Dreamweaver in a Nutshell

Chapter 3. Tables and Form Objects

Dreamweaver’s tools for manipulating tables, tabular data, and forms improve with each new version. Along with the standard table-editing tools available in Standard view, DW4 offers the powerful Layout view, which uses tables to simulate page layout functionality using HTML. Dreamweaver can also import tabular data from external sources. It supports a full complement of form objects, including automated jump menu creation.

We’ll discuss forms at the end of this chapter, but first we’ll cover Dreamweaver’s table creation tools.

Standard View Versus Layout View

Although Standard tables and Layout tables serve different purposes, both use the same familiar HTML table tags (<table> , <tr> , and <td> ). Thankfully, Dreamweaver allows you to create tables visually in either mode, insulating you from the underlying complexity of the HTML. (You can switch between table modes using the View → Table View menu options or the View buttons at the bottom of the Objects panel. Don’t confuse the table view modes with the unrelated Code and Design views discussed earlier.) If you’re not sure whether to use tables, layers, or some other formatting element, see the preface.

In some cases, performing a table operation in one of the two modes is nearly, or even literally, impossible. You can switch between Standard view and Layout view when working with the same table, so use whichever mode you need. Dreamweaver creates or adjusts the HTML table tags for you automatically. ...