feature that may be new to you is the Edit with External Editor option, which enables you to open an element in another program, such as an image editor, and make changes without ever closing Dreamweaver. Chapter 1: Introducing Your New Best Friend 23 You also find the Preferences settings on the Edit menu (Windows) or on the Dreamweaver (Mac). Before you start working with a new program, go through all the Preferences options to ensure that the program is set up the best way for you. The View menu The View menu provides access to some helpful design features, such as grids and rulers, as well as the new zoom features. The Visual Aides option on the View menu gives you the option of turning on or off the borders of your HTML tables, frames, and layers, as well as controlling visibility of image maps and other invisible elements. This option is useful because you often want to set the border attribute of these HTML tags to zero so that theyre not visible when the page displays in a browser. However, while you work on the design of your page in Dreamweaver, seeing where elements, such as tables and layers, start and stop is very useful. Checking the frame options on the View menu lets you see the borders in Dreamweaver even if you dont want them visible to your sites visitors. The Insert menu As shown in Figure 1-13, the Insert menu offers access to a number of features unique to Web design. From this menu, you can insert elements such as a horizontal rule, a Java applet, a form, or a plug-in file. Figure 1-12: The Check Target Browsers feature produces a list of HTML tags that older browsers do not support. 24 Part I: Fulfilling Your Dreams Dreamweaver offers extra support for inserting Flash and Shockwave Director files, both of which are products from Macromedia. (You can find out more about using multimedia files in Chapter 11.) The Modify menu The Modify menu is another place where you can view and change object properties, such as the table attributes shown in Figure 1-14. The properties (usually called attributes in HTML) let you define elements on a page by setting alignment, height, width, and other specifications. Page Properties To alter properties for an entire page, such as text and link colors, use the Page Properties dialog box shown in Figure 1-15. Available from the Modify menu or by clicking the Page Properties button at the bottom of the Properties inspector, the Page Properties panel also enables you to specify the background color or to use an image as a page background. Figure 1-13: The Insert Menu makes adding a variety of elements to your pages, Including multimedia files, easy. Chapter 1: Introducing Your New Best Friend 25 The Text menu You can easily format text with the Text menu by using simple options, such as bold and italic, as well as more complex features, such as font styles and custom style sheets. Text formatting options have evolved dramatically on the Web. Just a few years ago, you didnt even have the option of specifying a particular font style or controlling leading and spacing. Today you have more control than ever over the look of your Web pages, although these options arent yet universally supported. The Text menu also features options that Figure 1-15: