Basics of Web Authoring with Dreamweaver MX

TO SET THE TITLE OF A PAGE

  • NOTE: The title of a page is what appears in the title bar of the browser window.
  1. Select Modify->Page Properties… and change the title.

TO CHANGE THE LINK OR BACKGROUND COLORS

  1. Select Modify->Page Properties…
  2. Click on the color swatch next to the desired property to change the color.

TO CHANGE THE FONT, STYLE, AND COLOR OF TEXT

  1. Open the Properties palette if necessary by selecting Window->Properties
  2. Select the text you want to modify and use the palette shown below

TO MAKE AN EXTERNAL LINK (a link to someone else's site)

  1. Select the text you want to serve as the link.
  2. Type the full URL (including http://) in the Link field in the Properties palette and hit Return.

TO MAKE A LOCAL LINK (a link to another file within your site)

  1. Select the text you want to serve as the link.
  2. Click on the "point-to-file" icon on the Properties palette and drag to the file in the Site window that you want to link to (see right). Note that you might need to rearrange your windows to do this.
    OR
  3. Type the name of the file in the Link field; just be sure to include any folders in the path and use .. to back up a level (if you don't know what this means, use the method in step 2 instead).

TO MAKE A TABLE TO CONTROL PAGE LAYOUT

  1. Click on the page at the point where you want the table to appear.
  2. Select Insert->Table…
  3. Set your Width to somewhere between 500-600 pixels (see note below).
  4. Type in the number of Rows and Columns you want, etc. You'll probably want to set the Border to 0. Cell Spacing and Cell Padding control the amount of space between cells in a multi-column / multi-row table. Click OK.
  5. Select "Center" from the Align popup on the Properties palette if you want to center your table on the page (recommended for most layouts).
  • MORE ABOUT TABLE WIDTH: When setting your table width, it's important to consider the size of your anticipated user's computer monitor. If you make your table too wide, users with small monitors will have to scroll back and forth (most annoying). On the other hand, if you set it too narrow, you'll have massive amounts of space on the outside. One way around this problem is to use % (of browser window width) instead of "pixels" for table width; however, with this dynamic resizing dependent on the browser width, you never know exactly how your layout will look to your users. So, staying conservative (500-600 pixels) is usually best.

last updated 2004 NOV 4