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The Edit menu invokes common document changes, like copying and pasting:
- Undo. Undoes the most recent change you made to your document. You can choose this command repeatedly to step progressively backwards through your changes, even after you save the document.
- Redo (Repeat). Restores whatever changes you just made by using the Undo command. Selecting Redo multiple times moves you progressively forward through changes you undid. If you just used a command other than Undo, Repeat appears instead of Redo. This property lets you repeat the last action. For example, if you just pressed Delete, the Repeat command presses it again.
- Cut. Deletes the selected text or objects from a document, and copies them to the invisible Windows or Macintosh Clipboard so you can paste them elsewhere. (The Clipboard holds only one selection at a time.)
- Copy. Copies the selected text or object to the Clipboard so you can paste it elsewhere—without disturbing the original.
- Paste. Places the most recent selection from the Clipboard into your document at the insertion point.
- Paste Special. Opens the Paste Special window, which lets you choose how you wish to paste the Clipboard item into your document. Options range from Text Only for just plain text to increasingly more elaborate options, which force Dreamweaver to attempt to preserve various levels of formatting, such as styles, bold, italic, bulleted lists, and so on.
- Clear. Deletes the selected text or objects from a document without placing it on the Clipboard.
- Select All. Selects everything in the document so you can make document-wide changes in one fell swoop. If you have the cursor inside a table cell or <div> tag, however, Select All selects just the contents of that cell or div.
- Select Parent Tag. Increases the current selection to include everything within the parent tag, including its content. If you have a table cell selected, for example, this command increases the selection to include the entire table row. Choose the command a second time and you increase the selection to include the entire table. In short, this command ensures that any changes you make apply to the entire tag.
- Select Child. Decreases the current selection to include everything within the child tag, including its contents. If you select a table row, choosing this command decreases that selection to include only the first table cell and its contents.
Find and Replace. Opens the “Find and Replace” window, which lets you search a document—or an entire site—for a specific word, tag, or piece of source code, and replace it with something different. This command lets you make these changes either en masse or one instance at a time.
- Find Selection. This command lets you find another instance of the current selection. Say you select the word “Mothball” on a page. With this command, you search the page for another example of “Mothball.”
- Find Next. Uses the most recent search setting from the “Find and Replace” window to search the current document, highlighting the next instance of the requested search item.
- Go to Line. Opens the Go To Line dialog box. Type in a number, and Dreamweaver positions the cursor at the beginning of the specified line of code. (Available only in Code view.)
- Show Code Hints. Immediately displays any code hints (overriding the delay set in the Preferences window) available for the current tag. Code Hints provide a pop-up menu of tag properties appropriate for the current tag (available only in Code view, and only when you use the Insert Tag command [Ctrl-T]).
- Refresh Code Hints. Doesn’t seem to do much of anything.
- Code Hint Tools. When you work in Code view, this command lets you access Dreamweaver’s color picker, “Browse for File” button, and list of fonts so you don’t have to type in things like #FF6633, ../../images/dog.gif, or Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, every time you use a color, link to a file, or want to use a font.
- Indent Code. Adds one indent before the selected line of code. (Available only in Code view.)
- Outdent Code. Removes one indent from the selected line of code. (Available only in Code view.)
- Balance Braces. When you edit a script in Code view, this command helps you check for unbalanced braces (that is, an introductory “{” without a closing “}”) by highlighting the matching tags enclosing the selected code. It doesn’t do anything for plain HTML, but if you’re writing a Javascript program or using a dynamic programming language like PHP or ASP, it helps identify missing braces—a common source of programming errors. Works with opening and closing parentheses as well.
- Repeating Entries. Lets you cut, copy, paste, and delete repeating regions in templates.
- Code collapse. Hides a selection of code in Code view so you see only the code you want to work on. Since the same options are available more directly from the coding toolbar, you can skip this command.
- Edit with External Editor. If you haven’t already specified an external HTML code editor, such as BBEdit or Notepad, this command opens the Preferences window so you can find and select one on your hard drive. Once you specify an editor, this command opens the current document in that editor.
- Tag Libraries. Lets you modify the way Dreamweaver writes code for various types of tags, such as those for HTML, Javascript, ColdFusion, ASP, and so on. You can create new tag libraries for other types of tag-based languages, or modify the ones that ship with Dreamweaver.
- Keyboard Shortcuts. Opens the Keyboard Shortcuts window, and shows you all of Dreamweaver’s current keyboard shortcuts. You can create a new set of shortcuts for specific sites or programs, or export the settings to HTML to share your settings with others. (You must duplicate the factory settings before you add or delete your own shortcuts, however.) On the Mac, this option appears under the Dreamweaver menu.
- Preferences. Opens the Preference window, which is full of options that customize the way Dreamweaver works. You can choose from 19 categories of preferences, including those that let you edit the color and format of different HTML tags, create shorthand versions of CSS styles, and change the order in which Dreamweaver’s info panels appear on-screen. On the Mac, this option appears under the Dreamweaver menu.
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