User manual MACROMEDIA DREAMWEAVER MX 2004 - USING DREAMWEAVER

Using Dreamweaver Trademarks Add Life to the Web, Afterburner, Aftershock, Andromedia, Allaire, Animation PowerPack, Aria, Attain, Authorware, Authorware Star, Backstage, Bright Tiger, Clustercats, Cold Fusion, Contribute, Design in Motion, Director, Dream Templates, Dreamweaver, Drumbeat 2000, EDJE, EJIPT, Extreme 3D, Fireworks, Flash, Fontographer, FreeHand, Generator, HomeSite, JFusion, JRun, Kawa, Know Your Site, Knowledge Objects, Knowledge Stream, Knowledge Track, LikeMinds, Lingo, Live Effects, MacRecorder Logo and Design, Macromedia, Macromedia Action!, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia M Logo & Design, Macromedia Spectra, Macromedia xRes Logo and Design, MacroModel, Made with Macromedia, Made with Macromedia Logo and Design, MAGIC Logo and Design, Mediamaker, Movie Critic, Open Sesame!, Roundtrip HTML, Shockwave, Sitespring, SoundEdit, Titlemaker, UltraDev, Web Design 101, what the web can be, and Xtra are either registered or trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. and may be registered in the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally. Other product names, logos, designs, titles, words or phrases mentioned within this publication may be trademarks, servicemarks, or tradenames of Macromedia, Inc. or other entities and may be registered in certain jurisdictions including internationally. Third-Party Information This guide contains links to third-party websites that are not under the control of Macromedia, and Macromedia is not responsible for the content on any linked site. If you access a third-party website mentioned in this guide, then you do so at your own risk. Macromedia provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of the link does not imply that Macromedia endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on those third-party sites. Third Party Software Notices and/or Additional Terms and Conditions can be found at www.macromedia.com/go/thirdparty/. Opera ® browser Copyright © 1995-2002 Opera Software ASA and its suppliers. All rights reserved. Apple Disclaimer APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE ENCLOSED COMPUTER SOFTWARE PACKAGE, ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY PROVIDES YOU WITH SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. THERE MAY BE OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. Copyright © 2003 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. This manual may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form in whole or in part without prior written approval of Macromedia, Inc. Part Number ZDW70M200 Acknowledgments Senior Management: Sheila McGinn Project Management: Charles Nadeau Writing: Jed Hartman, Jennifer Rowe, Chris Bedford, Charles Nadeau Editing: Lisa Stanziano, Mary Ferguson, Noreen Maher Production Management: Patrice O'Neill Media Design and Production: Adam Barnett, Aaron Begley, Chris Basmajian, John Francis, Jeff Harmon Special thanks to Jay London, Alain Dumesny, Lori Hylan-Cho, Jack Herrington, Vic Mitnick, Rebecca Hyatt, Russ Helfand, Erik Bergman, Luciano Arruda, Sho Kuwamoto, Ken Karleskint, Scott Richards, Bonnie Loo, David Deming, Jennifer Taylor, Rosana Francescato, Randy Nielsen, the beta testers, and the entire Dreamweaver engineering and QA teams. First Edition: September 2003 Macromedia, Inc. 600 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94103 CONTENTS PART I: Dreamweaver Basics INTRODUCTION: Welcome to Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 18 20 22 25 26 27 29 29 What's new in Dreamweaver MX 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Where to start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dreamweaver workflow for creating websites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using Dreamweaver with other applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dreamweaver and accessibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Guide to Dreamweaver instructional media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Typographical conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HTML and web technologies resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 1: Exploring the Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 32 39 41 46 49 53 54 54 About the Dreamweaver workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Working in the Document window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using toolbars, inspectors, and context menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using panels and panel groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using Dreamweaver accessibility features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Optimizing the workspace for accessible page design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using visual guides in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dreamweaver customizing basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 2: Setting Up a Dreamweaver Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 59 62 63 67 67 About Dreamweaver sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting up a new Dreamweaver site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using the Advanced settings to set up a Dreamweaver site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing settings for a Dreamweaver site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing existing websites in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 CHAPTER 3: Creating and Opening Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Creating new documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Saving a new document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Setting a default new document type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Opening existing documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Importing a Microsoft Word HTML file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 PART II: Working with Dreamweaver Sites CHAPTER 4: Managing Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 About site management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Accessing sites, a server, and local drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Viewing files and folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Managing files and folders in the Files panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Working with a visual map of your site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Importing and exporting sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Removing a Dreamweaver site from your list of sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Checking in and checking out files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Getting and putting files to and from your server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Synchronizing the files on your local and remote sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Cloaking folders and files in your site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Storing file information in Design Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Testing your site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 CHAPTER 5: Managing Site Assets and Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 About library items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Working with assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Creating and managing a list of favorite assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Working with library items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 CHAPTER 6: Managing Contribute Sites with Dreamweaver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 About managing Contribute sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Preparing a site for use with Contribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Administering a Contribute site using Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Troubleshooting