The Dreamweaver Interface

When we open Dreamweaver an initial screen appears like this one, we are going to look at its fundamental components and list the names of the different elements.

 

The Tool Bars

 

Menu bar

The menu bar contains Dreamweaver operations, grouped in drop down menus. When we click on Insert, for example, we'll see the operations related to the different elements that can be inserted in Dreamweaver.

Many of the operations can be done from these menus, but sometimes it's preferable (or necessary) to do them from the panels.

The Standard Toolbar

The standard toolbar contains icons to execute some of the most common operations, like Open , Save , etc.

The Document Toolbar

The document toolbar contains icons to execute some other common operations that the standard toolbar does not include. For example changing the view of the document, preview, etc.

The Status Bar

status bar

The status bar shows the HTML tag we are in (in the image, a blank document, we are directly on the <body> tag). We also can swich between the selection, drag and zoom modes using the three buttons on the right. You can select the zoom in which you want to view the Design View selecting a percentage or just typing it on the percentage textbox (the default is 100%).

Panels and Inspectors

Dreamweaver uses floating windows similar to the toolbar windows, these are known as panels or inspectors. The difference between panel and inspector is that the appearance and options of an inspector changes depending on the selected object. Through the Window option on the menu bar, it is possible to show or to hide each one of the panels or inspectors. Below are the most important ones.

The Properties Inspector

The Properties Inspector shows and allows us to modify the more frequent properties that are used in the selected elements. For example, when we select element a text it will show the type of font, the alignment, whether it's in italic or bold, etc. Clicking on the button you can view more options. This button is in the bottom-right corner.

 

The Insert Toolbar or Panel of Objects.

The insert toolbar or panel of objects allows you to insert elements in a document without having to use the menu. The elements are classified according to their category: tables, text, forms, etc. It's possible to configure this panel so that the icons of the objects are shown as buttons, as names, or both simultaneously.