MACROMEDIA DREAMWEAVER 8-EXTENDING DREAMWEAVER User manual

Extending Dreamweaver

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Acknowledgments
Project Management: Charles Nadeau, Robert Berry
Writing: Anne Sandstrom
Editing: Anne Szabla, John Hammett
Production and Editing Management: Patrice OíNeill and Rosana Francescato
Media Design and Production: Adam Barnett, Aaron Begley, Paul Benkman, John Francis, Geeta Karmarkar, Mario Reynoso
Localization Management: Melissa Baerwald
Special thanks to Jay London, Raymond Lim, Alain Dumesny, and the entire Dreamweaver engineering and QA teams.
First Edition: September 2005
Macromedia, Inc.
601 Townsend St.‘
San Francisco, CA 94103

3
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Installing an extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Creating an extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Additional resources for extension writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
What’s new in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Conventions used in this guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
PART 1: CUSTOMIZING DREAMWEAVER
Chapter 1: Customizing Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Ways to customize Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Customizing Dreamweaver in a multiuser environment. . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Working with browser profiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Changing FTP mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Extensible document types in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chapter 2: Customizing Code View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Code hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Code coloring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Code validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Changing default HTML formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
PART 2: OVERVIEW OF EXTENDING DREAMWEAVER
Chapter 3: Extending Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Types of Dreamweaver extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Configuration folders and extensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102
Extension APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105
Localizing an extension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
Working with the Extension Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109

4Contents
Chapter 4: User Interfaces for Extensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Designing an extension user interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Dreamweaver HTML rendering control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112
Using custom UI controls in extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113
Adding Flash content to Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Chapter 5: The Dreamweaver Document Object Model . . . . . . 127
Which document DOM? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
The Dreamweaver DOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
PART 3: EXTENSION APIS
Chapter 6: Insert Bar Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
How object files work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
The Insert bar definition file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141
Modifying the Insert bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
A simple insert object example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
The Objects API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161
Chapter 7: Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
How commands work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Adding commands to the Commands menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
A simple command example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
The Commands API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Chapter 8: Menus and Menu Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
About the menus.xml file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Changing menus and menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
Menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
A simple menu command example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
A dynamic menu example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
The Menu Commands API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Chapter 9: Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
How toolbars work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
A simple toolbar command file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
The toolbar definition file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Toolbar item tags. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226
Item tag attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232
The toolbar command API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238

Contents 5
Chapter 10: Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Site reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Stand-alone reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
The Reports API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Chapter 11: Tag Libraries and Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Tag library file format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
The Tag Chooser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
A simple example of creating a new tag editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Tag editor APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Chapter 12: Property Inspectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
How Property inspector files work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281
A simple Property inspector example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
The Property inspector API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Chapter 13: Floating Panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
How floating panel files work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
A simple floating panel example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291
The Floating panel API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Chapter 14: Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
How Behaviors work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
A simple behavior example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
The Behaviors API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .312
Chapter 15: Server Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Dreamweaver architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
A simple server behavior example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
How the Server Behavior API functions are called. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
The Server Behavior API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Server behavior implementation functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Editing EDML files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Group EDML file tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Participant EDML files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Server behavior techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

6Contents
Chapter 16: Data Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
How data sources work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
A simple data source example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .382
The Data Sources API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Chapter 17: Server Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
How data formatting works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
When the data formatting functions are called . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
The Server Formats API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Chapter 18: Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Component basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407
Extending the Components panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
How to customize the Components panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Components panel files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Components panel API functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Chapter 19: Server Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
How customizing server models works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .423
The Server Model API functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Chapter 20: Data Translators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
How data translators work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Determining what kind of translator to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .435
Adding a translated attribute to a tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .435
Inspecting translated attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .437
Locking translated tags or blocks of code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .437
Creating Property inspectors for locked content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Finding bugs in your translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
A simple attribute translator example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
A simple block/tag translator example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .447
The Data Translator API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Chapter 21: C-Level Extensibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
How integrating C functions works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .457
C-level extensibility and the JavaScript interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
The C-level API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
File Access and Multiuser Configuration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .470
Calling a C function from JavaScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .479

Contents 7
PART 4: APPENDIX
Appendix: The Shared Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
The Shared folder contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Using the Shared folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .491
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