a Contribute site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Managing Contribute files using Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 4 Contents PART III: Laying Out Pages CHAPTER 7: Laying Out Pages with CSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 About layers in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Inserting content blocks for layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Changing highlight color for content blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Working with content blocks for layout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Inserting a layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Setting layer preferences and properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Managing layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Manipulating layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Converting layers to tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Using rulers and grids to lay out pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Using a tracing image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 CHAPTER 8: Presenting Content with Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 164 165 166 167 170 170 173 176 178 179 181 181 About tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inserting a table and adding content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Importing and exporting tabular data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Selecting table elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using Expanded Tables mode for easier table editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Formatting tables and cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Resizing tables, columns, and rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adding and removing rows and columns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Splitting and merging cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Copying, pasting, and deleting cells. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nesting tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sorting tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 9: Laying Out Pages in Layout Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 About Layout mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Switching from Standard to Layout mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Drawing in Layout mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Adding content to a layout cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Clearing automatically set cell heights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Resizing and moving layout cells and tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Formatting layout cells and tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Setting column width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Setting preferences for Layout mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 CHAPTER 10: Using Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 200 203 204 207 209 209 About frames and framesets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Working with framesets in the Document window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating frames and framesets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Selecting frames and framesets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opening a document in a frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saving frame and frameset files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Contents 5 Viewing and setting frame properties and attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Viewing and setting frameset properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Controlling frame content with links. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Handling browsers that can't display frames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Using JavaScript behaviors with frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 CHAPTER 11: Managing Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 About Dreamweaver templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Creating a Dreamweaver template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Creating templates for a Contribute site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Creating editable regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Creating repeating regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Using optional regions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Defining editable tag attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Creating a nested template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Editing and updating templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Managing templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Exporting and importing template XML content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Exporting a site without template markup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Applying or removing a template from an existing document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Editing content in a template-based document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 PART IV: Adding Content to Pages CHAPTER 12: Working with Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 About working with pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Saving web pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Specifying HTML instead of CSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Setting page properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Working with colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Selecting elements in the Document window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Using the History panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 Automating tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Using JavaScript behaviors to detect browsers and plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 Previewing and testing pages in browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 Setting download time and size preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 CHAPTER 13: Inserting and Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 About text formatting in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 Inserting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Formatting paragraphs and document structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 Formatting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Using Cascading Style Sheets styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Updating CSS style sheets in a Contribute site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 Checking spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 Searching for and replacing text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 6 Contents CHAPTER 14: Inserting Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 303 305 309 310 310 311 311 312 313 313 About images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inserting an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Resizing an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cropping an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Optimizing an image using Fireworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adjusting the brightness and contrast of an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sharpening an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating a rollover image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using an external image editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Applying behaviors to images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 15: Linking and Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 Understanding document locations and paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 