Set General preferences for Dreamweaver

1. Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Dreamweaver > Preferences (Macintosh).
2. Set any of the following options:

   Open Documents In Tabs

   Opens all documents in a single window with tabs that let you switch between documents (Macintosh only).

   Show Welcome Screen

   Displays the Dreamweaver Welcome screen when you start Dreamweaver or when you don’t have any documents open.

   Reopen Documents on Startup

   Opens any documents that were open when you closed Dreamweaver. If this option is not selected, Dreamweaver displays the Welcome screen or a blank screen when you start (depending on your Show Welcome Screen setting).

   Warn When Opening Read-Only Files

   Alerts you when you open a read-only (locked) file. Choose to unlock/check out the file, view the file, or cancel.

   Enable Related Files

   Lets you see which files are connected to the current document (for example, CSS or JavaScript files). Dreamweaver displays a button for each related file at the top of the document, and opens the file if you click the button.

   Update Links When Moving Files

   Determines what happens when you move, rename, or delete a document within your site. Set this preference to always update links automatically, never update links, or prompt you to perform an update. (See Update links automatically.)

   Show Dialog When Inserting Objects

   Determines whether Dreamweaver prompts you to enter additional information when inserting images, tables, Shockwave movies, and certain other objects by using the Insert panel or the Insert menu. If this option is off, the dialog box does not appear and you must use the Property inspector to specify the source file for images, the number of rows in a table, and so on. For roll over images and Fireworks HTML, a dialog box always appears when you insert the object, regardless of this option setting. (To temporarily override this setting, Control-click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) when creating and inserting objects.)

   Enable Double-Byte Inline Input

   Lets you enter double-byte text directly into the Document window if you are using a development environment or language kit that facilitates double-byte text (such as Japanese characters). When this option is deselected, a text input window appears for entering and converting double-byte text; the text appears in the Document window after it is accepted.

   Switch To Plain Paragraph After Heading

   Specifies that pressing Enter (Windows) or Return (Macintosh) at the end of a heading paragraph in Design view creates a new paragraph tagged with a p tag. (A heading paragraph is one that’s tagged with a heading tag such as h1 or h2.) When the option is disabled, pressing Enter or Return at the end of a heading paragraph creates a new paragraph tagged with the same heading tag (allowing you to type multiple headings in a row and then go back and fill in details).

   Allow Multiple Consecutive Spaces

   Specifies that typing two or more spaces in Design view creates nonbreaking spaces that appear in a browser as multiple spaces. (For example, you can type two spaces between sentences, as you would on a typewriter.) This option is designed mostly for people who are used to typing in word processors. When the option is disabled, multiple spaces are treated as a single space (because browsers treat multiple spaces as single spaces).

   Use <strong> and <em> in Place of <b> and <i>

   Specifies that Dreamweaver applies the strong tag whenever you perform an action that would normally apply the b tag, and applies the em tag whenever you perform an action that would normally apply the i tag. Such actions include clicking the Bold or Italic buttons in the text Property inspector in HTML mode and choosing Format > Style > Bold or Format > Style > Italic. To use the b and i tags in your documents, deselect this option.

   Note: The World Wide Web Consortium discourages use of the b and i tags; the strong and em tags provide more semantic information than the b and i tags do.

   Warn when placing editable regions within <p> or <h1> - <h6> tags

   Specifies whether a warning message is displayed whenever you save a Dreamweaver template that has an editable region within a paragraph or heading tag. The message tells you that users will not be able to create more paragraphs in the region. It is enabled by default.

   Centering

   Specifies whether you want to center elements using divalign="center" or the center tag when you click the Align Center button in the Property inspector.

   Note: Both of these approaches to centering have been officially deprecated as of the HTML 4.01 specification; you should use CSS styles to center text. Both of these approaches are still technically valid as of the XHTML 1.0 Transitional specification, but they’re no longer valid in the XHTML 1.0 Strict specification.

   Maximum Number of History Steps

   Determines the number of steps that the History panel retains and shows. (The default value should be sufficient for most users.) If you exceed the given number of steps in the History panel, the oldest steps are discarded.

   For more information, see Task automation.

   Spelling Dictionary

   lists the available spelling dictionaries. If a dictionary contains multiple dialects or spelling conventions (such as American English and British English), the dialects are listed separately in the Dictionary pop‑up menu.

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