Fig. 1  When Dreamweaver automatically rewrites common errors, an HTML Corrections dialog box will display, telling you what errors were fixed.

Fig. 2  Here's a close-up of the HTML Corrections dialog box. The tags that were fixed were either redundant, unclosed, or were improperly overlapped.

Tips

• To have Dreamweaver automatically check your pages for errors and report to you on what it's changed, see Appendix D, Setting HTML Preferences.


• Why would you want to use an external editor in conjunction with Dreamweaver? One example is correcting characters with a text editor's Find and Replace feature. For instance, some files that were exported from Quark as HTML contain dingbats that are easier to strip out using a text editor. Dreamweaver does not distinguish between these characters, which look like boxes, and regular spaces. You can open the file in an editor like NoteTab or BBEdit while the page is open in the Document window, make your changes, and save the page. When you return to Dreamweaver, a dialog box will appear telling you the page has been modified and asking you if you wish to reload the page (Figure 3).

• You don't have to use an external editor. Dreamweaver is a fine text editor for most functions. In addition, Dreamweaver for Windows comes with a copy of Allaire HomeSite, and the Macintosh version comes with a copy of BBEdit. You can use this editor or a plain text editor or anything in between.
  
  

  Fig. 3  I edited my page in NoteTab and saved my changes. When I returned to the open page in Dreamweaver, this dialog box appeared asking me if I wished to load the saved page.