Click on the Split button which is the second button from the left in the top bar of the inner window. This reveals one of the best features of Dreamweaver. It splits the screen horizontally and displays both the XHTML (and/or whatever other languages you are writing) in the Code view and what the web page your are developing will look like in a browser in the Design view. Note that in the Design view, none of the XHTML markup, CSS formatting, Javascript programming, etc is visable. To check that the page will actually display in the way which you intend, press the F12 key on your computer. This will open a window of your default web browser (on the tablet either IE 7 or Firefox) and display your page in it. Please try now with this tutorial.
HTML or HyperText Markup Language is a language which was invented in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee of CERN to prepare text documents (also called web pages) for display using a web browser (like the current IE 7 or Firefox). A markup language is any set of symbols used by an editor to markup a document for presentation or publication. The markup is so called, because it does not appear in the published document. Markup is for developers and editors, not readers. Hypertext refers to a non-linear document - i.e. one with jumps or links to various sections of the document or to other documents. HTML is a legacy technology from Web 1.0, and should never be used to develop Web 2.0 documents.
XHTML or eXtensible HyperText Markup Language is the current language for preparing hypertext documents for use in Web 2.0 applications. The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C is a standard organization for the Web. Dreamweaver and this tutorial encourage use of the XHTML 1.0 Transitional Recommendation to prepare web documents. The major differences between HTML and XHTML are::
Features of web pages which cause actions to be performed (e.g. login to a web site) are called active content. Javascript is a current popular language for writing active content. Javascript is a programming language, i.e. it causes a computer to do something, whereas a markup language controls only the display of a docuument. It is important not to confuse the two concepts. Markup languages can never be dangerous, programming languages frequently are, as viruses are written with them and can easily be hidden in web pages with active content. Markup language errors (bugs) will not cause your computer to misbehave or freeze; they will only make your web pages look bad.
All of the markup in XHTML is done with tags. You cannot see the tags when viewing a page in a web browser (unless the XHTML contains errors), or in the Dreamweaver design view. They appear only in the Dreamweaver code view or, if you open the source in your browser. That is why I recommend doing this tutorial and, developing all of your web pages, using the Dreamweaver split view. To learn how to use Dreamweaver to develop web pages, just follow this tutorial in both panes of the split view. Please experiment with it by making changes in one pane and looking at the result in the other pane and in your default web browser.
When you make a change in the design view, the change is automatically reflected in the code view. However, when you make a change in the code view, you need to hit the F5 key for the change to show in the design view. In either case, you need to type ctrl-S in order to save your changes.
As this tutorial is too long to use as a simple example, please continue by going to the file menu in Dreamweaver, click open and then open the file DW3.html in Dreamweaver, not in your web browser.
You may also open Part 3 in your browser by clicking here