Dreamweaver CS4 Resources

Insert panel overview

The Insert panel contains buttons for creating and inserting objects such as tables, images, and links. The buttons are organized into several categories, which you can switch by selecting the desired category from the Category pop-up menu. Additional categories appear when the current document contains server code, such as ASP or CFML documents.

Some categories have buttons with pop-up menus. When you select an option from a pop-up menu, it becomes the default action for the button. For example, if you select Image Placeholder from the Image button’s pop-up menu, the next time you click the Image button, Dreamweaver inserts an image placeholder. Anytime you select a new option from the pop-up menu, the default action for the button changes.

The Insert panel is organized in the following categories:

The Common category: Lets you create and insert the most commonly used objects, such as images and tables.
The Layout category: Lets you insert tables, table elements, div tags, frames, and Spry widgets. You can also choose two views for tables: Standard (default) and Expanded Tables.
The Forms category: Contains buttons for creating forms and inserting form elements, including Spry validation widgets.
The Data category: Lets you insert Spry data objects as well as other dynamic elements like recordsets, repeated regions, and record insertion and update forms.
The Spry category: Contains buttons for building Spry pages, including Spry data objects and widgets.
The InContext Editing category: Contains buttons for building InContext editing pages, including Editable Regions and Repeating Regions.
The Text category: Lets you insert a variety of text- and list-formatting tags, such as b, em, p, h1, and ul.
The Favorites category: Lets you group and organize the Insert panel buttons you use the most in one common place.
Server-code categories: Available only for pages that use a particular server language, including ASP, CFML Basic, CFML Flow, CFML Advanced, and PHP. Each of these categories provides server-code objects that you can insert in Code view.

Unlike other panels in Dreamweaver, you can drag the Insert panel out of its default dock position and drop it into a horizontal position at the top of the Document window. When you do so, it changes from a panel to a toolbar (though you cannot hide and display it in the same way as other toolbars).