Quick Reference of Dreamweaver CS5 Insert Menu Commands

Here’s a quick reference to every command in the Dreamweaver CS5 Insert menu—and the answer to the occasional “What does that mean?” mystery.

The Insert menu adds selected page elements to a document at the insertion point (the cursor’s current position). The commands listed here correspond to the buttons on the Objects panel:

Tag. Opens the Tag Chooser window, which provides access to all tags—not just HTML tags, but any tag in Dreamweaver’s Tag Library. You can insert any tag and set any of its properties from this window. However, Dreamweaver doesn’t make sure you insert the tag correctly, so you should understand HTML (or the tag language you’re using) before trying this option.
Image. Inserts an image file, such as a JPG, PNG, or GIF, into the current document. The Select Image Source window appears, and lets you navigate to the file on your hard drive. You can choose to make the URL for the file relative to either the document or to the Site Root folder.
Image Objects. Lets you insert placeholder graphics, rollover images, or HTML from Fireworks.
Media. Inserts other types of media files, including Flash, Shockwave, generator applets, plug-ins, and Active X files. In most cases, the standard Select File window appears, which you can use to navigate to the desired file.
Table. Inserts a new table into a document. The Insert Table dialog box appears, and lets you format the table by specifying the number of rows and columns; the table width; measurements for cell padding, cell spacing, and the table border; and whether or not and where to include table headers.
Table Objects. Provides a way to insert tabular data and add other table-related tags such as the <th>—table header—tag into a page. The tag options in this menu item assume you understand HTML and let you just insert the tags without making sure you’re doing it correctly.
Layout Objects. Lets you insert absolutely positioned divs and regular divs. This menu also includes Dreamweaver’s new Spry Widgets, like the Spry Navigation bar and the Spry panel widgets.
Form. Inserts Form Objects—the <form> tag, text fields, buttons, checkboxes, or lists—into a document. (If you haven’t already inserted the <form> tag, Dreamweaver prompts you to do so.)
Hyperlink. Inserts a link. The Insert Hyperlink dialog box lets you specify the text for the link, the link’s address, as well as many other link options, such as the target window and tab index.
Email Link. Creates a new email link at the insertion point. The Insert Email Link dialog box appears; you specify both the email address and the link’s text (such as “Click to email me”).
Named Anchor. Inserts a named anchor so you can add links to specific positions within a page.
Date. Inserts the current date into the document. The Insert Date dialog box lets you format the appearance of the day of the week, the date, and the time. You can also automatically update the date each time you save the document.
Server-Side Include. Opens a Find File window, from which you select a file that dynamically adds to content on your page. Works only with special server setups, such as dynamic server-driven pages.
Comment. Inserts an HTML comment into your page. Web browsers don’t display the comment, but Dreamweaver represents comments as little gold shields in Design view. Use comments to leave notes for yourself and others about how the page. For example, you might add a comment indicating where a member of you web design team should put an ad.
HTML. This menu includes lots of specific HTML tags, such as a horizontal rule, frames, text objects (many of which are also available under the Text menu), script objects for Javascript, and head tags that go in the head portion of a web page—including meta tags, such as keywords and content descriptions that some search engines use.
Template Objects. When you work on template files, this menu lets you insert many of Dreamweaver’s template features, such as Optional, Editable, and Repeating Regions.
Recent Snippets. Lists the most recently inserted snippets. Select a snippet from the list and Dreamweaver inserts it into the document.
Widget. Like the Spry widgets, a widget is Javascript-powered add-on for a page. However, these widgets usually aren’t as nicely integrated into Dreamweaver as its Spry widgets, and while some widgets come from Adobe, third-party programmers write most of them. You download widgets from Adobe.com using Dreamweaver’s new Widget Browser, available from the Application toolbar. Once you download and install a widget, you can use this menu to add it to a page.
Spry. Inserts any Dreamweaver Spry object, including the Spry Navigation bar, Spry Form Validation widgets, and Spry Data and Layout widgets.
InContext Editing. Lets you insert tags related to Adobe’s InContext Editing service. This online commercial (as in you gotta pay) service lets non-web savvy individuals update specially created web pages. As of this writing, Adobe has shut down the service, replacing it with their more expensive, robust, and full-featured hosting service Business Catalyst.
Data Objects. Used to insert server behaviors associated with Dreamweaver’s dynamic database driven Website tools.
XSLT Objects (visible only when you work on an XSL file). Inserts various objects to convert XML data into a browser–readable format.
Customize Favorites. Lets you add your favorite objects from the Insert panel into a special “favorites” toolbar, so your most common objects, images, divs, roll-overs, tables, and so on are just a click away.
Get More Objects. Opens the Adobe Exchange website in your desktop browser (outside of Dreamweaver, in other words). You can search for and download new extensions and objects to add new features to Dreamweaver. Use the Commands→Manage Extensions command to integrate downloaded extensions into Dreamweaver.

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