Setting Up Preferences in Dreamweaver CS6

Dreamweaver CS6 has provided us with options on how we can set it up according to our individual preferences and needs. Users have the ability to control as to how we would like Dreamweaver to behave. We can do this by setting up or changing the Preferences option.

The Preferences dialog box consists of several categories. Some of it relate to Code which may not mean much to you if you are just beginning to learn how to use Dreamweaver. But later on, once you gain proficiency in utilizing Adobe’s website editor or builder, you will actually find yourself using them very often as they are significant options especially in formatting and designing your very own website. In this article, we will only be pointing out some relevant categories or sections.

To access the Preferences dialog:

1. Open Adobe Dreamweaver CS6.
2. Click on Edit from the menu. At the bottom, you will find Preferences. (Tip: Keyboard shortcut to access the Preferences dialog is Ctrl+U.)

3. On the left side of the Preferences dialog are the categories. Once you’ve selected a Category, the Preferences themselves appear on the right.

Now, let’s take a quick look at a couple of Categories that will mean something at the moment. Let’s begin at the top option on the list, namely General.

At the bottom part, you will find Spelling dictionary which is currently set to English United States. You can change the language and reset this for your locale as appropriate. To do this, just click on the drop-down and there’s a long list of various languages that you can choose from.

Another option in the General category is Show Welcome Screen. You can disable or enable the welcome screen by un-checking or checking the Show Welcome Screen box found under Document options. (Tip: If you have disabled it by selecting the Don’t show again box on the Welcome Screen dialog, you can re-enable it by following the procedure above.)

Let’s go down to another one on the Category list which is Preview in Browser. Here you can setup a whole range of Browsers, e.g. Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, that you want to be able to preview your web site/pages in.

The one that is currently setup to use is called the Primary Browser. You can also setup additional browsers and may define another as a Secondary Browser. You can add browsers by clicking on the Plus (+) button. Remove browsers by selecting the one you want to delete and then clicking on the Minus (-) button.

As you can see, there are lots preferences that can be setup or changed, aside from a few that were mentioned. Some we will be using when we manage our websites later on, others related to the installation and the local use of Dreamweaver CS6. You will learn the purpose of all the other categories as you develop your knowledge of Dreamweaver.

Finally, to enact the changes made on the Preferences dialog, you can go ahead and click on OK. If you have changed your mind and don’t want to apply those changes, you can click Cancel and all of the changes made will be lost.

Need Dreamweaver training? Get 12 hours of Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 online training course by Simon Sez IT.

Simon Calder

Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!