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Configuring Dreamweaver’s Preview In Browser Preferences

by Dwight Davidson

As you work on your web pages in Adobe Dreamweaver, you will often need to review them in a web browser. Conveniently, Dreamweaver allows you to configure as many browsers as you would like to see use for previewing. You can specify a first browser as your primary, or preferred, browser; you can then choose a secondary browser and as many additional browsers as you like.

Obviously, the first step is to make sure that the browser software is installed on your computer. Next, to choose your preferred browser, go to the Edit menu and select Preferences. (This is the Windows location of all Adobe Preferences: on Apple Mac, go to the Dreamweaver menu and choose Preferences.)

A series of categories is displayed on the left of the Preferences window. Click on the Preview in Browser category. You may already have a browser configured as your primary browser and even, perhaps, another as your secondary. If you wish to change these settings, simply click on the appropriate checkboxes to specify which is which.

To add other browsers, just click on the plus sign (+), navigate to the browser software and double-click to open it. You can repeat this procedure as many times as you need to.

To preview a page using one of your configured browsers, use the Preview icon (the globe). This is located on the Document toolbar which is normally displayed at the top of the document window. From the Preview drop-down menu, choose the browser that you’d like to use. You can also make use of the keyboard shortcuts: to preview using your primary browser, Shift-F12 on Windows or option-F12 on a Macintosh; to preview using the secondary browser, Control-F12 on Windows or Command-F12 on a Macintosh. Alternatively, you can simply choose the name of any other browser.

Once you’ve had a good look at the preview, to return to Dreamweaver, just close the browser window.

It is also possible that sometimes you’d like to preview pages without saving the changes you’ve made to your document. Dreamweaver makes this easy but, first, let’s have a look at what normally happens when you preview a file that has been modified.

Dreamweaver shows us a dialogue box asking us if we’d like to save the changes. If we click “No”, we are given a preview of the last version that was saved rather than the version that we’re currently working on. If we click “Yes”, Dreamweaver will save our changes before previewing the file. This behaviour can sometimes be inconvenient, since you may not be ready to save your changes.

If you’d like to preview files at any time without saving your changes, return to your Browser Preview section of Dreamweaver’s Preferences and activate the option “Preview Using Temporary File”. When this option is switched on, Dreamweaver will always create a temporary file containing the latest version of your document and then shows you a preview of it. When the browser window opens, look at the name of the file being previewed. It will be a temporary file name generated by Dreamweaver and not the name of document you are working on.

About the Author:

Author is a developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Solutions, a UK IT training company offering Adobe Dreamweaver Classes in London and throughout the UK.