Section B.5. Modify Menu

B.5. Modify Menu

You can use the commands in the Modify menu to adjust the properties of common document objects: links, tables, and layers , for example:

• Page Properties . Opens the Page Properties window, where you can specify document-wide attributessuch as the page title, background and link colors, page margins, and background imageor select a tracing image to use as a reference for designing the page.

• Template Properties . Opens the Template Properties window, where you can modify settings for various template features, such as controlling the visibility of optional regions , the properties of editable attributes, and the values of any template expressions you've created. Only available when working on a template-based page, as described in Chapter 17.

• Selection Properties . When this item is selected (as indicated by a checkmark in the menu), the Properties Inspector palette's on the screen; you use it to edit the current settings for selected page elements. The list of options displayed in the Properties window changes according to what type of page element is selected. This item has the same effect as choosing Properties from the Window menu.

• CSS Styles . Controls the display of the CSS Styles Panel. A checkmark tells you that the panel's open . This item has the same effect as choosing CSS Styles from the Window menu.

• Edit Tag . Opens a dialog box with detailed options for the HTML tag that's active in the current document. This advanced feature is for the true HTML geekit gives access to all the properties for a specific tag (not just the ones Dreamweaver displays in the Property inspector).

• Quick Tag Editor . Lets you edit an HTML tag without leaving the Design view. If nothing on the page is selected, the Quick Tag editor prompts you to enter a new HTML tag at the insertion point (by choosing from the alphabetical menu). But if text or an object is already selected when the Quick Tag Editor is opened, the window displays the selection's HTML tags for editing.

• Make Link . Turns a highlighted page element (graphic or text) into a link. The standard Select File dialog box appears; choose the document you want to open when someone clicks the link.

• Remove Link . This command is available only when a link is selected or the insertion point is inside a link. It deletes hyperlinks by removing the <a href> tag from the selected text or image.

• Open Linked Page . Opens the linked page in a new document window. This command is available only when a link is selected or the insertion point is inside a link. (You can, however, hold down the Ctrl key [ ] and double-click a link to open the page to which it's linked.)

• Link Target . Sets a link's target and defines whether the linked page appears in the same browser window or a new one. You can choose from blank, parent, self, or top targets, or manually define the target in the Set Target dialog box. This command's only available when a link is selected or the insertion point is inside a link. (See Chapter 4 for details on links.)

• Table . Opens a list of options for modifying a selected table. You can adjust the number of rows and columns , add row or column spans , or completely clear cells ' defined heights and widths (see Chapter 7).

• Image . Opens a list of options for modifying a selected image, including optimizing it in Fireworks or using one of the new built-in image-editing tools, such as the crop, resample, and sharpen tools. See Section 5.2.5.

• Frameset . Offers options for splitting the current page into frames . Or choose the Edit No Frames Content command to create alternative Web-page material that can be read by older browsers that don't support frames.

• Arrange . Lets you change the Z-Index (the front-to-back order) of overlapping CSS layers. You can choose to send a layer in front of other layers, send it to the back, and so on. You can also tell Dreamweaver to prevent overlapping layers altogether. If two or more layers are selected, you can also choose from one of this menu's alignment options to align, for example, the tops of two layers.

• Convert . Because some older Web browsers don't support CSS layers, you can choose to convert a layer-based layout into a single, large table. (Note that you cannot convert overlapping layers into a table.) You can also reverse the process by breaking up an HTML table into separate CSS layers. In this case, every table cell becomes a unique layer.

• Navigation Bar . If you inserted an interactive navigation bar from the Insert menu, you can use this command to edit its settings or add new navigation elements.

• Library . Lets you add selected document objects to the site's Library file (Chapter 16). You can also update the current document, or multiple documents, to reflect any changes you've made to a Library object.

• Templates . These commands affect template documents (Chapter 17). Using these commands, you can apply a pre-existing template to the current page, separate the page from its template, or update the page to reflect changes made to its template. If the open document is a template file, you can use this menu to create or delete editable regions (remove template markup) and update all site files based on that template. You can also use this menu to add repeating template regions and editable tag attributes.

• Timeline . The submenu provides options for adding or deleting timelines , animation frames, objects, or behaviors. This feature is a bit archaic and adds lots of JavaScript code to your page. If you're still interested, you can download a chapter from an earlier edition of this book, which discusses how to use this feature: www.sawmac.com/dwmx2004/DWmx_Ch12.pdf.