When working on your web pages in Adobe Dreamweaver, you constantly need to check them in a web browser. To make this process smoother, Dreamweaver allows you to configure several browsers for previewing your pages. You can specify which browser is your primary, or main, browser; you can then elect a secondary browser and as many further browsers as you want.
Naturally, the first step in this procedure is to ensure that all the browser software is installed on your computer. Next, on Windows, go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences; on a Macintosh, go to the Dreamweaver menu and choose Preferences.
The various types of Preferences are displayed on the left of the window. Click on the Preview in Browser section. If you already have a browser configured as your primary browser, and possibly another as your secondary, you may wish to change these. To do so, simply click on the appropriate checkboxes to specify which is primary and which is secondary.
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, click on the preview icon (the globe) located on the Document toolbar which is normally displayed at the top of the document window. From the drop-down menu, choose the browser that you’d like to use. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts: to preview using your primary browser press Shift-F12 on Windows or option-F12 on a Macintosh; to preview in the secondary browser press Control-F12 on Windows or Command-F12 on a Macintosh. Alternatively, 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.
There may be times when you’d like to preview pages without saving the changes you’ve made to your document. Dreamweaver offers you this possibility but, first, let’s examine what normally happens when you preview a file that has been modified.
Dreamweaver throws up a dialogue box asking us if we’d like to save the changes. If you choose “No”, it gives us a preview of the last version that you saved rather than the version that you’re currently working on, If we choose “Yes”, Dreamweaver saves your changes before previewing the file. This can often be inconvenient, since you may not be ready to save your changes.
If you want to be able to preview a file at any time without saving your changes, go back to your Browser Preview category of Dreamweaver’s Preferences and switch on the option “Preview Using Temporary File”. When this option is selected, Dreamweaver creates a temporary file containing the latest version of your document and then shows you a preview of it. If you examine the URL displayed in the address bar of your browser, you will notice that the file name does not correspond to the name of your document it a temporary file name generated by Dreamweaver.
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