Dreamweaver CS4: The Missing Manual

Chapter 20. Automating Dreamweaver

One of Dreamweaver’s greatest selling points is that it makes you more productive. You’ve experienced this firsthand if you’ve ever labored over tables in an HTML text editor. What once took many keystrokes now takes one click of the Insert panel’s Table object.

If you’re looking for even more ways to cut time off your work day, Dreamweaver doesn’t disappoint. In addition to its Snippets, Library, and Template features (see Chapter 18 and Chapter 19), the program offers two tools that let you automate common and time-consuming tasks: the History panel and the “Find and Replace” command.

The History Panel Revisited

As you work on a Web page, Dreamweaver keeps track of everything you do. You can see a list of your actions—your history—in the History panel. Each document has a separate history, which Dreamweaver discards when you close the document or quit the program.

As you read in Chapter 2, You can use the History panel to quickly undo or redo multiple actions (see Undo, Redo, and the History Panel), but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You can also use it to replay and record a series of actions you wish to repeat. If you’ve ever used macros in Microsoft Word or actions in Adobe Photoshop, you’ll probably get the hang of this feature quickly.

To open the History panel (Figure 20-1), choose Window → History (or, in Windows only, press Shift+F10).

Figure 20-1. The History panel lists every little step you’ve taken while working on the current document—even ...