Jump menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 Navigation bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 About image maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 Creating links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 Managing links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 Inserting jump menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 Using navigation bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Using image maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Attaching JavaScript behaviors to links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 Checking for broken, external, and orphaned links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 Fixing broken links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 Opening linked documents in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 CHAPTER 16: Working with Other Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 341 342 342 351 About Fireworks and Flash integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Optimizing your work environment for Fireworks and Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Working with Fireworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Working with Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 17: Adding Audio, Video, and Interactive Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 356 358 359 360 361 363 363 364 364 365 365 365 366 About media files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inserting and editing media objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starting an external editor for media files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using Design Notes with media objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inserting and modifying a Flash button object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inserting a Flash text object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inserting Flash content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Downloading and installing Flash elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inserting Flash elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing Flash element attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inserting Shockwave movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adding video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adding sound to a page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Contents 7 Inserting Netscape Navigator plug-in content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 Inserting an ActiveX control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 Inserting a Java applet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 Using behaviors to control media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 CHAPTER 18: Using JavaScript Behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 Using the Behaviors panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 About events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 Applying a behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 Attaching a behavior to text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 Changing a behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375 Updating a behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375 Creating new actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375 Downloading and installing third-party behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Using the behavior actions that come with Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 PART V: Working with Page Code CHAPTER 19: Setting Up Your Coding Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401 Viewing your code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401 Using the coder-oriented workspace (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402 Setting viewing preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 Setting coding preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 Customizing keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 Opening files in Code view by default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 Setting Validator preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 Managing tag libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406 Importing custom tags into Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410 Using an external HTML editor with Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412 CHAPTER 20: Coding in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 About coding in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416 Writing and editing code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423 Searching and replacing tags and attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428 Making quick changes to a code selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430 Using language-reference material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 Printing your code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432 CHAPTER 21: Optimizing and Debugging Your Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433 Cleaning up your code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433 Verifying that tags and braces are balanced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434 Checking for browser compatibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434 Validating your tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Making pages XHTML-compliant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438 Using the ColdFusion debugger (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 8 Contents CHAPTER 22: Editing Code in Design View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441 441 442 443 446 446 448 449 449 Editing code with the Property inspector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Changing attributes with the Tag inspector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing code with the Quick Tag Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing code with the tag selector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Working with server-side includes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using JavaScript behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing and editing head content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PART VI: Preparing to Build Dynamic Sites CHAPTER 23: Setting Up a Web Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 453 454 454 458 459 461 463 What you need to build web applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting up a web server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting up an application server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating a root folder for the application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Defining a Dreamweaver site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connecting to a database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 24: Database Connections for ColdFusion Developers . . . . . . . . . . Connecting to a database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 Editing or deleting a database connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464 CHAPTER 25: Database Connections for ASP.NET Developers . . . . . . . . . . . 465 Connecting to a database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465 Editing or deleting a database connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468 CHAPTER 26: Database Connections for ASP Developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469 469 471 474 475 478 About database connections in ASP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating a DSN connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating a DSN-less connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connecting to a database on an ISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing or deleting a database connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 27: Database Connections for JSP Developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 479 481 482 485 About database connections in JSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connecting to a database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connecting through an ODBC driver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing or deleting a database connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Contents 9 CHAPTER 28: Database Connections for PHP Developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487 Connecting to a database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487 Editing or deleting a database connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 CHAPTER 29: Troubleshooting Database Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489 Troubleshooting permissions problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489 Troubleshooting Microsoft error messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491 PART VII: Making Pages Dynamic CHAPTER 30: Optimizing the Workspace for Visual Development. . . . . . . . . . 497 Displaying web-application development panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 Viewing your database within Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499 Viewing live data in Design view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 Working in Design view without live data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505 Previewing dynamic pages in a browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505 Restricting database information displayed in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506 CHAPTER 31: The Workflow for Dynamic Page Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507 Designing the page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508 Creating a source of dynamic content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508 Adding dynamic content to a web page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510 Enhancing the functionality of a dynamic page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510 Testing and debugging the page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511 CHAPTER 32: Obtaining Data for Your Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 Using a database to store content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 Collecting data submitted by users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516 Accessing data stored in session variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520 CHAPTER 33: Defining Sources of Dynamic Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525 About dynamic content sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 Defining a recordset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530 Defining URL parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534 Defining form parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535 Defining session variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536 Defining application variables for ASP and ColdFusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537 Using a variable as a data source for a ColdFusion recordset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538 Defining server variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538 Caching content sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542 Changing or deleting content sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543 Copying a recordset from one page to another page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543 10 Contents CHAPTER 34: Adding Dynamic Content to Web Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 546 547 548 549 551 552 552 553 About adding dynamic content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Making text dynamic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Making images dynamic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Making HTML attributes dynamic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Making ActiveX, Flash, and other object parameters dynamic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing dynamic content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deleting dynamic content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating dynamic pages in a Contribute site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 35: Displaying Database Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555 555 562 563 566 566 567 569 570 About displaying database records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using predefined data formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating recordset navigation links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Showing and hiding regions based on recordset results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Displaying multiple recordset results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating a table with a Repeat Region server behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating a record counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating ASP.NET DataGrid and DataList web controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 36: Using ColdFusion Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573 573 574 575 576 577 About ColdFusion components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Visually creating a component in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing ColdFusion components in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing ColdFusion components in Dreamweaver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Building web pages that use ColdFusion components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 37: Using Web Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579 580 583 585 586 588 About web services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Configuring proxy generators for use with Dreamweaver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adding a web service proxy using the WSDL description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adding a web service to a page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing the UDDI web service site list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 38: Adding Custom Server Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589 589 598 598 601 602 603 605 About custom server behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Installing third-party server behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using the Server Behavior Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using parameters in server behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Positioning code blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating a dialog box for a custom server behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editing and modifying server behaviors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Contents 11 CHAPTER 39: Creating Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607 About forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607 Creating HTML forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611 Inserting HTML form objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613 Inserting dynamic HTML form objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617 Validating HTML form data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 Attaching JavaScript behaviors to HTML form objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 Attaching custom scripts to HTML form buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621 Creating accessible HTML forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622 Creating ASP.NET forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623 PART VIII: Developing Applications Rapidly CHAPTER 40: Building ColdFusion Applications Rapidly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629 About rapid application development (all servers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629 Building master/detail pages (ColdFusion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634 Building search/results pages (ColdFusion, ASP, JSP, PHP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641 Building a record insert page (all servers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646 Building pages to update a record (ColdFusion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649 Building pages to delete a record (ColdFusion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655 Using stored procedures to modify databases (ColdFusion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665 Building pages that restrict access to your site (ColdFusion, ASP, JSP, PHP) . . . . 