Q: In Dreamweaver CS4, is it possible – or recommended –  to use a table within a form, in order to line up the fields?

A: Using tables to layout forms is a common web design practice. There are drawbacks to doing so, because it reduces the accessibility of the form, but many, many designers use this technique. There are many ways to layout forms using CSS that don't require tables (see Chapter 8, "Styling Forms" in the Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS Essential Training title), but the forms will work fine should one choose to do so.

Q: How do I direct a link to an FLV movie to open in new browser window, using Dreamweaver CS4?

A: To link to an FLV in a new browser window, create a separate HTML page with nothing but the Flash video on it. Set the video to “autoplay = true”, since clicking the link will be all the input needed by the viewer to play the video. Align the video to the center of the page. (Use a div tag and center the div tag on the page). Make sure the new window opens to the size of the video player, making sure to allow for the browser;'s title bar, menus, chrome, etc. Also, if desired, offset the video byadding left="" and top="" attributes to the behavior. Enter the pixel amount for left and top offset or the window will always open aligned to the top left of the screen.

Q: The author states that the Mac OS version of Dreamweaver CS4 does not support the direct insertion of Word files, and that copy and pasting text from a Word file will format the text as links. How does one add and format text in Dreamweaver CS4 on a Mac, without turning the text into links?

A: Although the Mac version of Dreamweaver does not support the direct insertion of Word files, you can copy and paste from Word into Dreamweaver (as is recommended in the tutorial for Mac users). To control how the text is formatted, go to Dreamweaver > Preferences and select the Copy/Paste category. From there, Mac users can access the same controls that Windows users get when inserting a Word file. Just remember to select the proper preference before copying and pasting from Word.

Q: Is there any way to change a nested template from a two column structure to a single column structure? As explained in the "Working with nested templates" video, it appears that the nested template must maintain the same basic structure as the main template. If one is using a template with a header, footer, main content area, and sidebar, is it possible to create a template without the sidebar?

A: Making these changes is possible, and there are a few ways of doing it. First, one could make the sidebar an optional region. For info on that, check out the “Creating optional regions” video of the Dreamweaver CS5 Essential Training title. (The technique works the same in CS5 and CS4).

However, the layout also needs to be changed (switched from a two column to a single column layout, for example), and that can be a bit tougher. Since layout is controlled through CSS, usually what's done is this: There is usually a class assigned to a top level tag (such as the body or the wrapper div) that control the other areas on the page. For pages without the sidebar, one could apply the template, not add the optional sidebar region, and have the class on the body tag be an editable attribute. Then, a class such as "singleCol" or "multiCol" could be assigned, based on which layout is needed.

The other approach is to use multiple templates, but the problem there is how to update them. Nested templates could be used to build a version with the sidebar, which would help ease the updating process, but, overall, the recommend method is to use the first approach or a combination of the two.

Q: Upon selecting Edit in Flash for a SWF in Dreamweaver CS4, an error message appears that says:

Unable to launch Macintosh HD: Applications:Adobe Extension Manager CS4:Adobe Flash CS4:Adobe Flash CS4.app. Please be sure that this application exists and that there is enough memory to run it.

Ctrl-clicking the SWF in the Design view and choosing Go to source file from the contextual menu and then selecting the FLA file from the list will enable the Edit button, but the file opens in Flash independently and not via Dreamweaver. What is causing this error?

A: Unfortunately, Dreamweaver's round-trip workflow is somewhat buggy, so there are several possible explanations.

 The lynda.com exercise files are not structured the same way a normal website would be, so redefining sites and moving files around as you do from lesson to lesson can cause problems.

Usually the Edit button will be grayed out if Dreamweaver doesn't know where the original FLA file is located (as can happen when they are in different directories). This can also happen if the FLA and the SWF have different names. ("file1.fla" publishs "mymovie.swf" for example.)

One possible solution is to set the source in the Properties Inspector. Another is to re-establish the link to the source file via the point-to-file icon. If the problem persists, browse for the FLA file if prompted by Dreamweaver. This should establish a link between the SWF and the FLA file.

Unlike the PSD integration, Dreamweaver does not import the FLA file, but the SWF, so Dreamweaver has to be able to "see" the source FLA file in order to make the round-tripping work. As the files are moved around between multiple programs, they go through several rounds of compression. This alone can cause features like this to result in an error.

To test if the problem is with the system and not the software, delete the SWF file from the page, re-import it using the Insert panel or menu, and then save the page. This should clear out any caching problems with the old SWF file and re-establish the link.

Q: I am unable to recreate the exercise enabling me to make new CSS rules for the body and header text, as shown in "Understanding Element Selectors." The headers don't update after I enter the H1 rule.

A: The most likely explanation is that the wrong option is selected in the CSS Rule Definition dialog. Make sure the pull-down menu says Tag for the selector type, not Compound, which it tends to default to. That should resolve the problem, and all for new CSS styles to be created. 

Can’t find an answer?

If you still have a question about Dreamweaver CS4 Essential Training, let us know.

Sorry, there are no matches for your search ""—to search again, type in another word or phrase and click submit.