Faster dreaming
There are several ways to speed up Dreamweaver:
1. The Check Browser Support feature affects performance because of the memory required for the initial loading of all the browser profiles. This feature has the Auto-check on Open setting on by default. If you don’t look at the red squiggles in Code view that indicate browser errors, then turn this off.
2. Close any panels that are not being used. It takes resources to keep them up-to-date.
3. The Open CSS Files When Modified setting is on by default. This slows down the editing of the first style and also forces you to manually save the CSS file. For users who never edit external CSS files manually, this can be turned off to speed things up. For transferring files, SFTP is a much better choice than FTP, and will generally result in better performance. Dreamweaver reads and writes to the configuration folder a lot, so real-time virus-scanning software tends to slow it down. If you can configure your virus checker to not do real-time scanning on the program and configuration folders, you should see an added improvement.
Flash not for everyone
Be careful when you include Flash buttons in your site. These come with Dreamweaver and are often much more attractive than homemade HTML buttons, and being ready-made are very convenient. Although many people now have Flash, you will find that many computers in institutional situations, such as libraries, hospitals, and government offices, will not allow users to install Flash, so these users may not have full or easy access to your site.
CSS bug
When you change a solid line to a dotted or dashed one in the Relevant CSS panel, you will sometimes notice that the line does not change. The Dreamweaver implementation of CSS is not perfect, and as with all formatting you should check your work in a browser preview.
Merge cells
If you want to merge cells in a table, you can use the listed keyboard shortcut (Modify > Table > Merge cells) which is Command/Ctrl+Option/Alt+M or you can simply press the letter M, which is not documented for some reason.
Plan in advance
The Optional Editable Region inserts an editable region inside the optional region. But you are not given the chance to name these, and the name Dreamweaver supplies, EditRegionX, is not very intuitive. Once the name has been allocated, you can change the name in the Property Inspector. Do this before using it in a template, as the given name is what applies to all uses, and auto-updating is not possible. The same applies to layer names. Once you have used a layer in a behavior, the JavaScript will be associated with the layers name at the time of the allocation.
Waiting to update
When you add HTML directly into code view and you work in Split view, you will notice that the Design view does not immediately refresh. This is because it can't display a half-completed div without just displaying the code itself. When you complete the code, you can refresh by pressing F5.
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Prevent Overlap doesn't
Even if the Prevent Overlap is turned on (Modify > Arrange > Prevent Layer Overlaps) if you change the location of a layer in the Properties Inspector areas will overlap.
Prefilling menus
You can set a default value in drop-down menus, so that the expected or most common choice is presented as a default. Ecommerce sites that mainly deal with people in Mexico can make that country the default, while also providing access all other countries. Simply select the value from the Initially Selected option in the Properties Inspector, and this will be set as the default choice. It will not place this choice at the top of the list. To do this you have to actually enter the desired default in first place in the value list.
Dynamic mapping
Although not mentioned in the supplied documentation available from the Help menu, Dreamweaver does have dynamic font mapping (Preferences>Fonts>Font Settings>Unicode). This feature allows Dreamweaver to check whether any selected font family includes the glyphs needed to render each character. If the family doesn't include the glyphs, Dreamweaver substitutes the appropriate character from another font family. This is particularly important when using foreign languages and having incorrect characters appear. Having this option turned on will slightly increase the amount of time for a page to load into a browser.
No breaks
Option/Alt+Spacebar forces a non-breaking space, keeping multiple words on the same line.
Mapping sideways
By default, the Site Map in Dreamweaver displays its icons horizontally; which means much scrolling left and right. A vertical orientation can be helpful. To make it vertical: Expand the Site panel and enter into Site Map view. Choose View>Layout to show the Site Map Layout category of the Site Definition dialog. Change the number of columns to 1 from its default of 200, restricing the map to a single vertical column. Increase the Column Width from 125 to about 300. This lessens the chance that your file names will bump into the connecting lines. Click OK to close the Site Definition dialog and view the vertical site map.
Quick link
There is a quick way to create links associated with a picture. Usually this is done by selecting the text and using the Properties Panel to locate the file. A quicker way is to select the text, then hold down the Shift key and drag directly onto the html document, which will automatically create the link.
Better Word imports
To import text from Microsoft Word 2000 into Dreamweaver, before doing so, run it through the Microsoft HTML filter (http://1url.org/go/1HTMLfilter) and then let Dreamweaver do its thing. You will get much better results.
Quick fixes
Remember that using Find and Replace allows you to fix errors on all pages of a large site, rather than navigating to each error in turn.
