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Part VII
Extending Dreamweaver
FIGURE 33-7
The custom floater, PalettePicker by WebAssist, displays color themes created for Adobe Kuler.
Developing Translators
For any markup tag to be depicted in the Document window—whether it’s <b> for bold or a custom
third-party tag such as Tango’s
<@cols>—it must be translated. Dreamweaver’s built-in rendering
system translates all the standard HTML code, along with a few special custom tags such as those for
ASP and ColdFusion. However, to display any other custom tags, or those that perform special func-
tions such as server-side includes, the tag developer must build a custom translator.
As part of its expansion efforts, Dreamweaver supports custom translators. This enhancement enables
programs that output nonstandard HTML to be displayed onscreen integrated with the regular code.
One of Dreamweaver’s main claims to fame is its capability to accept code without rewriting it. With
Dreamweaver translators, you can visually insert, show, and edit your custom code.
Here’s a brief overview of how translators work:
1. When Dreamweaver starts, all the properly coded translators in the Dreamweaver CS4\
Configuration\Translators folder are initialized.
2. If a document is loaded with nonstandard HTML, the code is checked against the installed
translators.
3. The translators are enabled.
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