Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Workspace Components
Dreamweaver 8 is a professional Web authoring tool with an intuitive workspace that allows novice Web designers to use it as well. Originally a Macromedia product, Dreamweaver is now part of the Adobe software family and as such, it integrates seamlessly with other Adobe products, such as Fireworks, Flash and Photoshop. Dreamweaver 8 is the last standalone version of the Web software before it became bundled into Adobe's Creative Suite (CS) line of products.
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Design Window
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Dreamweaver 8's design window is one of the elements that makes the program so friendly to novice users. The window looks and behaves like a word processor window. Everything you see in this window in terms of text position, content appearance and image layout is the same as you will see when viewing the Web page in a Web browser. The design window supports drag-and-drop as a shortcut to using the program menus, so you can drag images from the Files window that sits to the left of the design window to add graphic elements to your Web page with one click.
Code Window
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For those more experienced with Web design, Dreamweaver 8 provides a window to show just the back-end code that creates the Web page. You can type directly in this window, use HTML and other Web languages, and the application color-codes the tags to distinguish them from text content for easier reading. For designers who want a little of both views at the same time, Dreamweaver 8 also offers a split window with the HTML code on top and the design view on the bottom.
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FTP Client
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Dreamweaver 8 has a built-in file transfer protocol (FTP) client. This allows you to upload and download files between your local computer and your Web server without leaving the program. The FTP client is part of the Files window that lists all the files that make up your Web site. An up arrow button at the top of the Files window performs the "Upload" command and a down arrow button performs the "Download" command. All buttons in Dreamweaver 8 come with "hot tips" that tell you what the buttons do, when you hover your mouse cursor over them.
Property Inspector Palette and Toolbar
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The Property Inspector is a floating palette that sits across the bottom of the screen by default. The Toolbar is another floating palette that sits across the top of the screen. Like all of Dreamweaver 8's workspace windows, you can click and drag either of these to any location on your screen to suit your work habits. Dreamweaver 8 saves window and palette positions when you exit. The Toolbar offers buttons for adding different objects to a Web page, such as images, hyperlinks and tables. The Property Inspector allows you to edit the attributes for these different objects, such as text appearance, image format and table cell properties. The Inspector's buttons change depending on the object you select on the Web page.
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