Dreamweaver Basics > Setting preferences > Fonts/Encoding preferences

Fonts/Encoding preferences

Use Fonts/Encoding preferences to set a default font encoding for new documents and to set the fonts that Dreamweaver uses to display each font encoding. A document's encoding determines how the document is displayed in a browser. Dreamweaver's font settings let you work with text in the font and size you prefer without affecting how the document appears when viewed by others in a browser.

To change the encoding of the current document:

Choose Modify > Page Properties and then select an encoding from the Document Encoding pop-up menu.

To change the default encoding to be used when creating new documents:

Choose Edit > Preferences, click Fonts/Encoding in the Category list, and choose an encoding from the Default Encoding pop-up menu.

To set the fonts to use for each type of encoding:

1	Choose Edit > Preferences and click Fonts/Encoding in the Category list.
2	Select the encoding type (such as Western [Latin1] or Japanese) from the Font Settings list, then choose fonts to use for that encoding from the font pop-up menus below the Font Settings list.

You can also set the following preferences:

Default Encoding specifies the encoding to be used when a new page is created, as well as when a document is opened that does not specify any encoding. The default encoding is stored with the document in a meta tag inserted in the head of the document; it tells the browser and Dreamweaver how the document should be decoded and what fonts should be used to display the decoded text. For example:

	If you specify Western (Latin1), this meta tag is inserted: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">. Dreamweaver displays the document using the fonts you specify in Font Settings for the Western (Latin1) encoding; a browser displays the document using the fonts the browser user specifies for the Western (Latin1) encoding.
	If you specify Japanese (Shift JIS), this meta tag is inserted: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Shift_JIS">. Dreamweaver displays the document using the fonts you specify for the Japanese encodings; a browser displays the document using the fonts the browser user specifies for the Japanese encodings.

Font Settings lets you specify the set of fonts to be used in Dreamweaver for documents that use a given type of encoding. For example, to specify fonts to use for Japanese documents, select Japanese from the Font Settings list and then choose a proportional font, a fixed font, and an Code inspector font from the menus below; all documents in Japanese encodings are then displayed using those specified fonts.

Note: To appear in the font pop-up menus, a font must be installed on your computer. For example, to see Japanese text you must have a Japanese font installed.

To specify the fonts used for U.S. English and all Western European languages, choose Western from the Font Settings list, and then choose a set of three fonts from the font pop-up menus. To set appropriate double-byte fonts for Asian languages, choose Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, or Korean. (To display an Asian language, you must be using an operating system that supports double-byte fonts.) You may also choose fonts for Central European, Cyrillic, Greek, Icelandic Mac, or Other encodings.

Proportional Font is the font Dreamweaver uses to display normal text (for example, text in paragraphs, headings, and tables). The default depends on your system's installed fonts. For most U.S. systems, the default is Times New Roman 12 pt. (Medium) on Windows and Times 12 pt. on the Macintosh. (Note that this setting does not affect how visitors see your page in a browser.)

Fixed Font is the font Dreamweaver uses to display text within pre, code, and tt tags. The default depends on your system's installed fonts. For most U.S. systems, the default is Courier New 10 pt. (Small) on Windows and Monaco 12 pt. on the Macintosh. (Note that this setting does not affect how visitors see your page in a browser.)

Code Inspector is the font used for all text that appears in the Code inspector. The default depends on your system's installed fonts.