Section B.2. Edit Menu

B.2. Edit Menu

The Edit menu applies common document changes like copying and pasting:

• Undo . Undoes the most recent change made to your document. You can choose this command repeatedly to move progressively backwards through your changes, even after you've saved the document.

• Redo (Repeat) . Restores whatever changes you just made by using the Undo command. Selecting Redo multiple times moves you progressively forward through changes you've undone. If you've just performed an operation other than Undo, Repeat instead of Redo will appear. This lets you repeat the last action. For example, if you just pressed Delete, the Repeat command presses it again.

• Cut . Deletes the selected text or objects from the document and copies them to the invisible Macintosh or Windows Clipboard so they can be pasted elsewhere. (The Clipboard holds only one selection at a time.)

• Copy . Copies the selected text or object to the Clipboard so it can be pasted elsewherewithout disturbing the original.

• Paste . Places the most recent selection from the Clipboard into your document at the insertion point.

• Paste Special . Opens the Paste Special window, which lets you choose how you wish to paste the Clipboard into your document. Options range from Text Only for just plain text to increasingly more elaborate options, which force Dreamweaver to attempt to preserve various levels of formatting. For example, preserving styles, bold, italics, bulleted lists, and so on.

• Clear . Deletes the selected text or objects from the document without placing it on the Clipboard.

• Select All . Selects everything in the document so you can make document-wide changes in one fell swoop.

• Select Parent Tag . Increases the current selection to include everything within the parent tag , including its content. For example, if you had a table cell selected, this command would increase the selection to the entire table row . Choosing the command a second time would increase the selection to include the entire table. In short, this command ensures that any changes you make apply to the entire tag.

• Select Child . Decreases the current selection to include everything within the child tag, including its contents. If you selected a table row, choosing this command would decrease that selection to include only the first table cell and its contents.

• Find and Replace . Opens the Find and Replace window, which you can use to search the documentor entire sitefor a specific word, tag, or source code and replace it with something different (see Section 18.3). This command lets you make such changes either en masse or one instance at a time.

• Find Selection . This command lets you find another instance of the current selection. For example, say you've selected the word "Mothball" on the page. Choosing this command will search the page for another example of "Mothball."

• Find Next . Uses the most recent search settings from the Find and Replace window to search the current document, highlighting the next instance of the requested search item.

• Go to Line . Opens the Go To line dialog box. Type a number, and Dreamweaver positions the cursor at the beginning of the specified line of code. (Available only in Code view.)

• Show Code Hints . Immediately displays any code hints (overriding the delay set in the Preferences window) available for the current tag. Code Hints, described in Chapter 9, provide a pop-up menu of tag properties appropriate for the current tag. (Available only in Code view.)

• Code Hint Tool . When working in Code view, lets you access Dreamweaver's color picker, Browse for File button, and list of fonts so you don't have to type things like #FF6633, ../../images/dog.gif , or Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif , every time you use a color, link to a file, or want to use a font.

• Indent Code . Adds one indent before the selected line of code. (Available only in Code view.)

• Outdent Code . Removes one indent from the selected line of code. (Available only in Code view.)

• Balance Braces . When you're editing a script in Code view, this command helps you check for unbalanced braces (that is, an introductory { without a closing }) by highlighting the matching tags enclosing the selected code. It doesn't do anything for plain HTML, but if you're writing a JavaScript program or using a dynamic programming language like PHP or ASP, it can help identify missing bracesa common source of programming errors. Works with ( ) as well.

• Repeating Entries . Lets you cut, copy, paste, and delete repeating regions in templates. Repeating regions are described in Chapter 17.

• Edit with External Editor . If you haven't already specified an external HTML code editor, such as BBEdit or Notepad, to use when editing large amounts of source code, this command opens the Preferences window so that you can find and select one on your hard drive. Once you've specified an editor, this command opens the current document in that editor.

• Tag Libraries . Lets you modify the way Dreamweaver writes code for various types of tags: HTML, ColdFusion, ASP, and so on. You can create new tag libraries for working with other types of tag-based languages, or modify the ones that ship with Dreamweaver.

• Keyboard Shortcuts . Opens the Keyboard Shortcuts window and shows you all the current keyboard shortcuts for Dreamweaver. You can create a new set of shortcuts for specific sites or programs, or export the settings to HTML to share with others. (You must duplicate the factory settings before you can add or delete your own shortcuts.) Details are in Chapter 19. (In Mac OS X, this option appears under the Dreamweaver 8 menu.)

• Preferences . Opens the Preference window, which is full of options that customize the way Dreamweaver works. There are 16 categories of preferences, including the color and format of different HTML tags, shorthand for CSS styles, and the order in which panels appear on the screen. (In Mac OS X, this option appears under the Dreamweaver 8 menu.)