Copying and Pasting Text from word-processing documents: Text can be copied out of an open word-processing document or web pages by choosing Edit > Copy in the other application. Click in the open Dreamweaver document window and select Edit > Paste as Text in Dreamweaver. This will save typing but will not maintain formatting.
Opening HTML converted documents in Dreamweaver: Many documents created in word processing programs, (Microsoft Word or WordPerfect) can be converted to a web format called HTML ( the coding language that web browsers can read) Best conversions take place with simple word processing formatting that is left-aligned without elaborate spacing. Some formatting may be lost. With the word processor document open choose File > Save as HTML. Name the document with an .htm extension (i.e. course.html) so you do not confuse it with the original word-processing document. This will get the document roughly converted and ready for editing in Dreamweaver or other web editor. Open the document in Dreamweaver by selecting File > Open and selecting the file. Proceed with editing.
Cleaning up MS Word HTML documents:If you have chosen File > Save as HTML in MSWord you can clean up the code in Dreamweaver. Choose File > Import > Word HTML in Dreamweaver. This will clean up the code before editing. You can NOT open unconverted Word documents directly. You must save them as HTML first within the MS Word.
Spacing Tips in Dreamweaver:
Line Breaks:
Hold the Shift key, then use the Enter Key (or Return
Key)
Paragraph Break: Return or Enter key alone (line break with a blank
line below)
Tabs Don't Work: The tab key does not work in
web page editors. Use the indent and outdent arrows on the Property Inspector
for a similar effect.
Alignment: Left, Center, and Right alignment are available. Avoid
focusing crucial information on the right of the page. If the user's browser
window is too small, they may miss this information. The upper left of
the web page is the focal point of the eye.
Lists: These are good to use for outlines and Table of Contents. Type each list item followed by a paragraph break (hit the Return or Enter Key). Select the whole list and click the bulleted list or numbered list icon.
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Font size and platform: Font sizes are relative to a scale of 1-7 (smallest to largest) in HTML. Headers are on a scale of 1-6 (largest to smallest). Platforms will also affect the display. Windows machine will display fonts larger than a Macintosh. The user can also set preferences in the browser to a larger point size. Font Tip: Type all text in the page, then select blocks of text and apply font, size and color choices to work efficiently. Check
Spelling: Available in the Text Menu. |
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| Problem | Work Around | Considerations |
| Maintaining Fonts for Logos or Buttons | Create an image in a graphics program with text in it and save it as a .gif or jpg format. | Too many images in the page will add to download time for page to load up in the web browser |
| Requiring a Particular Font/Size for Design Reasons | Designate fonts in Cascading Style Sheets | Only fully supported in 4.0 browsers |
| Very elaborate document will take a long time to layout and maintain | Save to Portable Document Format (PDF) and link to web page | PDF files require the free Adobe Acrobat plug-in program to be read. |
| Laying out Images and Text Together is difficult | Use Tables or Dreamweaver Layers feature and convert to Tables | Good control of layout but some learning curve to do this. |