PDF (adobe.com)

Change the code format

You can change the look of your code by specifying formatting preferences such as indentation, line length, and the case of tag and attribute names.

All the Code Format options, except the Override Case Of option, are automatically applied only to new documents or additions to documents that you subsequently create.

To reformat existing HTML documents, open the document, and select Commands > Apply Source Formatting.

  1. Select Edit > Preferences.
  2. Select Code Format from the Category list on the left.
  3. Set any of the following options:
    Indent
    Indicates whether code generated by Dreamweaver should be indented (according to the indentation rules specified in these preferences) or not.
    Note: Most of the indentation options in this dialog box apply only to code generated by Dreamweaver, not to code that you type. To make each new line of code that you type indent to the same level as the previous line, select View > Code View Options Auto-Indent option. For more information, see Set the code appearance.

    With
    (Text box and pop‑up menu) Specifies how many spaces or tabs Dreamweaver should use to indent code that it generates. For example, if you type 3 in the box and select Tabs in the pop‑up menu, then code generated by Dreamweaver is indented using three tab characters for every level of indentation.

    Tab Size
    Determines how many characters wide each tab character appears in Code view. For example, if Tab Size is set to 4, then each tab is displayed in Code view as a four-character-wide blank space. If, additionally, Indent With is set to 3 Tabs, then code generated by Dreamweaver is indented using three tab characters for every level of indentation, which appears in Code view as a twelve-character-wide blank space.
    Note: Dreamweaver indents using either spaces or tabs; it doesn’t convert a run of spaces to a tab when inserting code.

    Automatic Wrapping
    Inserts a line-break character (also known as a “hard” return) when a line reaches the specified column width. (Dreamweaver inserts line-break characters only in places where they don’t change the appearance of the document in browsers, so some lines may remain longer than the Automatic Wrapping option specifies.) By contrast, the Wrap option in Code view displays long lines (that extend beyond the width of the window) as if they contained line-break characters, but doesn’t actually insert line-break characters.

    Line Break Type
    Specifies the type of remote server (Windows, Macintosh, or UNIX) that hosts your remote site. Choosing the correct type of line break characters ensures that your HTML source code appears correctly when viewed on the remote server. This setting is also useful when you are working with an external text editor that recognizes only certain kinds of line breaks. For example, use CR LF (Windows) if Notepad is your external editor, and use CR (Macintosh) if SimpleText is your external editor.
    Note: For servers that you connect to using FTP, this option applies only to binary transfer mode; the ASCII transfer mode in Dreamweaver ignores this option. If you download files using ASCII mode, Dreamweaver sets line breaks based on the operating system of your computer; if you upload files using ASCII mode, the line breaks are all set to CR LF.

    Default Tag Case and Default Attribute Case
    Control the capitalization of tag and attribute names. These options are applied to tags and attributes that you insert or edit in Design view, but they are not applied to the tags and attributes that you enter directly in Code view, or to the tags and attributes already in a document when you open it (unless you also select one or both of the Override Case Of options).
    Note: These preferences apply only to HTML pages. Dreamweaver ignores them for XHTML pages because uppercase tags and attributes are invalid XHTML.

    Override Case Of: Tags and Attributes
    Specifies whether to enforce your specified case options at all times, including when you open an existing HTML document. When you select one of these options and click OK to dismiss the dialog box, all tags or attributes in the current document are immediately converted to the specified case, as are all tags or attributes in each document you open from then on (until you deselect this option again). Tags or attributes you type in Code view and in the Quick Tag Editor are also converted to the specified case, as are tags or attributes you insert using the Insert panel. For example, if you want tag names always to be converted to lowercase, specify lowercase in the Default Tag Case option, and then select the Override Case Of: Tags option. Then when you open a document that contains uppercase tag names, Dreamweaver converts them all to lowercase.
    Note: Older versions of HTML allowed either uppercase or lowercase tag and attribute names, but XHTML requires lowercase for tag and attribute names. The web is moving toward XHTML, so it’s generally best to use lowercase tag and attribute names.

    TD Tag: Do Not Include A Break Inside The TD Tag
    Addresses a rendering problem that occurs in some older browsers when white space or line breaks exist immediately after a <td> tag, or immediately before a </td> tag. When you select this option, Dreamweaver does not write line breaks after a <td> or before a </td> tag, even if the formatting in the Tag Library indicates that the line break should be there.

    Advanced Formatting
    Lets you set formatting options for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) code and for individual tags and attributes in the Tag Library Editor.

    White Space Character
    (Japanese version only) Lets you select either &nbsp; or Zenkaku space for HTML code. The white space selected in this option will be used for empty tags when creating a table and when the “Allow Multiple Consecutive Spaces” option is enabled in Japanese Encoding pages.