Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual

Adding Form Elements

Unless you’ve never used a computer before, the different user-interface elements available for HTML forms should look familiar: text fields where people can type in information (their names, addresses, phone numbers, and so on); checkboxes for making multiple-choice selections that are all visible simultaneously; and menus for making selections from a list. The Forms tab of the Insert bar lets you create all of these elements and more (see Figure 10-2).

What All Form Elements Have in Common

The routine for adding form elements to your document always follows the same pattern:

1. In the document window, insert a form (see page 297).

   Or, if the page already has a form, click inside its red border.

   Tip

   If the text field is the first element of the form, you can skip this step. As soon as you add a form element to a page, such as a field, checkbox, or pop-up menu, Dreamweaver automatically creates the red dotted-line form boundaries (and, behind the scenes, the corresponding <form> tags).

2. Click the appropriate button on the Insert bar (see Figure 10-2).

   Alternatively, use the Insert→Form Objects submenu. You’ll soon discover that every form object on the Insert bar is also represented by a command on the Insert menu (for example, Insert→Form Objects→Text Field).

   Tip

   Instead of just clicking a form-element button on the Insert bar, you may prefer to drag it off the panel and into a specific position on your Web page. This trick works with any of the user controls on the ...