bottom of this palette lets you select from Standard and Layout view. Layout view is new to version 4. Select it and you can place tables and cells anywhere on the page; Dreamweaver will handle the coding.
The Document Window is the middle of the screen. A new toolbar at the top lets you select between code view (useful if you've only used HomeSite before this), code and design view (in which the window is split between the two), and design only.
Two tabbed windows share the right side of the screen. Know that you can rearrange their tabs as you wish: simply drag and drop. Once you know what tools you'll be using, organize those tabs for easy access and close the rest.
The Properties Window hugs the bottom of the screen
. Select any item on a page you're designing, and this window will let you customize its properties.
The Site Files Window, finally, is crunched uncomfortably into the bottom right corner. Once you've defined your site, a list of files will show up here. You can also FTP pages from this window.
Defining a Site
You probably already have a site, so before you begin, you'll need to tell Dreamweaver where your files live.
Go to Site/Open Site/Define Sites to identify your files. Fill out the resulting forms so that Dreamweaver knows where your local and remote files live. If you're working on a team and everyone is using Dreamweaver, check "Enable File Check In and Check Out" from the Remote Info page.
Setting Preferences
One nice thing about Dreamweaver is that everything is customizable. To set your preferences, go to Edit/Preferences. This lets you set most things, including the colors of various HTML tags, when seen in code view. To change keyboard shortcuts, go to Edit/Keyboard Shortcuts. To change the background image and link colors of your pages, go to Modify/Page Properties.
Images
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