All the various components that make up your site (including images, Flash files, scripts, and more) are all stored in Dreamweaver’s Assets panel, making it very easy to use them on the pages in your site. You can think of the Assets panel as a catalog for your site’s elements. Assets make it super-easy to not only use these various site components when designing pages, but also to ensure that there’s consistency right across your site.

Before making use of Assets, you have to define a site in Dreamweaver. The Assets panel will then load in any images, movies, Flash files and other content you've stored in your local site folder.

When you’re ready to start using assets on your pages, the panel gives you two different view modes: Site and Favorites. With the Site mode, the Assets panel will list all the components of your site, even components that you might only use once. The Favorites mode allows you to add only the components of your site that you use most. For more on working with Favorites, click here.

To view your site’s content in the Assets panel, first make sure that your site is selected in the Show menu in the Files panel. Then, choose Window > Assets.

Once the Assets panel is open, make sure that Site is selected at the top. On the left-hand side of the panel, you’ll see a column of nine icons, one  for each category in the panel.  Click on a category button to  view assets of that particular type. Highlighting an asset that’s listed in the panel will give you a preview in the top pane. Here’s a rundown of each category:

Images: The images category will display any images in your site, provided they’re saved in the JPG, GIF, or PNG format.

Colors: Color on the web is described as hexadecimal values. Remembering these values can be tough. Thankfully, you have the Asset panel to bail you out. Any colors that you’ve set in Dreamweaver (for tables, text, page backgrounds , and so on) are stored in the Colors category of the Asset panel. Obviously, this is huge for keeping colors consistent through all your pages.

URLs: The Asset panel will also keep track of all the external links that have been used, including email links (called mailto links).

Flash: If your site contains Flash movies, the Asset panel will list the corresponding SWF files.

[ Back to Web + Mag Articles ] [ Go to page: 1 | 2 ]