Dreamweaver HTML rendering control | Developing Extensions for Macromedia Dreamweaver 8

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For versions through Dreamweaver 4, Dreamweaver rendered more space around form controls than Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator do. Form controls in extension UIs are rendered with extra space around them because Dreamweaver uses its HTML rendering engine to display extension UIs.

Macromedia has improved form-control rendering to more closely match the browsers. To take advantage of the rendering improvements, you must use one of three new DOCTYPE statements in your extension files, as shown in the following example:

 <!DOCTYPE HTML SYSTEM "-//Macromedia//DWExtension layout-engine 5.0//dialog"> <!DOCTYPE HTML SYSTEM "-//Macromedia//DWExtension layout-engine5.0//floater"> <!DOCTYPE HTML SYSTEM "-//Macromedia//DWExtension layout-engine5.0//pi">

In most cases, DOCTYPE statements must go on the first line of a document. However, to avoid conflicts with extension-specific directives that, in previous versions, were required to be on the first line of a file (such as the comment at the top of a Property inspector file, or the MENU-LOCATION=NONE directive in a command), DOCTYPE statements and directives can now be in any order as long as they appear before the opening html tag.

In addition to letting you make extension UIs more closely match the built-in dialog boxes and panels, the new DOCTYPE statements also let you view your extensions in the Dreamweaver Design view so that you can see them as they would appear when viewed by users.

The following examples show the Base Property inspector without the DOCTYPE statement, which improves form-control rendering, and then with the DOCTYPE statement.

The Base Property inspector as it appears in Design view without the DOCTYPE statement.

The Base Property inspector as it appears in Design view with the DOCTYPE statement (and after a few adjustments to accommodate the new rendering).

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