Dreamweaver in a Nutshell

Objects Panel

The Objects panel offers quick access to the primary objects, such as images and tables, that you typically place within your HTML document. To insert text, simply click in the Document window and start typing. Dreamweaver inserts <p> tags whenever you press the Enter key or Return key.

The Objects panel has seven different categories—Characters, Common, Forms, Frames, Head, Invisibles, and Special—each providing links to tools and objects specific to that category. The Objects panel, shown in its Common category mode in Figure 1-4, is accessed via Window → Objects, Ctrl+F2 (Windows), or Cmd+F2 (Macintosh). You can switch categories by using the panel category selector menu indicated in Figure 1-4. The Objects panel can be customized as discussed in Chapter 19.

Figure 1-4. The Objects panel’s Common category

Clicking an icon in the Objects panel places the chosen object at the current cursor location (or you can drag the icon to the desired location in the Document window). Some objects require additional information to be entered via a dialog box before the object can be inserted. To insert an empty placeholder object (and bypass the dialog box), disable the Edit → Preferences → General → Show Dialog When Inserting Objects option, or hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or Option key (Macintosh) while inserting the object. Properties of existing objects can be modified using the Property inspector.

Tip

Use Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Opt-drag (Macintosh) to quickly duplicate an element on the page.

Table 1-1 lists the options available in each category of the Objects panel. See Chapter 19 for details on adding custom objects to the Objects panel. The Objects panel can also be configured to show icon labels using Edit → Preferences → General → Objects Panel → Icons and Text.

Table 1-1. Objects panel categories

Category	Inserts these objects	Notes
Characters	Line break Nonbreaking space Copyright Registered trademark Trademark Pound Yen Euro Left double quotes (” ) Right double quotes (“) Em dash (—) Other characters	<br> &nbsp; &copy; &reg; &#153; &pound; &yen; &euro; &#147; &#148; &#151; Other ASCII characters, such as single quotes (see Figure 2-22)
Common	Image Rollover Image Table Tabular Data Draw Layer Navigation Bar Horizontal Rule Email Link Date Server-Side Include Fireworks HTML Flash Flash Button Flash Text Shockwave Generator	See Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 5
Forms	Form Text Field Button Checkbox Radio Button List/Menu File Field Image Field Hidden Field Jump Menu	See Chapter 2 and Chapter 3
Frames	Left Frame Right Frame Top Frame Bottom Frame Left, Top-Left Corner, and Top Frames Left and Nested Top Frame Top and Nested Left Frame Split Frame Center	See Chapter 4
Head	Meta Keywords Description Refresh Base Link	See Chapter 2
Invisibles	Named Anchor Script Comment	See Chapter 2
Special	Applet Plugin ActiveX	See Chapter 5

Many of the objects inserted via the Objects panel can also be inserted using the keyboard shortcuts listed in Table 1-2.

Table 1-2. Object shortcut keys

Object	Windows	Macintosh
Line Break	Shift+Enter	Shift+Return
Nonbreaking Space	Ctrl+Shift+Space	Cmd+Shift+Space Opt+Space (Design pane only)
Image	Ctrl+Alt+I	Cmd+Opt+I
Table	Ctrl+Alt+T	Cmd+Opt+T
Flash Movie	Ctrl+Alt+F	Cmd+Opt+F
Shockwave Director Movie	Ctrl+Alt+D	Cmd+Opt+D
Make a Link	Ctrl+L	Cmd+L
Named Anchor	Ctrl+Alt+A	Cmd+Opt+A
Any external file	Drag the file from Explorer or Site window to the Document window	Drag the file from Finder or Site window to the Document window