8Contents

9
Introduction
This guide describes the Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 framework and application
programming interface (API) that lets you build extensions to Dreamweaver. It provides
information about how each type of extension works; the API functions that Dreamweaver
calls to implement the various objects, menus, floating panels, server behaviors, and so on,
that make up the features of Dreamweaver; and a simple example of each type of extension.
This guide also explains how to customize Dreamweaver by editing tags in various HTML
and XML files to add menu items or document types, and so on.
To add an object, menu, floating panel, or other feature to Dreamweaver, you must code the
functions that the particular type of extension requires. This guide describes the arguments
that Dreamweaver passes to these functions and also the values that Dreamweaver expects
these functions to return.
For information on the utility and general purpose JavaScript APIs that you can use to
perform various support operations in your Dreamweaver extensions, see the Dreamweaver
API Reference. If you plan to create extensions that work with databases, you might also want
to review the sections in Getting Started with Dreamweaver about making connections to
databases.
Background
Most Dreamweaver extensions are written in HTML and JavaScript. This guide assumes that
you are familiar with Dreamweaver, HTML, XML, and JavaScript programming. If you are
implementing C extensions, the guide assumes that you know how to create and use C
dynamic link libraries (DLLs). If you are writing extensions for building web applications,
you should also be familiar with server-side scripting on at least one platform, such as Active
Server Pages (ASP), ASP.net, PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Macromedia ColdFusion,
or Java Server Pages (JSP).

10 Introduction
Installing an extension
To become familiar with the process of writing extensions, you might want to explore the
extensions and resources that are available through the Macromedia Exchange website
(www.macromedia.com/exchange). Installing an existing extension introduces you to some of
the tools that you need to work with in your own extensions.
To install an extension, use the following procedure:
1. Download and install the Extension Manager, which is available on the Macromedia
Downloads website (www.macromedia.com/software/downloads).
2. Log on to the Macromedia Exchange website (www.macromedia.com/exchange).
3. From the available extensions, select one that you want to use. Click the Download link to
download the extension package.
4. Save the extension package in the Dreamweaver 8/Downloaded Extensions folder of your
installed Dreamweaver folder.
5. In the Extension Manager, select File > Install Extension. In Dreamweaver, select
Commands > Manage Extensions to start the Extension Manager.
The Extension Manager automatically installs the extension from the Downloaded
Extension folder into Dreamweaver.
Some extensions need Dreamweaver to restart before you can use them. If you are running
Dreamweaver when you install the extension, you might be prompted to quit and restart
the application.
To view basic information on the extension after its installation, go to the Extension Manager
(Commands > Manage Extensions) in Dreamweaver.
Creating an extension
Before you create a Dreamweaver extension, visit the Macromedia Exchange website at
www.macromedia.com/exchange to see if the extension you plan to create already exists. If
you do not find an extension that meets your needs, you then perform the following steps to
create the extension:
■Determine the type of extension you want to create. For more information about the
extension types, see “Types of Dreamweaver extensions” on page 100.
■Review the documentation for the type of extension you plan to create. To become
familiar with creating that type of extension, it’s a good idea to create the simple extension
example in the appropriate chapter.

What’s new in Dreamweaver 11
■Determine which files you need to modify or create.
■Plan the user interface (UI), if any, for the extension.
■Create the necessary files and save them in the appropriate folders.
■Restart Dreamweaver so that it recognizes the new extension.
■Test the extension.
■Package the extension so that you can share it with others. For more information, see
“Working with the Extension Manager” on page 109.
Additional resources for extension writers
To communicate with other developers who are involved in writing extensions, you might
want to join the Dreamweaver extensibility newsgroup. You can access the website for this
newsgroup at www.macromedia.com/go/extending_newsgrp/.
What’s new in Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver 8 includes the following new features and interfaces that are extensible. Each of
these features has new related functions, which are listed in the Dreamweaver API Reference.
■Improved site synchronization
The comparison of local and remote files is more reliable in Dreamweaver 8.
■Copy and paste improvements
Copy and paste choices have been simplified. Users can also now set the default behavior
of a paste operation to be to paste text only.
■Site root-relative links mapping has been improved.
■Code collapse
Dreamweaver now lets users selectively collapse or expand segments of code.
■Code view toolbar
Dreamweaver now provides a toolbar in Code view that allows quick access to commonly
used commands.
■Background file transfer
This feature lets users to do other things in Dreamweaver while processing server-related
tasks.
■File compare integration
Dreamweaver now lets users launch a third-party file comparison application to compare
two local files, two remote files, or the local and remote versions of a file.

12 Introduction
■Streamlined handling of CSS styles
The CSS Styles and Relevant CSS panels have been combined. The Design panel is now
named CSS; the CSS Styles panel is now named Styles. There is now a menu option for
Document CSS Styles and Selection CSS Styles in the Window menu. In addition, an
Edit Rule button has been added to the Property inspector.
■Visual aids for CSS divs and layers
Dreamweaver now includes visual aids to let users see their CSS page layout.
■Zooming in and out
Dreamweaver now lets users zoom in and out while viewing their web pages.
■Guides
Dreamweaver now lets users create guides in their documents.
Documentation changes
Extending Dreamweaver includes the following improvements to help new extension authors
get started.
■New and updated examples
New examples have been added for Reports and Behaviors. The example for Property
inspectors has been improved. The steps for creating each type of extension are presented
as a tutorial, which you can follow to understand what the files do and how they interact.
■New organization
Each chapter now begins with a table that lists the files required to create the type of
extension described in the chapter.
For information on the new functions that have been added to the Utility API and the
JavaScript API, see the Dreamweaver API Reference.
Macromedia Press
Improve your Dreamweaver skills with books from Macromedia Press. Check out the latest
content written by the experts. See www.macromedia.com/go/dw2004_help_mmp.
Deprecated functions
In Dreamweaver 8, several functions have been deprecated. For information on the functions
that have been removed from the Utility and JavaScript APIs, see the Dreamweaver API
Reference.

Conventions used in this guide 13
Errata
A current list of known issues can be found in the Extensibility section of the Dreamweaver
Support Center (www.macromedia.com/go/extending_errata).
Conventions used in this guide
The following typographical conventions are used in this guide:
■Code font indicates code fragments and API literals, including class names, method
names, function names, type names, scripts, SQL statements, and both HTML and XML
tag and attribute names.
■Italic code font indicates replaceable items in code.
■The continuation symbol (¬) indicates that a long line of code has been broken across two
or more lines. Due to margin limits in this guide’s format, what is otherwise a continuous
line of code must be split. When copying the lines of code, eliminate the continuation
symbol, and type the lines as one line.
■Curly braces ({ }) that surround a function argument indicate that the argument is
optional.
■Function names that have the prefix dreamweaver. as in dreamweaver.funcname, can be
abbreviated to dw.funcname when you are writing code. This manual uses the full
dreamweaver. prefix when defining the function and in the index. Many examples use
the shorter dw. prefix, however.
The following naming conventions are used in this guide:
■You—the developer who is responsible for writing extensions
■The user—the person using Dreamweaver
■The visitor—the person who views the web page that the user created

14 Introduction

15
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PART 1
Customizing Dreamweaver
You can customize Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 to suit your web
development needs, including changing settings in dialog boxes, setting
preferences in a variety of areas, and changing keyboard shortcuts. You can
also customize code hints and code coloring in Code view, the cascading
style sheet (CSS) profile, and Dreamweaver’s default HTML formatting.
Chapter 1: Customizing Dreamweaver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter 2: Customizing Code View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

17
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CHAPTER 1
Customizing Dreamweaver
In addition to creating and using Dreamweaver extensions, you can customize Macromedia
Dreamweaver in many ways, which lets you work in a manner that’s familiar, comfortable,
and efficient for you.
Ways to customize Dreamweaver
There are several general approaches to customizing Dreamweaver. Some of these approaches
are covered in Using Dreamweaver. These approaches let you customize your workspace. You
can also change settings in dialog boxes in Dreamweaver. You can set preferences in a variety
of areas, including accessibility, code coloring, fonts, highlighting, and previewing in
browsers, using the Preferences panel (Edit > Preferences). You can also change keyboard
shortcuts, using the Keyboard Shortcut Editor (Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts).
The following list describes some of the ways you can customize Dreamweaver by editing
configuration files:
■Rearrange the objects in the Insert bar, create new tabs to reorganize the objects, or add
new objects. See “Modifying the Insert bar” on page 148.
■Change the names of menu items, add new commands to menus, and remove existing
commands from menus. See Chapter 8, “Menus and Menu Commands,” on page 181.
■Change browser profiles or create new ones. See “Working with browser profiles”
on page 30.
■Change how third-party tags (including ASP and JSP tags) appear in the Document
window’s Design view. See “Customizing the interpretation of third-party tags”
on page 21.
In addition, you can tailor Dreamweaver to meet your needs by doing the following:
■Customizing default documents
■Customizing page designs
■Customizing the appearance of dialog boxes

