Interface:
Dreamweaver
may not look like any software you've used before- but
rest assured- it was designed for beginners and experts alike-
pretty soon you'll be a PRO... There are many windows
or "palettes" that open when you take your first
look at Dreamweaver. Each of these palettes enable
you to do a variety of editing to your pages. From the Window
drop down menu, choose arrange floating palettes. This
will put the palettes off to the sides of your workspace.
Palettes:
 The
first palette we are going to talk about is the OBJECTS palette.
If you arranged floating palettes the OBJECTS palette will
be in the top-left of your workspace. Here it is just to the
left of this text.
The
OBJECTS palette contains buttons for creating
various types of objects, such as images, tables,
and layers. The
OBJECTS palette is divided into six sections (as
you can see below), each featuring a set of options.
Each set of options is accessible via a pop-up
menu at the top of the Objects palette (see to
the immediate right where the white arrow is pointing).
Using DREAMWEAVER customization features, you
can change the order and number of elements available
from each palette.
Property
Inspector
Near
the bottom of your workspace, you should see the Property
Inspector (just below). The Property Inspector displays properties
for selected objects. The inspector changes to reflect the
object selected, such as image properties when an image is
selected- or text properties when text is selected. If you
want to change (or find out) what the properties of an image
or text are- check it out at the Property Inspector.
The
Launcher (just below) has buttons for opening
and closing various Inspectors and palettes, such
as the HTML inspector, the Site map, Behaviors,
HTML/CSS Styles, History and the Library. A copy
of the Launcher is also within the border of the
far right bottom of the DREAMWEAVER workspace.
Can you see it?
Preferences
Another
thing we go over in this first lesson is preferences
. When you start working with any new program,
you're wise to look over the Preferences options
and make sure customizable features are specified
to best meet your needs. You can get to this window
in DREAMWEAVER by choosing Edit> Preferences.
Preferences control a variety of formatting choices
when you're laying out a document.
We
like to suggest:
- choose
"Show only site window on startup"
in the general category-
- select
"add extension when saving " .html", again
in the general category
- in
the navigation category, select primary
and secondary browsers
Creating
& Organizing
With
Dreamweaver, you can easily build a web site on
your local computer and then transfer it to a
server where it will be accessible on the Internet.
As you create, you save your work in folders,
adding files as your site grows. The group of
folders and files you create on your local computer
are called your "Local Site".
When you are finished creating your pages, they
are ready for posting to the Internet. You will
put those folders into your "Remote Site".
Before you can do this, you need to define your
sites.
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