Section B.1. File Menu


B.1. File Menu

The commands in the File menu control the open Dreamweaver document as a whole. They also include basic file functions like saving and quitting:

  • New . Opens the New Document window, which lets you select a new, blank document of many different types, from basic HTML pages to dynamic pages like ASP or PHP. This window also lets you access templates you've created for your site.

  • Open . Opens the standard Open File dialog box so you can choose an existing Dreamweaver document to open. You can set the Show pop-up menu to show only specific types of documentsonly HTML or style sheets, for example. The Preview button displays a thumbnail image of the document, if one's available.

  • Open Recent . Displays a submenu that lists the 10 most recently opened documents. Selecting a document from the list opens it. The last option in this menu, "Reopen Documents on Startup," is kind of cool. If you quit Dreamweaver when any documents are still open (and this option is checked), those documents will automatically reopen the next time you start up Dreamweaver.

  • Open in Frame . Opens an existing HTML page within one frame of a frameset. To make this command available, you must first click inside a frame to select itnot just in the Frameset document. The Select HTML file dialog box opens and lets you navigate to the file you wish to insert into the Frame. You can also choose to make the file's URL relative to the document or the root folder, as described in Chapter 4. (See note about frames in the box on Section 4.2.3.)

  • Close . Closes the open Dreamweaver document. If you have unsaved changes, Dreamweaver gives you the opportunity to save them.

  • Close All . Closes all currently open documents. If you have unsaved changes, Dreamweaver gives you the opportunity to save them.

  • Save (Save Frameset/Save Frame) . Saves any changes you've made to your document. The Save command is dimmed if you haven't made any changes to the document since the last time you saved it.


    Note: If you're working on a frames-based document, this command may say Save Frameset or Save Frame, depending on what's selected.
  • Save As (Save Frameset As/Save Frame As) . Saves a copy of the current document under a new name , closing the original version and leaving the new version onscreen. Here again, if you're working on a frames-based document, this command says either Save Frameset As or Save Frame As, depending on what's selected.

  • Save All . Saves changes to all the open documents.

  • Save to Remote Server . Lets you save the current file to any site for which you've defined a remote site. In other words, if you use Dreamweaver's FTP feature to move your files to a Web server (see Chapter 15), this option lets you access that Web server directly. In fact, it lets you access any Web server for any Web site you've defined in Dreamweaver. Because of this behavior, this option can be risky. You can accidentally save a file into the wrong Web site, or in the wrong folder of the right Web site. Therefore, it's generally better to use the Files panel and its "Put Files" buttonsee Section 15.2.

  • Save as Template . Saves the current document as a template file with the suffix .dwt. The Save as Template dialog box appears, so that you can specify the template's file name and indicate which site it belongs to. Dreamweaver automatically saves all template documents in a Templates folder in the selected site's folder. Templates are discussed in Chapter 17.

  • Revert . Undoes any changes you've made to the document since the last time you saved it. Edit Undo can often be a better choice; it might take a few more steps to undo all the changes youve made, but it can actually undo changes past your last save. So if you're one of those gotta -save-it-every-five-seconds types, the Undo command is for you.

  • Print Code . Prints the code (that is, what you see in Code view) of the current document.

  • Import . Allows you to import data from other sources into your Dreamweaver document, such as XML data into a Template document, HTML generated by Microsoft Word, or tabular data from a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel. (Use the submenu to specify which.)

  • Export . Extracts tabular data, Cascading Style Sheet styles, or template data as XML from your Dreamweaver document, for use in other applications.

  • Convert . Converts more modern technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets into code that's understandable by older browsers. In addition, you can convert older HTML pages into a variety of more modern formats like HTML 4.01 Strict and two forms of XHTMLthe current standard for HTML Web pages. Unfortunately, it's kind of hit-or- miss : this feature can't always update older files to more modern standards.

  • Preview in Browser . Opens the current document in your Web browser. (You have to save your framesets before you can preview them.) By selecting Edit Browser List, you can add new browsers to, or delete browsers from, your browser list, or specify a preferred browser.

  • Check Page . Checks the current page for a variety of problems, such as broken links, code that's incompatible with various browsers, accessibility limitations, and invalid HTML or XML code. These same tools are available from the Results panel for checking an entire site's worth of fileschoose Window Results and click an appropriate tabfor example, the Link Checker to check links.

  • Compare with Remote/Compare with Testing . Lets you use a third-party code-comparison tool to see how a local copy of a page differs from either the remote copy (on the Web server) or a copy on your testing server. This lets you see exactly what code differs between two copies of the same page. This feature is discussed on Section 9.5.

  • Design Notes . Opens the Design Notes window (Chapter 15), where you can add additional information about the document, set the status, and choose to have the design note appear whenever the document is opened.


    Note: To use Design Notes on your site, you must make sure the Maintain Design Notes option is selected in the "Design notes" section of the Site Definition window.
  • Exit/Quit . Exits Dreamweaver. If any of your open Dreamweaver documents have unsaved changes, the program prompts you to save them before quitting.



Dreamweaver 8[c] The Missing Manual
Dreamweaver 8[c] The Missing Manual
ISBN: 596100566
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 233

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