Don't repeat in tables
When you're making a dynamic table, avoid placing a repeat region on a row with only one table cell. If you do so in some versions of Dreamweaver, the table cell will become selected (the <td> tag, rather than the table row) and the results will repeat horizontally, not vertically.
Take your dependants?
If you select an html file and use the Put option, Dreamweaver will ask you if you want to take dependent files with it. If you say yes, it will upload all of the associated images, except for any PDF files that are dependant, these have to be done manually.
Quicker cells
When you create cells, you usually want to make more than one, but each time you draw a cell, you have to reselect the Draw Layout Cell object for each one. However, if you hold down the Command/Ctrl key while making a cell, you will remain in the tool to draw extra cells.
Template changes
If you change a template, there are certain things you must not do if you want the changes to propagate down to pages that use the template. Do not:
´ rename the Templates folder,
´ move the Templates folder to some other folder level in the site other than root level,
´ move a template out of the Templates folder,
´ make changes to an editable region of the template (which will not propagate).
If you corrupt the site cache so that the link between template and child page is broken, you have to repair it using the Site>Advanced>Recreate Site Cache.
Pixel accuracy
If you are very precise with your Web design, you should be aware that a symbol defined by a definite pixel dimension in the library, say of 100x100px, when dragged onto the stage comes in correctly, but when copied and pasted within the application can change size by a pixel in either or both dimensions. This is variable by where exactly it is located when dragged to the page in the first place.
Free behavior
Drew McLelland, author of Dreamweaver MX Web Development (New Riders) has written a couple of really useful free behaviors:
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For people who don't have access to CGI for submitting forms via email, a Dreamweaver behavior allows the use of the mailto and still has the user presented with a thank you message.
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The second behavior will open a pop-up window of the exact dimension of your image, as long as it is bigger than 100 x 100 pixels. This saves having to make a separate page for every image you want to open in a popup.
www.dreamweaverfever.com/grow
How to hover
To make a link have a rollover state, such as bolding the text, in your style sheet choose New, then use the CSS selector, and in the drop-down menu choose a:hover. Then simply define the style, changing font, color, bold, underline, etc. It will look something like this:
<style type="text/css">
<!-- a:hover {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #554400} -->
</style>
Search from your site
If you want to give visitors the ability to search Google from your site, WebAssist has just what you need. It is very easy to implement and use and provides direct access to the Google search engine, without losing visitors. Completely editable from within the Property Inspector, it can even be set to search your site, have adult-content filters, and more.
Changing default file type
Although Dreamweaver shows all the file types it recognizes in the Open dialog (File>Open), if most of your work involves a specific file type, such as ASP, you can change the default display. Whatever file type is listed on the first line of the Dreamweaver Extensions.txt file becomes the default. To change the default Open file type, make a backup copy of the Extensions.txt file in the Configuration folder. Then open the file in a text editor, cut the line corresponding to the new default, and paste it at the beginning of the file, to make it the first line of the file. Save and restart Dreamweaver.
Album includes
To be sure that you include all the images that you want in a Web Photo Album, make sure that only the images you want in the album are in the folder you select, as the Create Photo Album selects all appropriate files. The acceptable formats are JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, and PSD. And they must all have the correct suffixes to work. It is generally a good idea to have them all in the same format to make them appear similar.
Pro plug-ins (Image)
The MX Kollection is a group of six products that are Dreamweaver plug-ins. They are geared to the professional developer who needs to create a front end to a database back end and allow users to securely modify all aspects of their registration. It also includes several modules that streamline Dreamweaver development. Supports ColdFusion, ASP VBScript, PHP_MySQL, and PHP_ADODB. It’s comprised of MX Query Builder and:
• ImpAKT—creates a way for visitors to a dynamic site to register and login, and for you to restrict pages available per user. It includes rules to help preserve data integrity of the database.
• NeXTensio—allows visitors to modify, update, and delete records in a database. Also features a fast database search function and creates a Web interface for database administration. SQL makes record sets from multiple tables for people not skilled in My_SQL. It manages tables, relations, and conditions for queries in your Web browser, and integrates the resulted SQL directly in Dreamweaver, allowing you to use server behaviors with it.
• MX Looper—is a collection of commands and server behaviors for the PHP, ASP, and ColdFusion server models that creates complex repeated regions. This helps in creating dynamically generated Web pages.
• MX Widgets—uses JavaScript to enforce accurate form completion and includes modules to insert new drop-down items and even dependent drop-downs. Works with DHTML applications.
• KTML—facilitates the development of content while maintaining look-and-feel for your site. KTML offers easy content formatting, advanced table and image manipulation features, and a live property editor similar to Dreamweaver’s. $299
http://tinyurl.com/7266e |
