Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts

Sometimes the keyboard shortcuts that come with Dreamweaver aren't quite what you want. For example, some shortcut keys used for editing code with BBEdit (on Mac) or HomeSite (on Windows) aren't the same as the shortcuts used for the equivalent commands in Dreamweaver 8. No problem; you can change Dreamweaver shortcuts to match those in your favorite code editor. In fact, Dreamweaver 8 comes with shortcut key sets for those two code editors, which makes it a snap to change shortcut keys and increase your productivity.

Of course, you can also change any keyboard shortcut, add ones to menu items that may not already have them, or delete shortcut keys you don't like. You can also print out a cheat sheet of keyboard commands, to help you learn them.

To change between shortcut key sets:

1.	Choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (Dreamweaver > Keyboard Shortcuts). The Keyboard Shortcuts dialog appears ( Figure B.1 ). Figure B.1. Begin customizing your Dreamweaver experience in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.
2.	Choose the keyboard shortcuts that you want from the Current set pop-up menu. Your choices are: Macromedia Standard, which includes the standard shortcut keys for Studio 8; Dreamweaver MX 2004, a slightly different set found in the previous edition of Dreamweaver; BBEdit, which modifies the code editing keyboard shortcuts to match those used by the popular Macintosh code editor; and HomeSite, which modifies the code editing keyboard shortcuts to match the popular Windows code editor.
3.	Click OK. Dreamweaver changes its keyboard shortcuts to match the set that you chose.

To create a personalized set of keyboard shortcuts:

1.	Choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (Dreamweaver > Keyboard Shortcuts). The Keyboard Shortcuts dialog appears (Figure B.1).
2.	From the Current set pop-up menu, choose the keyboard shortcuts set that you want to use as the basis for your personalized set.
3.	Click the Duplicate set button. The Duplicate Set dialog appears ( Figure B.2 ). Figure B.2. Enter the name of your new keyboard shortcuts set.
4.	Type the name for your duplicate set.
5.	Click OK. Dreamweaver creates the duplicate set and makes it the active set. You can then personalize it, as shown next .

To add or change a keyboard shortcut:

1.	In the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog, choose the kind of command you want to modify from the Commands pop-up menu ( Figure B.3 ). Figure B.3. You can customize keyboard shortcuts for more items on Windows (top) than on Mac (bottom). This pop-up menu differs on Windows and Mac, with more choices (and more functionality) on Windows. Besides Menu commands, Code editing, Document editing, and Snippets keyboard shortcuts, Dreamweaver for Windows also allows you to set keyboard shortcuts for the Site panel and the Site window. Depending on what you chose, the Commands list changes.
2.	In the Commands list, navigate to the command that you want to change. Click the + icon next to the name of the menu to expand the choices for that menu. The menu choices will be shown with any existing shortcut keys ( Figure B.4 ). Figure B.4. Click the + buttons to display menu choices in an indented tree form.
3.	Click on the command that you want to change. The shortcuts assigned to the command appear in the Shortcuts text box ( Figure B.5 ). Figure B.5. Select the shortcut key that you want to change.
4.	To add a shortcut, click the Add shortcut button. A new blank line appears in the Shortcuts text box. or To change an existing shortcut, select it in the Shortcuts text box.
5.	Click in the Press key text box.
6.	Press the key combination you want to use for the shortcut key. If the key combination is already in use, Dreamweaver lets you know with a message at the bottom of the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.
7.	Click Change. The new shortcut appears in the Shortcuts text box.
8.	Click OK to save your changes and dismiss the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.

To export a keyboard command cheat sheet:

1.	Choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (Dreamweaver > Keyboard Shortcuts). The Keyboard Shortcuts dialog appears (Figure B.1).
2.	Click the Export set as HTML button. The Save as HTML file dialog appears.
3.	In the Save as text box, give the exported file a name, then navigate to where you want to save the HTML file.
4.	Click Save. Dreamweaver saves the list of keyboard commands to your hard disk as an HTML file. You can then open it in Dreamweaver or any Web browser ( Figure B.6 ). Figure B.6. You can print your keyboard command cheat sheet from a Web browser.