You will need to change a few preferences in Dreamweaver in order to work efficiently on your site.

• Set default document type as .aspx (DWMX)
• Viewing 'Invisible Elements'
• Prompt for alt tags
• Show only site window on startup

Edit Preferences

Set default document type as .aspx

Note: You will not need to do this step if you are using DW8. These instructions are for those using DWMX only.

The School of Medicine pages and templates work on asp.net technology. What this means to you is that all files in our website need to have the .aspx extension. To allow DreamWeaver to apply .aspx as the default extension follow these steps.

Choose Edit > Preferences. In the Preferences dialog box, under Category select New Document. Select ASP.NET VB from the drop-down menu next to Default Document Type.

Illus: setting up default document type to .aspx in DW 8

Illus: setting up default document type to .aspx in DW CS3

View Invisible Elements

Set your preferences to allow you to see scripts and other invisible elements.

Edit > Preferences > Invisible Elements. Check those elements selected in this image.

Illus: view invisible elements in DW CS3 and DW 8

Prompt for Alt Tags

We are also moving towards making our site more accessible to users with disabilities, so we are requesting that all images have alt tags. It is the text that pops up when you put your cursor over an image. For more information, please see the tutorial on the use of alt tags.

Dreamweaver MX allows you to change your settings to so that it will prompt you to add alt text each time you add an image. Dreamweaver4 does not have this feature. You may add them to the Properties Panel.

Go to Edit > Preferences. Select Accessibility, then click on Images.

Illus: prompt for alt tags in DW CS3 and DW 8

To add alt tags using the properties panel, in both Dreamweaver4 and Dreamweaver MX, add or select the images, then type in the alt tag in the Field labeled 'Alt'.

Show Only Site Window on StartUp

By default DW will want to start each new session with a blank page. To disable this, go to Edit > Preferences. Then check Show Only Site Window on StartUp in the General tab.