You can create a custom workspace by moving and manipulating Document windows and panels. You can also save workspaces and switch among them. For Fireworks, renaming custom workspaces can lead to unexpected behavior.

By saving the current size and position of panels as a named workspace, you can restore that workspace even if you move or close a panel. The names of saved workspaces appear in the workspace switcher in the Application bar.

By default, Dreamweaver CS4 and later uses black and white icons that turn into colored icons when you hover over them. You can turn color icons on permanently so that no hovering is required.

 Do one of the following:

• Choose View > Color Icons.

• Switch to the Classic or Coder workspace.

To turn color icons off again, deselect Color Icons in the View menu, or switch to a different workspace.

You can customize Dreamweaver to suit your needs even in a multiuser operating system such as Windows XP or Mac OS X.

Dreamweaver prevents any user’s customized configuration from affecting any other user’s customized configuration. To accomplish this goal, the first time you run Dreamweaver in one of the multiuser operating systems that it recognizes, the application creates copies of a variety of configuration files. These user configuration files are stored in a folder that belongs to you.

For example, in Windows XP, they’re stored in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\Dreamweaver\en_US\Configuration, which is hidden by default. To show hidden files and folders, select Tools > Folder Options in Windows Explorer, click the View tab, and select the Show Hidden Files and Folders option.

In Windows Vista, they’re stored in C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Dreamweaver \en_US\Configuration, which is hidden by default. To show hidden files and folders, select Tools > Folder Options in Windows Explorer, click the View tab, and select the Show Hidden Files and Folders option.

In Mac OS X, they’re stored inside your Home folder; specifically, in Users/username/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Dreamweaver/Configuration.

If you reinstall or upgrade Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver automatically makes backup copies of existing user configuration files, so if you customized those files by hand, you still have access to the changes you made.

1. Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Dreamweaver > Preferences (Macintosh).
2. Set any of the following options:

   Open Documents In Tabs

   Opens all documents in a single window with tabs that let you switch between documents (Macintosh only).

   Show Welcome Screen

   Displays the Dreamweaver Welcome screen when you start Dreamweaver or when you don’t have any documents open.

   Reopen Documents on Startup

   Opens any documents that were open when you closed Dreamweaver. If this option is not selected, Dreamweaver displays the Welcome screen or a blank screen when you start (depending on your Show Welcome Screen setting).

   Warn When Opening Read-Only Files

   Alerts you when you open a read-only (locked) file. Choose to unlock/check out the file, view the file, or cancel.

   Enable Related Files

   Lets you see which files are connected to the current document (for example, CSS or JavaScript files). Dreamweaver displays a button for each related file at the top of the document, and opens the file if you click the button.

   Discover Dynamically-Related Files

   Lets you select whether Dynamically-Related Files appear in the Related Files toolbar automatically, or after manual interaction. You can also choose to disable the discovery of Dynamically-Related Files.

   Update Links When Moving Files

   Determines what happens when you move, rename, or delete a document within your site. Set this preference to always update links automatically, never update links, or prompt you to perform an update. (See Update links automatically.)

   Show Dialog When Inserting Objects

   Determines whether Dreamweaver prompts you to enter additional information when inserting images, tables, Shockwave movies, and certain other objects by using the Insert panel or the Insert menu. If this option is off, the dialog box does not appear and you must use the Property inspector to specify the source file for images, the number of rows in a table, and so on. For roll over images and Fireworks HTML, a dialog box always appears when you insert the object, regardless of this option setting. (To temporarily override this setting, Control-click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) when creating and inserting objects.)

   Enable Double-Byte Inline Input

   Lets you enter double-byte text directly into the Document window if you are using a development environment or language kit that facilitates double-byte text (such as Japanese characters). When this option is deselected, a text input window appears for entering and converting double-byte text; the text appears in the Document window after it is accepted.

   Switch To Plain Paragraph After Heading

   Specifies that pressing Enter (Windows) or Return (Macintosh) at the end of a heading paragraph in Design view creates a new paragraph tagged with a p tag. (A heading paragraph is one that’s tagged with a heading tag such as h1 or h2.) When the option is disabled, pressing Enter or Return at the end of a heading paragraph creates a new paragraph tagged with the same heading tag (allowing you to type multiple headings in a row and then go back and fill in details).

   Allow Multiple Consecutive Spaces

   Specifies that typing two or more spaces in Design view creates nonbreaking spaces that appear in a browser as multiple spaces. (For example, you can type two spaces between sentences, as you would on a typewriter.) This option is designed mostly for people who are used to typing in word processors. When the option is disabled, multiple spaces are treated as a single space (because browsers treat multiple spaces as single spaces).

   Use <strong> and <em> in Place of <b> and <i>

   Specifies that Dreamweaver applies the strong tag whenever you perform an action that would normally apply the b tag, and applies the em tag whenever you perform an action that would normally apply the i tag. Such actions include clicking the Bold or Italic buttons in the text Property inspector in HTML mode and choosing Format > Style > Bold or Format > Style > Italic. To use the b and i tags in your documents, deselect this option.

   Note: The World Wide Web Consortium discourages use of the b and i tags; the strong and em tags provide more semantic information than the b and i tags do.

   Warn when placing editable regions within <p> or <h1> - <h6> tags

   Specifies whether a warning message is displayed whenever you save a Dreamweaver template that has an editable region within a paragraph or heading tag. The message tells you that users will not be able to create more paragraphs in the region. It is enabled by default.

   Centering

   Specifies whether you want to center elements using divalign="center" or the center tag when you click the Align Center button in the Property inspector.

   Note: Both of these approaches to centering have been officially deprecated as of the HTML 4.01 specification; you should use CSS styles to center text. Both of these approaches are still technically valid as of the XHTML 1.0 Transitional specification, but they’re no longer valid in the XHTML 1.0 Strict specification.

   Maximum Number of History Steps

   Determines the number of steps that the History panel retains and shows. (The default value should be sufficient for most users.) If you exceed the given number of steps in the History panel, the oldest steps are discarded.

   For more information, see Task automation.

   Spelling Dictionary

   lists the available spelling dictionaries. If a dictionary contains multiple dialects or spelling conventions (such as American English and British English), the dialects are listed separately in the Dictionary pop‑up menu.

1. Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Dreamweaver > Preferences (Macintosh).
2. Select Fonts from the Category list on the left.
3. Select an encoding type (such as Western European or Japanese) from the Font Settings list.
   Note: To display an Asian language, you must be using an operating system that supports double-byte fonts.
4. Select a font and size to use for each category of the selected encoding.
   Note: To appear in the font pop‑up menus, a font must be installed on your computer. For example, to see Japanese text you must have a Japanese font installed.

   Proportional Font

   The font that Dreamweaver uses to display normal text (for example, text in paragraphs, headings, and tables). The default depends on your system’s installed fonts. For most U.S. systems, the default is Times New Roman 12 pt. (Medium) on Windows and Times 12 pt. on Mac OS.

   Fixed Font

   The font Dreamweaver uses to display text within pre, code, and tt tags. The default depends on your system’s installed fonts. For most U.S. systems, the default is Courier New 10 pt. (Small) on Windows and Monaco 12 pt. on Mac OS.

   Code View

   The font used for all text that appears in the Code view and Code inspector. The default depends on your system’s installed fonts.

For procedures on restoring default Dreamweaver preferences, see Tech Note 83912.