Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 means superior results faster, with new features and enhancements that help you build Web sites and Internet applications. It provides a combination of visual layout tools, application development features, and code editing support, enabling developers and designers at every skill level to create visually appealing, standards-based sites and applications quickly and easily.
If you’re already familiar with Dreamweaver CS3, you can access and download all the tasks in this book with Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 New Features to help make your transition to the new version simple and smooth. The Dreamweaver CS4 New Features as well as other Dreamweaver CS3 to Dreamweaver CS4 transition helpers are available on the Web at www.perspection.com.
If you’re searching for what’s new in Dreamweaver CS4, just look for the icon: New!. The new icon appears in the table of contents and throughout this book so you can quickly and easily identify a new or improved feature in Dreamweaver CS4. The following is a brief description of each new feature and its location in this book.
• Split Code View (p. 30-31)Displays your code in two screens similar to Code and Design view. This option is only available on the View or Layout menu.
• User interface improvements (p. 31, 39, 45, 50, 398)The user interface is updated with the following advancements: (1) the menu bar includes menu buttons for Layout, Extend Dreamweaver, Site, and Workspace for easy access, (2) the Close button for a document appears on the document tab, (3) button icons appear in grayscale until you hover over it to make it easier to work with color, and (4) panels collapse (to icons) and expand to increase workspace.
• Live View (p. 32-33)Displays your web pages as they would appear in a web browser without leaving Dreamweaver, while providing easy access to the code.
• Community Help (p. 36-37) Flash Help uses a Community Help site on the web at adobe.com (which is updated regularly) to help you find the information you need. In addition, comments and ratings from users are available to help guide you to an answer.
• Adobe Product Improvement Program (p. 37) This is an opt-in program that allows you to test Adobe products and make suggestions for future products.
• Subversion integration (p. 70-71, 474, 483, 493, 500-501) Subversion is a version control system that allows you to manage web site file versions. Subversion is third-party software that resides on your web server (default installation) or local computer that works directly with Dreamweaver.
• Page Preferences (p. 81-82) You can set page preferences for HTML pages in the Page Preferences dialog box by using the Appearance (HTML) category.
• Adobe Photoshop Smart Objects (p. 136-139) Creates a Smart Object in Dreamweaver when you insert an Adobe Photoshop PSD file into a web page. Smart Objects in Dreamweaver are linked to the source Photoshop PSD file. When you make changes in Photoshop, the image is updated in Dreamweaver.
• Related files (p. 219, 339) Displays attached and related files, such as a Cascading Style Sheet, for a web page (known as the source or parent) in the Related Files toolbar, which appears below the document tab, for easy access.
• CSS in the Properties Panel (p. 222-223) Provides easy access to CSS properties in the Properties panel.
• Code Live View (p. 326-327) As you work work in Live view, you can also view live code. Similar to Live view, Live Code view is a non-editable view.
• Code hinting for Ajax and JavaScript framework (p. 329) Provides code hinting support to help you write Ajax and JavaScript code.
• Code Navigator (p. 332, 338) Shows you all the code sources that affect the current selection, such as CSS rules.
• HTML data sets (p. 376-377, 388-391) In addition to XML data, you can also use HTML table data with Spry Data Sets.
• Spry widgets (p. 376-377, 382-383, 386-387) Adds the following spry widgets to Dreamweaver: Spry Validation Password, Spry Validation Confirm, Spry Validation Radio Group, and Spry Tooltip.
• InContext Editing (p. 438-441) Allows you to enable users to make simple edits to your web pages using a web browser.