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The
skill development activities in this section will introduce you
to the basic commands you will use in Dreamweaver 4. Once you are
familiar with these commands and have decided on the content of
your Web page, the remaining sections will assist you in using these
commands to modify and enhance the features of your web page. When
you open the Dreamweaver 4 software, a window labeled "Untitled
Document " will open. The "Untitled Document" window is the main
work area and is where you will put the material you are making
into a Web page.
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Once you
have decided on what the content of your Web page will be, there
are many ways you can modify the appearance of the page and lots
of features you can include. Dreamweaver 4 contains several small
windows that display some of the most frequently used commands.
You might find it useful to open these windows and drag them just
outside of your workspace so you can access them quickly when you
need them. The Property Inspector, Object Palette, and Launcher
are the three that you might find most useful. To open these windows
click on the Window menu and select the one you wish to open. The
check mark by the Properties selection indicate that that window
is already open. The following section will discuss some of the
features that can be accessed from these windows.
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| You
can modify the properties of your page using the property inspector
(pictured below). Some examples include changing the color of the
text and changing the size and type of font. To learn how to make
these types of changes see Formatting
a Basic Web Page. |
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| The
Object Palette contains buttons that allow you to insert certain types
of objects into your Web page. Each icon represents a different type
of object that can be inserted. Tables, layers, images, and animated
flash files are just a few of the various objects you can insert.
For example, to insert the image of the object palette, I clicked
the
icon and then selected the name of the image.
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| Another way
to insert an object is to click on the Insert menu. A drop down menu will
be displayed and you can scroll down and select the type of object you
wish to insert. |
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| Dreamweaver
4 also provides context menus. These menus list the most useful commands
related to a particular object or window. To activate the context
menu you simply right click on the object or window. For example,
pictured below is an image of the select image source box. When I
right clicked that image, the following context menu was displayed.
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| The Launcher
contains buttons that will open other windows. For example, if I wanted
to view the source code for my Web Page, I would click the Code Inspector
button on the Launcher menu and a separate window with the HTML code
for the page would be displayed. The Behaviors button brings up a
window that allows you to assign actions such as rollovers to any
images that you may have on your Web page. For help with creating
a rollover image, go to Adding
Images. |
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An easy
way to manage the look of your Web page is to use tables. Tables allow
you to specify not only the dimensions of the Web page, but you can
also specify a background color for the table or the individual cells.
To insert a table go to the Insert menu and select Table or click
on the table icon 
from the objects palette. Make sure you have the cursor in the location
that you want the table to be inserted. |
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The
following box will be displayed and you must indicate the number of
rows and columns for your table. You can also specify the size of
the table, 615 pixels is a good size. You can also indicate if you
want the table to have a border. If you do not want a border, you
would enter 0. If you do want a border, enter a number. The bigger
the number, the larger the border. To review another way to customize
the layout of your Web page, go to Using
Layers.
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| Now that
you are familiar with some of the basic commands, it's time to create
a web page. The first step is to insert a table and type in some text.
The remaining sections will assist you in modifying the contents of
your Web page. Adding color to the page and color to the text will
be discussed. As well as inserting e-mail links and rollover images. |
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