Editing HTML in Dreamweaver > Editing HTML overview

Editing HTML overview

Although Macromedia Dreamweaver allows you to create and edit Web pages visually without worrying about the HTML source code, there are times when you may need access to your page's underlying HTML. Being able to edit the HTML can provide you with more control to modify and troubleshoot your Web page.

For example, suppose you select text on your document and apply a new font, but it only affects half the sentence. By looking at the HTML code in Dreamweaver's Code view (or Code inspector), you discover that the closing </font> tag is in the middle of the sentence; all you have to do is move </font> to the end of your sentence and the problem is fixed.

If you are interested in learning HTML, using Dreamweaver's visual editing capabilities along with its Code view (or Code inspector) is a great way to understand how HTML works. You can compare the HTML code to the visual view to see how it corresponds.

Dreamweaver provides access to the HTML code through the Code view, the Code inspector, and the Quick Tag Editor. For help in understanding and writing HTML code, use Dreamweaver's Reference panel.

Dreamweaver also gives you the ability to open HTML files written elsewhere without worrying about your code being compromised. Dreamweaver uses Roundtrip HTML to make sure your HTML content and structure do not change as you switch back and forth between Dreamweaver and an external HTML editor. In addition, you can use Dreamweaver to clean up HTML files that contain messy or unreadable code.