Dreamweaver in a Nutshell

Hidden Objects

Hidden objects (a.k.a. invisible objects ) are objects that are not seen when the document is viewed in a web browser. Dreamweaver provides access to the following hidden objects through its interface:

• Comments

• Line Breaks and Nonbreaking Spaces

• Scripts

• Anchors (discussed earlier in this chapter)

Figure 2-23 shows the icons that act as placeholders for these and other invisible objects within Dreamweaver.

Figure 2-23. Icons for invisible objects

To make placeholders for hidden objects visible, ensure that the View → Visual Aids → Invisible Elements option is checked. Use View → Visual Aids → Hide All, Ctrl+Shift+I (Windows), or Cmd+Shift+I (Macintosh) to hide all visual aids temporarily.

Comments

Comments can be used to provide development notes about the HTML code for the benefit of future developers or for yourself, should you need to revisit some old code. Add comments to explain scripts, add instructions for use, or include notes for future development.

Comments are inserted using the Comment button in the Objects panel’s Invisibles category or by selecting Insert → Invisible Tags → Comments. You can type comments directly into the Code pane, in the form:

<!-- This is a comment -->

Web browsers ignore everything between the leading <!-- and trailing --> characters, which delimit the comment. Multiline comments are allowed and take the form:

<!-- This is another comment ...