Section 7.3. Setting Up Preview Browsers

7.3. Setting Up Preview Browsers

In Chapter 1, you assembled a small arsenal of web browsers for testing purposes. It makes sense now, here at the top of the production process, to configure Dreamweaver to work with these browsers.

From the main menu, choose Edit Preferences, and the Preferences dialog box opens. The Preferences dialog box works just like the Advanced view of the Site Definition dialog box, in that you get a list of categories in the list on the left. Select a category, and the appropriate fields and options appear. To set up preview browsers, you want the Preview in Browser category, so click Preview in Browser.

HOTKEY

Press Ctrl-U or Command-U to open the Preferences dialog box.

TECHTALK

Your primary preview browser opens and loads the current page when you press F12 in Dreamweaver.

Dreamweaver automatically detects your computer's default web browser and sets it as your primary preview browser. On Windows machines, the default is Microsoft Internet Explorer, so don't be surprised to see IE preconfigured in the preview-browser list. The primary designation means that this browser is associated with the hotkey F12. That is to say, when you're building a web page in Dreamweaver, you can press F12 at any time to view the page in your primary preview browser.

No matter your personal browser preference, Microsoft Internet Explorer should always be your primary preview browser. The vast majority of people on the Web use IE. Most of the visitors to your site will use IE. If your site doesn't look right or work correctly in IE, then your site doesn't look right or work correctly, period.

To add a preview browserMozilla Firefox, for exampleclick the plus button. The Add Browser dialog box appears, as Figure 7-14 shows. Click Browse, and navigate to the location of your preview browser's EXE file. (For Firefox, on Windows machines, this is usually C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe.) Double-click the EXE file, and Dreamweaver fills in the Name and Application fields in the Add Browser dialog box. If you prefer a less tech-sounding label, feel free to edit the value of the Name field to Mozilla Firefox, Firefox browser, FF, or whatever, but don't change anything in the Application field.

Figure 7-14. Add a preview browser with the Add Browser dialog box

Under Defaults, you might consider making Firefox your secondary preview browser, which opens when you press Ctrl-F12 or Command-F12 and loads whatever web page you're building at the time. Check the Secondary checkbox to make it so.

HOTKEY

Your secondary preview browser opens and loads the current page when you press Ctrl-F12 or Command-F12 in Dreamweaver.

When you click OK, the Add Browser dialog box closes, and Dreamweaver appends your new preview browser to the list in the Preferences dialog box.

Repeat this procedure for Netscape and Opera, so that you have four preview browsers set up, as shown in Figure 7-15. With IE as your primary preview browser and Firefox as your secondary, Netscape and Opera don't have associated hotkeys, but you can still launch them from Dreamweaver with a few quick clicks, as you'll see in Chapter 8.

Figure 7-15. Your preview browsers are ready for action