Setting Up a Document > Document setup overview

Document setup overview

Once you've created a local site, you can create documents to put in the site. (If you haven't set up a site yet, see Using Dreamweaver to set up a new site.) A document—that is, a page of your Web site—can contain text and images, as well as more sophisticated content such as animation, video, links to other documents, and sound. As you create and work with documents, Macromedia Dreamweaver automatically generates their underlying HTML and JavaScript source code. To examine or edit this code, use one of Dreamweaver's code editors: the Code view in the Document window, or the Code inspector. (For detailed information, see Using the Code view (or Code inspector).)

You can create new documents in Dreamweaver starting from blank HTML pages or from templates; alternatively, you can open and modify HTML documents created in other applications. (See Creating, opening, and saving HTML documents.)

When you set up a document, you can define basic page elements. For example, the page title identifies the document to the site visitor; it usually appears in the title bar of the browser window. Background images, background colors, and text and link colors customize the page and distinguish regular text from hypertext. Margin properties allow you to specify the sizes of top and left margins for your page. (See Setting document properties.)

As you add content, you can select and modify objects directly in the Document window. In some cases, you may need to select markers that represent page elements that are not visible in the Document window, such as comments and scripts. (See Selecting elements in the Document window.)

While creating your documents, you can perform the same task numerous times by using the History panel. (See About automating tasks.)