TIP 77: Customizing Source Code Formatting (Themes)

GoLive CS2 has the ability to customize the formatting of your source code by creating code themes. Themes are available in the Source Editor, the Split Source view, the JavaScript Editor, and the Source tab of the CSS Editor and are accessible by choosing an option from the Theme pull-down menu (Figure 77a).

Figure 77a. Choose a theme from the Theme pull-down in the Source Editor.

Theme Manager Extension

GoLive CS2 ships with an extension called Theme Manager that allows you to duplicate, delete, rename, reorder, import, or export themes. See Tip 236 to learn more about extensions.To turn on the extension, open GoLive's preferences and in the Modules section enable the checkmark next to Theme Manager. After restarting GoLive, you'll find a menu item named Theme Manager in the Special menu. Select it to manage your source code themes.

Although GoLive has a number of useful themes already configured, you can create your own or edit any of the default themes in the GoLive preferences. On a Mac, choose GoLive > Preferences; on Windows, choose Edit > Preferences. Next, open the Source pane of the preferences and click Themes.

Pick the type of syntax you want to create or edit a theme from the Syntax pull-down menu and then select a theme name from the Theme pull-down menu. Select the font face and size and the text and background colors for the theme in the upper portion of the Preference dialog. To set specific colors and font styles for text, tags, attributes, and so on, choose an option in the text list on the left and set the styling for that option using the Color field, font face buttons, and Size pull-down menu on the right (Figure 77b).

Figure 77b. Edit themes in the Themes portion of the GoLive preferences.

Themes Are Not for Browsers

Themes only affect how the code looks when you edit in GoLive. It has no effect on how your pages look or work in a Web browser.

Setting the Default Theme

To set the default theme as a preference, use the pull-down menu in the Source portion of the preferences. You can specify both a default theme (for viewing on screen) and a print theme, which will be used when a page of code is printed from GoLive.