666 CHAPTER 41: Building ASP.NET Applications Rapidly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675 Building master/detail pages (ASP.NET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675 Building a database search page (ASP.NET). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681 Building a record insert page (ASP.NET). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685 Building pages to update a record (ASP.NET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686 Building pages to delete a record (ASP.NET). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692 Using stored procedures to modify databases (ASP.NET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700 Building pages that restrict access to your site (ASP.NET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701 CHAPTER 42: Building ASP and JSP Applications Rapidly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703 Building master/detail pages (ASP and JSP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703 Building search/results pages (ASP and JSP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706 Building a record insert page (ASP and JSP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706 Building pages to update a record (ASP and JSP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707 Building pages to delete a record (ASP and JSP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711 Building pages with advanced data manipulation objects (ASP and JSP) . . . . . . . 714 Building pages that restrict access to your site (ASP and JSP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718 12 Contents CHAPTER 43: Building PHP Applications Rapidly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719 719 725 725 726 732 738 Building master/detail pages (PHP). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Building search/results pages (PHP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Building a record insert page (PHP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Building pages to update a record (PHP). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Building pages to delete a record (PHP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Building pages that restrict access to your site (PHP). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PART IX: Appendixes APPENDIX A: Beginner's Guide to Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741 About databases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741 Database design basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742 Understanding database connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747 APPENDIX B: SQL Primer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753 753 755 755 758 759 Syntax basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Defining the columns of a recordset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Limiting the records in a recordset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sorting the records in a recordset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joining tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761 Contents 13 14 Contents PART I Dreamweaver Basics PART I Learn how to use Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 documentation and other resources, and set up the Dreamweaver workspace to fit your preferred working style. Then plan and set up a site, and begin to create pages. This part contains the following chapters: Introduction, "Welcome to Dreamweaver," on page 17 Chapter 1, "Exploring the Workspace," on page 31 Chapter 2, "Setting Up a Dreamweaver Site," on page 59 Chapter 3, "Creating and Opening Documents," on page 69 INTRODUCTION Welcome to Dreamweaver Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 is a professional HTML editor for designing, coding, and developing websites, web pages, and web applications. Whether you enjoy the control of hand-coding HTML or prefer to work in a visual editing environment, Dreamweaver provides you with helpful tools to enhance your web creation experience. The visual editing features in Dreamweaver let you quickly create pages without writing a line of code. You can view all your site elements or assets and drag them from an easy-to-use panel directly into a document. You can streamline your development workflow by creating and editing images in Macromedia Fireworks or another graphics application, then importing them directly into Dreamweaver, or by adding Macromedia Flash objects. Dreamweaver also provides a full-featured coding environment that includes code-editing tools (such as code coloring and tag completion) and reference material on HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP), and JavaServer Pages (JSP). Macromedia Roundtrip HTML technology imports your hand-coded HTML documents without reformatting the code; you can then reformat code with your preferred formatting style. Dreamweaver also enables you to build dynamic database-backed web applications using server technologies such as CFML,ASP.NET, ASP, JSP, and PHP. Dreamweaver is fully customizable. You can create your own objects and commands, modify keyboard shortcuts, and even write JavaScript code to extend Dreamweaver capabilities with new behaviors, Property inspectors, and site reports. This chapter contains the following sections: · · · · · · · · "What's new in Dreamweaver MX 2004" on page 18 "Where to start" on page 20 "Dreamweaver workflow for creating websites" on page 22 "Using Dreamweaver with other applications" on page 25 "Dreamweaver and accessibility" on page 26 "Guide to Dreamweaver instructional media" on page 27 "Typographical conventions" on page 29 "HTML and web technologies resources" on page 29 17 What's new in Dreamweaver MX 2004 Dreamweaver MX 2004 contains a new, streamlined interface, along with improved product performance. There's also a wide variety of new features that improve usability and help you build pages whether you are working in the design environment or the coding environment. Streamlined design and development interface The Dreamweaver interface is more approachable to help you improve your productivity and quality of work. Insert bar improvements give the Insert bar a new streamlined look, which takes up less space in the workspace. There's also a new Favorites category, which you can use to customize an Insert bar with the objects you use most often. For more information, see "The Insert bar" on page 37. Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel copy and paste commands enable you to copy and paste a Microsoft Word or Excel document directly into Dreamweaver. When you paste a Word or Excel document, Dreamweaver preserves formatting and generates quality HTML. For more information, see "Copying and pasting text from MS Office documents" on page 281. Table editing visual feedback enables you to see the effects column resize operations will have on your tables. Visual feedback also makes it easier for you to select table elements. For more information about resizing, see "Resizing tables, columns, and rows" on page 173. For more information about using Expanded Tables mode for selecting elements, see "Using Expanded Tables mode for easier table editing" on page 170. User interface overhaul maximizes the usable workspace, showing context and focus more clearly, and makes the interface more approachable and logical. For more information about the Dreamweaver workspace, see "About the Dreamweaver workspace" on page 32. The Start page enables you to access recently used files, create new files, and access Dreamweaver resources. The Start page appears when you start Dreamweaver or when you don't have any documents open. For information hiding or showing the Start page, see "Hiding and displaying the Start page" on page 55. Saved desktop option gives you the choice to have Dreamweaver reopen documents you were last working on when you restart Dreamweaver. For information about setting this option, see "Setting General preferences for Dreamweaver" on page 56. Full Unicode support means that Dreamweaver in Windows supports all text encodings supported by Internet Explorer. You can use almost any language font installed on your system in Dreamweaver, and Dreamweaver will render and save it properly. For information about setting font encodings, see "Setting Fonts preferences for Dreamweaver display" on page 56. Secure FTP enables you to fully encrypt all file transfers and prevent unauthorized access to your data, files, user names, and passwords. For information about setting up a remote connection using FTP, see "Setting up a remote folder" on page 65. Modernized page layout and design environment Dreamweaver includes the following enhanced CSS features that provide a more sophisticated way to style and add interactivity to designs, and also includes feedback to improve visual editing. 18 Introduction: Welcome to Dreamweaver Dynamic cross-browser validation automatically checks the current document for crossbrowser compatibility issues when you save the document. You specify which browsers to target, and Dreamweaver checks to make sure pages are not using tags or CSS constructs that those browsers do not support. For more information, see "Checking for browser compatibility" on page 434. the CSS rules applied to the current Code view or Design view selection. Click any rule to see which attributes it specifies (border style, margin, padding, text size, and so on). Special markings let you know when a specific attribute has been overridden, and in-place editing allows for quick edits that are instantly reflected in Design view. For more information, see "The CSS Properties tab" on page 279. Relevant CSS tab displays CSS layout visualization makes laying out pages in CSS much easier. You can easily select div and other content blocks in Design view, then modify properties with the CSS Properties tab. For more information, see Chapter 7, "Laying Out Pages with CSS," on page 145. Improved CSS rendering means Dreamweaver can render more complicated CSS-based layouts and designs more accurately. Improved CSS rendering enables you to design more sophisticated layouts and use Dreamweaver design tools for robust visual manipulations. Improved CSS Styles panel provides more options for editing styles in the current document. You can also now directly apply styles from the text Property inspector. For more information, see "Using Cascading Style Sheets styles" on page 290. CSS-based text Property inspector lists all of the styles available for use in text, and includes a preview that shows what text will look like after the style is applied. For more information, see "The Property inspector and text formatting" on page 277. CSS-based page properties give you more control of page properties, such as the appearance of headings and links, using modern CSS coding constructs. For more information, see "About setting page properties" on page 254. Integrated image-editing toolbar enables you to do basic image manipulation and editing from Dreamweaver using Macromedia Fireworks technology. You can crop, resize, resample, and so on, without leaving Dreamweaver. For more information, see "Editing images in Dreamweaver" on page 304. Powerful and open coding environment Dreamweaver offers the following new features for coders, including improvements to the Code view and the ability to edit files without creating a Dreamweaver site. Dreamweaver also includes current support for server technologies. Improved Tag inspector displays a list of properties available for the current selection and enables you to make quick, comprehensive edits. For more information, see "Changing attributes with the Tag inspector" on page 442. Siteless file editing enables you to work directly on an FTP or RDS server without creating a Dreamweaver site. For more information about setting up Dreamweaver to work on a server, see "Setting up Dreamweaver to work without defining a site" on page 82. For more information about setting up a Dreamweaver site, see "Setting up a new Dreamweaver site" on page 62. PHP server behaviors enable you to create a master/detail page set and user authentication pages. For more information, see "Building master/detail pages (PHP)" on page 719 and "Building pages that restrict access to your site (PHP)" on page 738. What's new in Dreamweaver MX 2004 19 Improved support for ASP.NET form controls provides new and improved ways, including new Property inspectors, to build and manipulate ASP.NET web forms in Design view. For more information, see Chapter 42, "Building ASP and JSP Applications Rapidly," on page 703. Code view context menu enables you to make quick formatting changes to selected code. For more information, see "Making quick changes to a code selection" on page 430. Where to start Dreamweaver documentation includes information for readers from a variety of backgrounds. To get the most out of the documentation, start by reading the parts that are most appropriate for you. For information about Dreamweaver resources, see "Guide to Dreamweaver instructional media" on page 27. Web-design novices If you are relatively new to web design, this section will point you to sections of the Dreamweaver documentation that are most appropriate for your background. For web-design novices: 1 Begin by reading the tutorials for creating a static site in Getting Started Help. 2 In Using Dreamweaver Help (Help > Using Dreamweaver), read Chapter 1, "Exploring the Workspace," on page 31, Chapter 2, "Setting Up a Dreamweaver Site," on page 59, Chapter 4, "Managing Your Files," on page 77, and Chapter 3, "Creating and Opening Documents," on page 69. 3 Learn about page layout by reading Chapter 9, "Laying Out Pages in Layout Mode," on page 183. 4 To learn about formatting text and including images in your pages, read Chapter 13, "Inserting and Formatting Text," on page 273 and Chapter 14, "Inserting Images," on page 303. 5 That's all you really need to begin producing high-quality websites, but when you're ready to learn how to use more advanced tools, you can proceed through the rest of the static-page chapters in Using Dreamweaver Help. You might want to wait to read the dynamic-page chapters until you're more familiar with creating web pages. Experienced web designers If you are an experienced web designer, this section will point you to sections of the Dreamweaver documentation that are most appropriate for your background. There are two different approaches: one for designers who are new to Dreamweaver and one for designers who are familiar with Dreamweaver but would like to learn more about creating dynamic pages. For experienced web designers who are new to Dreamweaver: 1 Begin by reading the tutorials for creating a static site in Getting Started Help. 2 In Using Dreamweaver Help, read Chapter 1, "Exploring the Workspace," on page 31 to learn more about the Dreamweaver user interface. 3 Although much of the material in Chapter 2, "Setting Up a Dreamweaver Site," on page 59 and Chapter 4, "Managing Your Files," on page 77 is probably familiar to you, skim those chapters to see how these familiar concepts are implemented in Dreamweaver. Pay particular attention to the sections about setting up a Dreamweaver site. 20 Introduction: Welcome to Dreamweaver