Dreamweaver in a Nutshell

Property Inspector

Use the Property inspector (PI) to display or edit properties of the currently selected element. There are several ways to open the Property inspector (if it is already open, most of the gestures close it):

• Select Window → Properties or Modify → Selection Properties.

• Press Ctrl+F3 (Windows) or Cmd+F3 (Macintosh).

• Double-click on an HTML element (this gesture does not open the Property inspector for some element types, such as text, and opens the file selection dialog box for other element types, such as images).

• Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Macintosh) and choose Properties from the contextual pop-up menu.

Figure 1-5 shows the Property inspector’s appearance when a text object within a table is selected. The upper half of the Property inspector is the same for all text objects, but the lower half may differ. You can show or hide the lower half of the Property inspector using the Expand/Contract button indicated in Figure 1-5, or simply by double-clicking an unoccupied area within the Property inspector.

Table 1-3 lists the properties that are most commonly needed and available from the Property inspector at almost all times (and are also available via menu choices).

Tip

To create a hyperlink, highlight an item, such as a piece of text, in the Document window and specify the destination document in the Link field of the Property inspector. You can drag-and-drop a file into the Link field or select a file using the Browse icon in the Property inspector.

Figure 1-5. The Property inspector

We’ll cover properties that modify images, layers, tables, and frames in later chapters. See Chapter 7 for coverage of the Quick Tag Editor (QTE), which is accessible from the Property inspector.

Table 1-3. Property inspector options

Menu option	Windows	Macintosh	Description
Window → Properties	Ctrl+F3	Cmd+F3	Opens or closes the Property inspector
Help → Using Dreamweaver	F1	F1	Provides context-sensitive help
Text → Paragraph Format	Ctrl+Shift+P	Cmd+Shift+P	Sets paragraph formatting
Text → Font	Alt-T, N	N/A	Selects font, reverts to default font, or adds a new font to the menu
Text → Style	Alt-T, S	N/A	Selects bold, italic, emphasis, or code style
Text → Color	Alt-T, R	N/A	Opens the Color dialog box to set text color
Text → Style → Bold	Ctrl+B	Cmd+B	Bolds selected text
Text → Style → Italic	Ctrl+I	Cmd+I	Italicizes selected text
Text → Align → Left	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L	Cmd+Opt+Shift+L	Left-aligns text
Text → Align → Center	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C	Cmd+Opt+Shift+C	Centers text
Text → Align → Right	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R	Cmd+Opt+Shift+R	Right-aligns text
Text → List → Unordered List	Alt-T, I, U	N/A	Formats text as bulleted list
Text → List → Ordered List	Alt-T, I, O	N/A	Formats text as numbered list
Text → Outdent	Ctrl+Alt+[	Cmd+Opt+[	Removes any existing indentation
Text → Indent	Ctrl+Alt+]	Cmd+Opt+]	Indents text
Modify → Quick Tag Editor	Ctrl+T	Cmd+T	Edits tag for current element
Modify → Make Link	Ctrl+L	Cmd+L	Creates a hyperlink
Modify → Link Target	Alt-M, G	N/A	Changes a link’s target. Specify target frame name, or _blank, _parent, _self, or _top