18 Customizing Dreamweaver
■Changing the default file type
■Customizing the interpretation of third-party tags
■Customizing workspace layouts
■Customizing the Code view toolbar
Customizing default documents
The DocumentTypes/NewDocuments folder contains a default (blank) document of each
type that you can create using Dreamweaver. When you create a new blank document by
selecting File > New and selecting an item from the Basic Page, Dynamic Page, or Other
categories, Dreamweaver bases the new document on the appropriate default document in
this folder. To change what appears in a default document of a given type, edit the appropriate
document in this folder.
Customizing page designs
Dreamweaver provides a variety of predesigned cascading style sheets, framesets, and page
designs. You can create pages based on these designs by selecting File > New.
To customize the available designs, edit the files in BuiltIn/css, BuiltIn/framesets, BuiltIn/
Templates, and BuiltIn/TemplatesAccessible folders.
You can also create custom page designs by adding files to the subfolders of the BuiltIn folder.
To make a description of the file appear in the New Document dialog box, create a Design
Notes file (in the appropriate _notes folder) that corresponds to the page design file.
NOTE
If you want all the pages in your site to contain common elements (such as a copyright
notice) or a common layout, it’s better to use templates and library items than to change
the default documents. For more information about templates and library items, see
Using Dreamweaver).
NOTE
The designs listed in the Page Designs and Page Designs (Accessible) categories are
Dreamweaver template files; for more information on templates, see Using
Dreamweaver).

Ways to customize Dreamweaver 19
Customizing the appearance of dialog boxes
The dialog box layouts for objects, commands, and behaviors are specified as HTML forms;
they reside in HTML files in the Configuration folder within the Dreamweaver application
folder. You edit these forms as you would edit any form in Dreamweaver. For more
information, see Using Dreamweaver.
To change the appearance of a dialog box:
1. In Dreamweaver, select Edit > Preferences, and then select the Code Rewriting category.
2. Unselect the Rename Form Items when Pasting option.
Unselecting this option ensures that form items retain their original names when you copy
and paste them.
3. Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box.
4. On your disk, find the appropriate HTM file in the Configuration/Objects,
Configuration/ Commands, or Configuration/Behaviors folder.
5. Make a copy of the file somewhere other than the Configuration folder.
6. Open the copy in Dreamweaver, edit the form, and save it.
7. Quit Dreamweaver.
8. Copy the changed file back to the Configuration folder in place of the original. (It’s a good
idea to first make a backup of the original, so you can restore it later if needed.)
9. Restart Dreamweaver to see the changes.
You should change only the appearance of the dialog box, not how it works; it must still
contain the same types of form elements with the same names, so that the information
Dreamweaver obtains from the dialog box can still be used in the same way.
For example, the Comment object takes text input from a text area in a dialog box and uses a
simple JavaScript function to turn that text into an HTML comment and insert the comment
into your document. The form that describes the dialog box is in the Comment.htm file in
the Configuration/Objects/Invisibles folder. You can open that file and change the size and
other attributes of the text area, but if you remove the textarea tag entirely, or change the
value of its name attribute, the Comment object does not work properly.
NOTE
Remember that in a multiuser operating system, you should edit copies of configuration
files in your user Configuration folder rather than editing Dreamweaver configuration
files. For more information, see “Multiuser Configuration folders” on page 104.

20 Customizing Dreamweaver
Changing the default file type
By default, Dreamweaver shows all the file types it recognizes in the File > Open dialog box.
You can use a pop-up menu in that dialog box to limit the display to certain types of files. If
most of your work involves a specific file type (such as ASP files), you can change the default
display. Whatever file type is listed on the first line of the Dreamweaver Extensions.txt file
becomes the default.
To change the Dreamweaver default File > Open file type:
1. Make a backup copy of the Extensions.txt file in the Configuration folder.
2. Open Extensions.txt in Dreamweaver or in a text editor.
3. Cut the line corresponding to the new default and paste it at the beginning of the file so
that it becomes the first line of the file.
4. Save the file.
5. Restart Dreamweaver.
To see the new default, select File > Open, and look at the pop-up menu of file types.
To add new file types to the menu in the File > Open dialog box:
1. Make a backup copy of the Extensions.txt file in the Configuration folder.
2. Open Extensions.txt in Dreamweaver or in a text editor.
3. Add a new line for each new file type.
a. In capital letters, enter the filename extensions that the new file type can have,
separated by commas.
b. Add a colon and a brief description to show in the pop-up menu for file types that
appear in the File > Open dialog box.
For example, for JPEG files, enter the following:
JPG,JPEG,JFIF:JPEG Image Files
4. Save the file.
5. Restart Dreamweaver.
To see the changes, select File > Open, and click the pop-up menu of file types.
NOTE
If you want to see all file types in the File > Open dialog box (even the files Dreamweaver
can’t open), you must select All Files (*.*). This is different from All Documents, which
shows only the files Dreamweaver can open.